Soloist. Collaborator. Teacher. Conductor.
Leader.
In any given month, you might find pianist Richard Fountain performing Liszt’s piano sonata, touring with the Tchaikovsky piano trio, and performing a Beethoven concerto, all while teaching students how to translate Mozart onto the modern piano. He may also be playing continuo on Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, directing choral rehearsals of Handel’s “Messiah”, and practicing the orchestral piano part for Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”.
Fountain plays all of these roles enthusiastically, combining world-class musicianship with a sense of humor and a joyful spirit.
Fountain is one of very few pianists to perform the complete cycle of Franz Liszt’s monumental transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. Fountain also has a particular ability to recreate the dramatic poetry inherent in the music of the Classical period. His interpretations of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart are especially noted for their thoughtfully expressive, unpretentious nature that audiences find uniquely compelling.
Fountain is dedicated to presenting American piano music from all eras, championing composers such as John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell while also performing the music of contemporary composers such as John Adams, Joan Tower, and Lowell Liebermann. Fountain’s concerto repertoire features Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” as well as works by MacDowell, Glass, Liebermann, and Hanson. “American Ivory”, an album surveying American piano music of the 20th and 21st centuries, was released by Navona Records in 2021.
Originally from Springfield, Nebraska, Fountain began studies with his mother Judy and continued with David Gerard. He then studied with Leon Harshenin at Taylor University and with Paul Barnes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Fountain holds the positions of Principal Keyboard with both Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.
Fountain is full Professor of Piano at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas, where he teaches applied and collaborative piano and entrepreneurship, directs the Wayland Singers Chorus, and collaborates with Wayland’s International Choir. Fountain earned an MBA in Management from Wayland in 2019, and is a committed advocate for mutually beneficial interaction among artists, administrators, and business professionals.
Fountain’s accolades include the Early Achiever Award from the Nebraska Alumni Association and the “Teacher of the Year” award from the Lubbock Music Teachers Association. Fountain was chosen as President-Elect of the Texas Music Teachers Association in 2020, and was named to the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Specialist Roster in 2021.
Fountain is an accomplished traveler, having traveled to forty-four of the fifty United States and ten other countries. He is a diehard supporter of the Kansas City Royals and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as well as the English and German football teams Portsmouth FC and SC Freiburg. He particularly loves long road trips on the open highways of America, and possesses a strangely comprehensive knowledge of the U.S. Interstate Highway system.
