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Outstanding University Service Award: Richard Cionco

Richard Cionco

Music professor Richard Cionco may not have willingly gone to his first live musical performance, but it definitely had an impact on the rest of his life.

Winner of an Outstanding University Service Award, Cionco was recognized for establishing Sacramento State’s Piano Series. He’s been its artistic director for 13 years and given numerous recitals of his own during the series. Coordinating the series means he engages the artists and handles their contracts, and oversees the program’s finances, publicity and operations.

His first exposure to classical music came at a young age. “I went to a piano recital when I was six years old,” says Cionco. “My parents dragged me there.” But then the performer played Beethoven “and I was immediately taken by it to the point that I just knew that that’s what I would do for the rest of my life,” he says.

That love of the piano was then nourished by his music teacher, famed instructor Audrey Brown. “If I hadn’t had the teacher I had, there’s no doubt in my mind I would have strayed,” says Cionco. Brown’s teaching style was always constructive, says Cionco, setting up high expectations, but then positively nudging the student “with carrots instead of sticks.”

Cionco was asked to apply to Sacramento State while performing in cities such as Prague, Czech Republic. But Cionco also was teaching at Juilliard School in New York City, a private school in Atlantic City and another in Fort Lee, New Jersey. “I was taking casino buses and municipal buses and subways to do this and it was kind of tiring,” he says.

While he enjoyed the new job, Cionco also notes that Sacramento was having some difficulty at the time with its classical music venues. The city’s symphony was struggling financially, and the ballet was considering using canned music instead of an orchestra, he says.

It was in that environment Cionco started the piano series. “Immediately there was an audience for it,” he says.

His latest effort is the Valencia Young Pianists Competition. One of the music program’s donors, Edward McGrath, helped Cionco put the competition together. When Cionco asked if he’d like the series named after him, McGrath declined, but asked that it be named for his mother, whose maiden name was Valencia.

“The idea is we would attract high school age pianists who are really hot and really good, from anywhere,” Cionco said. This was the inaugural year for the competition, which is held in February.

Of all his endeavors, Cionco says the most rewarding is seeing his students succeed. He also enjoys the opportunities provided by Sacramento State, which allow him to tour and study music.

He and his wife, visiting piano professor Natsuki Fukasawa, enjoy bicycling, cooking and gardening. Cionco hopes this summer will provide him with enough time to finish editing a Beethoven CD he’s recorded and work more on his own compositions.

Cionco has enjoyed his time at Sacramento State and is looking forward to more years on campus. “It’s been like this incredible crescendo and I hope it continues,” he says.

—Craig Koscho