John P. Richardson Jr. Violin Scholarship
John and Lislott Richardson established this scholarship in 2004 in honor of their late son. A talented violinist, John Jr. grew up in Bloomington and received much of his training in the pre-college programs at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He started the violin at the age of three with Sister Regina Marie McIntyre. He continued studies with various graduate students and at the Strasbourg Conservatory (1976-7) before entering Mimi Zweig's Young Violinists Program. While in high school he studied with Prof. James Buswell.
John attended Oberlin College, graduating in 1989 with a degree in Government. At Oberlin he continued to study violin with Prof. Gregory Fulkerson and, in the summers, with IU Profs. Henryk Kowalski and Yuval Yaron. After deciding to pursue an academic career in political science, he entered the graduate program at the University of California at San Diego. While still in the process of writing his doctoral thesis, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In spite of valiant attempts to stop its progression, he succumbed on June 19, 2002.
Music was always a central part of John's life. It was this love that helped him endure his terrible illness.
The John P. Richardson Jr. Memorial Scholarship is awarded to students studying violin or viola at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with preference given to graduates of Oberlin Conservatory.