Richard Powell - Piano and Keyboards and Educator,

holds a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Texas Christian University, where he studied with such distinguished international concert artists as Tamas Ungar, Lili Kraus, Luis de Moura Castro, and Keith Mixson.

He has been featured as a guest soloist with the Dallas Symphony, the TCU Symphony, the Ft.Worth Symphony, the Ft. Worth Civic Orchestra, and the Greater Youth Orchestra of Ft. Worth, as well as in many solo recitals across the state of Texas. Richard Powell is also well-known in the Dallas-Ft.Worth area as a professional pianist with over forty-five years of experience.  He has performed with such jazz greats as Mel Torme, Ed Shaughnessy  Pete Christlieb and Don Menza (all were members of the "Tonight Show Orchestra with Johnny Carson").

He also performed with Urbie Green, Mike Vax,  Denis DiBlasio , Steve Wiest, Dave Mancini and trumpet virtuoso Alan Vizzutti, as well as in conjunction with the Thelonius Monk Jazz Institute. 

Richard has performed with such name entertainers as Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Rich Little, Wayne Newton, Betty Buckley, Ray Price, Tony Orlando, Dionne Warwick and the cast of the TV show "Dallas".  He has played with the big bands of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Vaughn Monroe, and the Tex Beneke/Glenn Miller Orchestra featuring the Modernaires. 

In 1979 and again in 1995, Richard made tours of Russia and Poland, where he performed in numerous concerts, gave a master class at the Ministry of Culture in Moscow, and performed on national television at the performance auditorium in Samara, Russia.

In 1996, he was a featured artist at the Sammons Performance Hall in Dallas, performing a duo piano concert with jazz piano great Gregory Slavin, as well as appearing as a featured soloist at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.  Richard is currently the pianist for Dallas' Original Jazz Orchestra, directed by Galen Jeter.

Richard initially came to Tarrant County College in 1982 as an adjunct instructor of piano and jazz ensemble.  In 1989 Richard was appointed to the full-time faculty at TCC Northwest, where he now serves as music department director.  In addition, Richard has served on the Tarrant County College District Academics Standards committee, and the executive committee of the Texas Two-Year College Choral Festival.  He has also created several courses at Tarrant County College, including the first computer MIDI techniques class in 1992, the fine arts aesthetics course for the honors program known as Cornerstone, and the first music appreciation online course in Texas.  In 2002 he completed and published a music appreciation textbook for the Northwest Campus, A Guide to Music History and Appreciation.  In addition to this reference text, Richard has also authored a textbook on basic musicianship, and has recorded five CDʼs, including both jazz and classical piano.  Two more of his CD's are now in production.