‘amazing decisiveness’, and tumultuous performance’
Daily Telegraph
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 the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2006 and the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) 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 since released several solo recordings to critical acclaim and performed as recitalist and concerto soloist at venues including Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, and, further afield, at Banff Centre (Alberta), Klangspuren Festival (Austria), and on tour in China and Colombia. Highlights this season include the Gershwin and John Ireland piano concertos, Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove, recitals in the Musikverein (Vienna), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), BOZAR (Brussels) and Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) with horn player Ben Goldscheider, Wigmore Hall with violist Jordan Bak, and chamber music with composer-clarinettist Mark Simpson and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich at Kings Place.
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 also teaches in the RCM Junior Department, at Guildhall School, City, University of London and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
