Photo by Kioku
PIANIST, PERFORMER, AND PHOTOGRAPHER.
Tyler Hayford is an emerging young pianist, performer, and avid photographer, hailed by the press as “one of those young epitomes of brilliance and early success” (San Francisco Classical Voice). He received a BM in Piano Performance and Musical Arts, and MM in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music.
In 2014, Tyler won the 28th Annual Celia Mendez Young Pianist’s Beethoven Competition, the Pacific Musical Society Piano Competition, and was inducted into the MTAC Young Artist Guild. He also had the opportunity to raise $2500 in relief funds for victims of Typhoon Haiyan through a solo benefit recital, which was telecast and achieved critical acclaim. Subsequently, he was a guest artist at the Bear Valley Music Festival, a featured artist in the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival’s “Emerging Artists” concert series, and has continued to perform solo recitals throughout California every year since.
In his early years, Tyler won first place awards from Santa Cruz MTAC, the US Open Music Competition, and the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Youth Chamber Music Competitions. He first appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival at the age of 10, and as a result of winning the concerto competition at the Santa Cruz Youth Symphony, Tyler made his concerto debut with them at the age of 14.
Beyond his studies at Eastman, Tyler has received scholarships to attend the Meadowmount School of Music, the Colburn Academy Piano Festival, California Summer Music, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has performed in masterclasses with Angela Hewitt, Matti Raekallio, and Hung-Kuan Chen, among others. He was also the recipient from 2017-2018 of a Nadenstedt YAG College Music Study Scholarship. Before working under the tutelage of Professors Natalya Antonova and Douglas Humpherys at the Eastman School of Music, Tyler previously studied piano with Hans Boepple, and piano and organ with Vlada Volkova Moran. He served as the organist of Messiah Lutheran Church in Santa Cruz from 2013-2015, at Penn Yan First Baptist Church from 2018-2019, and has been music director at Lakeville United Church of Christ since 2020.
When Tyler isn’t at the piano, he can be found capturing the subtleties of his surroundings with his camera. Now primarily engaged in a formalistic documentation of man-altered landscapes and urban spaces, the breadth of his work also includes portrait photography, real estate photography, commercial product photography, street photography, natural landscapes, and cityscapes. In addition to photographing faculty and students at the Eastman School of Music, his photography has also led to work for campaigns with brands including Daniel Wellington, Triwa, and Esperos.