Piano instructor
In demand as a performer, teacher, adjudicator, and presenter, Dr. Ricardo de la Torre currently serves as a piano instructor for the Community Music Program at the University of Puget Sound, where he was also staff accompanist for the School of Music.
With experience instructing students from the beginning stages to the college level, Ricardo is an enthusiastic teacher who enjoys working with students of all backgrounds and ages. He is an active member of the Washington State Music Teachers Association, frequently presenting at their annual conference and serving as Visiting Artist for their Music Artistry Program. He is also a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music by the Music Teachers National Association. Other teaching appointments have included serving on the faculty of East Central University in Ada, OK and teaching music analysis at Pacific Lutheran University.
As a performer, Ricardo has played in concert venues in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Spain, Austria, and France. A finalist and prize winner in several competitions in Mexico and the U.S., he received second prize at the second prize at the Eleventh Annual Competition in the Performance of Music from Spain and Latin America, sponsored by Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center and the Embassy of Spain. The recordings he made as a result of this competition were included in a two-CD collection released by the LAMC and received praise from Fanfare Magazine. Together with Dr. Lark Powers, Ricardo forms a piano duo that is active locally, internationally, and was a finalist of the United States International Piano Duo Competition in Colorado Springs.
Born in Mexico City, Ricardo attended the Escuela Superior de Música in his home town, where he received a Bachelor’s degree cum laude. He continued his studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree and went on to graduate with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he worked as a teaching assistant.
As an active presenter, he has participated in numerous local, regional, and international conferences and the results of his research have been published in specialized journals in the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia.
Currently he serves as pianist at First Lutheran Church in Tacoma, where he directs its summer concert series Listen Live at Lunch.