ABOUT
Noted for the integrity and breadth of his musicianship as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, Richard has been recognised for his ‘musical intelligence and pristine facility’ (International Record Review), ‘amazing decisiveness’, and ‘tumultuous performance’ (Daily Telegraph). His playing has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has featured on BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC World Service, Classic FM and Sky Arts. He won first prize in the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2006 and the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions in 2011.
Richard studied with Ian Buckle at the Junior School of the Royal Northern College of Music, before going on to read Music at Clare College, Cambridge (graduating with a double first in 2008), and studying with Martin Roscoe at Guildhall School. His London debut at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room in 2010 was described by The Times as a ‘brilliant recital’.
Richard has released several solo recordings to critical acclaim and appeared at venues and festivals including: Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Banff Centre (Alberta), Bath Festival, Bridgewater Hall, BOZAR (Brussels), Cadogan Hall, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Fundacíon Juan March (Madrid), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klangspuren Festival (Innsbruck), Kings Place, Konzerthaus Berlin, Modulus Festival (Vancouver), Musikverein (Vienna), National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Wigmore Hall, and has toured in China and Colombia.
Highlights this season include duo recitals at Lucerne Festival and Wigmore Hall with horn player Ben Goldscheider, and in trio (with Callum Smart) at Wigmore Hall and on tour in Sweden; the release of a new disc for Delphian Records with violist Jordan Bak; and chamber music with composer-clarinettist Mark Simpson.
A passionate exponent of new music, Richard has given major solo recitals at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and commissioned new work. He has given world premieres of pieces by composers including Julian Anderson, Fransisco Coll, Michael Cutting, Rolf Hind, Matthew Kaner, Daniel Kidane, Naomi Pinnock, Mark Simpson, Dobrinka Tabakova, and Kate Whitley. Other composers Richard has worked with on their solo piano music include Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough, Erika Fox, Georg Friedrich Haas and Robin Holloway. Richard was a Trustee of New Dots – a charity promoting new music and supporting emerging composers – from 2013 to 2016. In 2018, Richard and composer Kate Whitley became the first UK prize winners of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust Pianist/Composer Commission prize.
Richard was a contributor to Edition Peters’ Piano Masterworks series on the Tido Music iPad app, which includes films of him performing and giving tutorials on core piano repertoire. He also records for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Piano Syllabus CDs.
Richard is a Piano professor at the Royal College of Music and a Professor of Academic Studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He also teaches at the RCM Junior Department. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
photo © Cathy Pyle
For downloadable versions of biog and photos please visit Media.