Richard Edward Wilson has amassed a catalog of nearly 100 original works including solo tuba, full orchestra, string quartet, chamber orchestra, and piano solo. The composer has walked off with quite a few awards, among them an important citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award in creative arts from his hometown of Cleveland, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the latter allowing him the opportunity to write an opera entitled Aethelred the Unready. Wilson has been a member of the faculty at Vassar University since the second half of the '60s. The Albany record label has provided a hefty chunk of the recorded discography of this composer, numbering five CDs since the early '90s. Prior to that, the consistently adventurous CRI label issued several volumes such as Clarinet Concerto in 1989. Increasing public recognition allowed Wilson to expand from the smaller chamber works that dominate his earlier repertoire to compositions on a much larger scale. His orchestral works have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony and the London Philharmonic, among others. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
