John Pickford Richards holds degrees from the Interlochen Arts Academy and Eastman School of Music where his primary teachers were David Holland and John Graham.
Chiefly obsessed with new music, John is a founding member of the ensemble Alarm Will Sound, bringing him together with such composers as John Adams, Wolfgang Rihm, Meredith Monk, and Steve Reich at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, and Merkin Concert Hall. Alarm Will Sound has held residencies at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Duke University, and Dickinson College.
In addition to his work with Alarm Will Sound, John is a founding member of the JACK Quartet, which has been fortunate enough to work closely with composer Helmut Lachenmann on his String Quartet No. 3 “Grido� at the Internacional de Contemporánea de Michoacán in Morelia, Mexico, the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, and the Pro-Bio Foundation Summer School in Blonay, Switzerland. The quartet has studied with the Arditti Quartet and Kronos Quartet and continues to build its repertoire with today’s most recent music.
John has performed as soloist with the Pasadena Symphony, Armenian Philharmonic, Ossia New Music, and recently performed the solo part to Luciano Berio’s Chemins II under Pierre Boulez with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. He taught for three years at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and has also taught at summer camps, in city and rural public schools, and in continuing education.