Richard Uttley

Biography

British pianist Richard Uttley studied at Cambridge University, graduating from Clare College with a Double First in Music, and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Martin Roscoe. Noted for the integrity of his musicianship as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist in a wide range of repertoire, Richard has been recognised for his ‘musical intelligence and pristine facility’ (International Record Review), ‘amazing decisiveness’, and ‘tumultuous performance’ (Daily Telegraph). His playing has frequently been 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 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, Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klangspuren Festival (Innsbruck), Konzerthaus Berlin, Modulus Festival (Vancouver), Musikverein (Vienna), Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, and has toured in China and Columbia. 

Richard’s long-term chamber music collaborators include composer-clarinettist Mark Simpson, violinists Savitri Grier and Callum Smart, and horn player Ben Goldscheider. At the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, Richard has participated in the Masterclasses (studying with Thomas Adès) and Open Chamber Music. In 2019 Richard won the Yvar Mikhashoff pianist/composer commissioning prize with composer Kate Whitley. Other composers Richard has collaborated closely with include Julian Anderson, Francisco Coll, Michael Cutting, Chaya Czernowin, Erika Fox, Georg Friedrich Haas, Rolf Hind, Robin Holloway, Matthew Kaner and Naomi Pinnock. 

Richard is a piano professor at the Royal College of Music, and also teaches at the RCM Junior Department, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and City, University of London. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.