"Mr. Taylor is more typically heard in heavier repertory, from Liszt to Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, and this concerto seemed easy work for him. In the fast outer movements, especially, the solo line was clean, bright and crisply articulated, and it danced off the page." [Haydn Piano Concerto in D (Hob. XVIII:11)]
New York Times

"Christopher Taylor, a versatile, ready-for-anything soloist, delivered a brilliant, intense performance" Denver Post

"But that Christopher Taylor... also played Messiaen’s approximately 130-minute work flawlessly and entirely from memory was astounding. It is doubtful that many of us who heard Taylor’s transcendent traversal of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus for Cal Performances can imagine another pianist making an equal impact in such challenging music.... the performance was extraordinary. Taylor, who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard with a mathematics degree in 1992 — two years after he received first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition — is a genius. I doubt few present will forget how he lifted us to a realm beyond time and space." San Francisco Classical Voice 1/27/08

"To tackle a handful of György Ligeti's explosive and intricate piano etudes shows a degree of bravery and dedication. To play all 28 of them, as Christopher Taylor did in a magnificent recital in Berkeley's Hertz Hall on Sunday afternoon, is a Herculean undertaking... [Taylor] seemed almost to shrug off the difficulties involved. It isn't that he made the performance seem effortless -- no one could do that, nor would it be a good idea if they could -- but that he incorporated the very idea of difficulty into the essence of the performance. "
San Francisco Chronicle

"But most of the études are vehemently intense and ferociously difficult...Mr. Taylor played them all with incisive rhythm, lucid textures and, where the music allowed, alluring colors. Still, the sheer effort involved in playing these works was something to behold."
New York Times

"Taylor's playing -- emotionally volatile yet scrupulously weighted and voiced -- worked hand-in-glove with McDuffie's."
Washington Post

"...the blazing performance of Messiaen's ''Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus'' by Christopher Taylor in the Gardner Museum is likely to stand as a point of reference for many seasons to come."
Boston Globe

"Throughout Mr. Taylor played with unflagging energy and an impressive ability to articulate and even swing those complex rhythms. There was a mesmerizing self-possession in these performances, as if a vigorous dialogue between pianist and composer were taking place entirely inside Mr. Taylor's head and simply finding expression in his fingers. The nature of the discussion was anyone's guess, but it was a pleasure to listen in."
The New York Times

"...and his performance of three of William Bolcom's splendid "Twelve New Etudes" [was] delivered with a daring spontaneity that masked
some phenomenal technique" Washington Post


"...his performance was a highlight of the season and already represents an astonishing achievement."
The New York Times


"...Taylor really nailed it, certainly deserving the multiple bows he gave and standing ovation he got when it was over. He drew a plump, cushy sound from the big Steinway." (with The St. Louis Symphony)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"The young pianist Christopher Taylor is so talented it's almost frightening...Taylor revealed limpid, legato lines of plaintive beauty. His ear was alert to the fantasy and drama in this work."
The Boston Globe

"Taylor returned to the stage...and once again displayed a remarkable combination of brain, heart and fingers. In past appearances here, he has demonstrated his ability to bound from Bach to Messiaen, from Rachmaninoff to Boulez -- and do it all persuasively. Taylor can do it all." Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Taylor made the Steinway work, finding a curiously successful balance between the distinct articulation required for the terraced baroque textures and propelling momentum of the Allegros with the absolute legato of a Chopin cantilena in the Adagio." (with The Polish Chamber Philharmonic)
Washington Post

"A stunning new recording of William Bolcom's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Twelve New Etudes" (1977-86) features Christopher Taylor... [The etudes] require a pianist of equally nimble intelligence and imagination - not to mention physical endurance -- and Taylor is more than up to the challenge." (CD review)
The New Yorker

To purchase a CD visit http://www.Jonathandigital.com

Christopher Taylor was propelled into the music pages of the nation's newspapers when he became the first American since 1981 to reach the finals in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1993). He then went on to win the Bronze Medal, and his resulting CD has won critical acclaim. Prior to his performances at the Cliburn, Mr. Taylor was one of the first four recipients of the Gilmore Young Artists Award (1990), a scholarship for exceptionally promising American pianists aged 22 or younger. Shortly thereafter he took first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, which was held at the University of Maryland and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Since his first solo recital at ten he has given concerts in many cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore and Denver and dozens of communities in the U.S. and abroad. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, and with numerous other orchestras. He has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, and (on several occasions) at the Colorado Music Festival, among others.

Mr. Taylor began his piano studies in his native Boulder, Colorado, under Julie Bees, and has since studied with Francisco Aybar, Russell Sherman, and Maria Curcio Diamand. While pursuing his musical career he also attended Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in mathematics in 1992. Mr. Taylor maintains many other active interests, including composition (a field in which he has won several awards), music theory, linguistics, bicycling, and hiking. Christopher Taylor is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

And about Taylor's 2004 Kennedy Center appearance on the Fortas Chamber Music Series:

"...a fervent and almost orchestral performance...To perform "Vingt regards" is no easy feat; it's a monumental, two-hour work in which stellar technique and herculean stamina are but the bare minimum requirements for its 20 pieces...Of the set, No. 9 "Regard du Temps" had the most distinctive orchestral sounds: A reverberating bass sounded like timpani; a clear-cut chordal middle range sounded like a full brass section; an icy flourish of notes in the upper octaves sounded like bells and harp. Achieving a reedy sound in No. 18 "De l'Onction Terrible," Taylor attained a majestic fortissimo that sounded like an orchestra in full swell...In the second half, Taylor focused on rhythmic intricacies and melodic permutations. It conveyed a sense of unrelenting urgency that seemed to propel the latter 10 pieces toward the recital's conclusion. Along the way, Taylor's colors dispelled the progression of time. Iridescent trills in the nocturne-like No. 15 "Le Baiser de l'Enfant Jesus" created an ageless beauty...an impressive end to an incredibly daunting work."
The Washington Post