Richard Aaker Trythall

Richard Aaker Trythall (July 25, 1939 – December 21, 2022) was an American and Italian composer and pianist of contemporary classical music.

Trythall was born on July 25, 1939, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the younger brother of composer Gil Trythall.

His family, related to composer Edvard Grieg, has Welsh and Norwegian ancestry, and moved to the United States from Norway.

He attended Central High School in Knoxville and in 1958 he enrolled at the University of Tennessee, where he studied under David Van Vactor graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 1961.

His interest in composition was fostered by Van Vactor, at the time conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and founder of the University of Tennessee School of Music.

Trythall was selected twice, in 1960 and 1968, to take part to the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he performed his works Twelve Duets for Treble Instruments and Continuums.

He was then admitted to Princeton University in 1961 where he studied under Earl Kim, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, and Edward T. Cone obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in 1963.

He completed his music studies attending, that same year, advanced composition courses at the Berlin University of the Arts where he studied with Boris Blacher under a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship.

Trythall was part of the group of David Van Vactor's notable students named the Van Vactor Five together with Gil Trythall, David P. Sartor, Jesse Ayers, and Doug Davis.

He has been a member of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza from his creation in 1964 until his dissolution in 1980.

He has also given seminars on electronic and American music for the United States Information Agency.

He was awarded the Rome Prize in musical composition twice, in 1964 and 1971.

Trythall lived in Italy since 1964 until his death.

During his three-year fellowship at the Academy, he composed three orchestral works: Composition for Piano and Orchestra (1965), Penelope's Monologue for soprano and orchestra (1966) and Costruzione (1967).

Trythall's was the last three-year fellowship awarded in music composition.

He is chair of the Department of Arts and director of the school choir at St. Stephen's International School in Rome, Italy where he started teaching music in 1966.

Trythall was a fellow (FAAR) of the American Academy in Rome since 1967, was made a resident (RAAR) in 1971, and served at the Academy as an advisor in musical composition.

Continuums (1968) was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University.

The premiere took place at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, and was conducted by Gunther Schuller.

He also won the first prize in the Kranichsteiner Competition for Interpreters of Contemporary Piano Music at Darmstadt, in 1969, performing Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstücke IX, Olivier Messiaen's Ile de feu I from Quatre études de rythme, and Pierre Boulez's Sonata No. 1.

Trythall was invited by Lukas Foss and Lejaren Hiller to join the faculty of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts of the State University of New York at Buffalo where he taught from 1972 to 1973.

In 1973 he won the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Recording Award with his work Coincidences (1969) together with Mario Davidovsky and Tison Street.

He was also on the faculty of the University of California, Davis in 1976.

Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1976) was commissioned by the Dorian Wind Quintet and premiered in Rome that same year.

Trythall was a member of the jury of the 1988 and 2011 editions of the Viotti International Music Competition and president of the jury of the 2003 International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition.

His compositions have been performed all over in the world, including at Carnegie Hall, the Cooper Union, the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Gaudeamus Festival, and the Venice Biennale.

Trythall also maintained strong collaborations with many composers along his career, including Lei Liang and Curt Cacioppo.

Parts Unknown, an hour-long composition for piano articulated in twelve sections, was composed between 1989 and 1991 and premiered in Rome, at the Ghione Theater, on December 9, 1991.

Trythall was the Italian correspondent for the American magazine Keyboard and wrote several articles on American music for various Italian publications.

In 1993 he was a guest lecturer on the music of Charles Ives at the Sapienza University of Rome.

In 1995 he organized and directed the American Country Music Festival at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

He is also on the faculty of the New York University Florence program, where he teaches music theory.

In addition to his American citizenship, he acquired Italian citizenship in 1996.

He lived in Rome with his wife, Marisa, an historian specialized in Holy See–United States relations.

They have a daughter, Rebecca.