Ayla Richards, a pianist from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is 17 years old and enjoys playing piano as well as practicing gymnastics, playing guitar, and baking with her friends. At 5 years old, she began playing piano with Akiko Yamazaki. A few years later, she moved to Derison Duarte’s practice, and after advancing her performance with Duarte, she transferred to Teddy Robie. She continues to refine pieces in preparation for college, where she plans to double major in music and psychology. Throughout her career, Ayla has won numerous local, national, and international piano competitions. In middle school, she won the DMTA competition. The following year, she competed in the winners section and earned second place. She also has received gold rankings in the Golden Key National Piano Competition consecutively in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and after winning in 2022, she performed in a Carnegie Hall recital with students from all over the country. Through this, Ayla not only learned the power of music to bring people together, but also realized the piano community’s strength. After performing in Carnegie Hall, she received two gold and three silver rankings from the Charleston International Piano Competitions, which run month by month.
You can find Ayla’s 2022 International Piano Competition performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 Classical Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 Winter Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 Baroque Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 Spring Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 19th Century Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 18th Century Music Competition piano performance here.
You can find Ayla’s 2023 Contemporary Music Competition piano performance here.