Newly appointed violist of the Takács Quartet, Richard O’Neill has distinguished himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation. An Emmy Award winner, two time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has appeared as soloist with the world’s top orchestras including London, Los Angeles and Seoul philharmonics, the BBC, Hiroshima and Korean symphonies, the Kremerata Baltica, Moscow, Vienna and Wurtemburg chamber orchestras, and Alte Musik Koln, and has worked with distinguished musicians and conductors including Andrew Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Francois Xavier Roth and Yannick Nezet-Seguin. An Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Principal Violist of Camerata Pacifica, for 13 seasons he served as Artistic Director of DITTO, his South Korean chamber music project, leading the ensemble on international tours to China and Japan and introducing tens of thousands to chamber music.
A Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, Richard has made ten solo albums and many other chamber music recordings, earning multiple platinum discs. Composers Lera Auerbach, Elliott Carter, Paul Chihara, John Harbison and Huang Ruo have written works for him. He has appeared on major TV networks in South Korea and enjoyed huge success with his 2004 KBS documentary ‘Human Theater’, which was viewed by over 12 million people, and his 2013 series ‘Hello?! Orchestra’, which featured his work with a multicultural youth orchestra for MBC and led to an International Emmy in Arts Programming and a feature length film.
Richard serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, The Special Olympics, UNICEF and OXFAM and serves on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.