Richard Jackson

Biography

Richard Jackson was educated at King's College Cambridge and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He was particularly known for his work in art-song and contemporary music. He was a founder-member of Graham Johnson's Songmakers' Almanac, singing regularly with the group at the Wigmore Hall, at the festivals of Edinburgh and Aldeburgh - as well as in Europe, Hong Kong, and the USA; he took part in their recordings for BBCTV and on CD. As a singer of songs he also collaborated with Gerald Moore, Roger Vignoles, Richard Rodney Bennett, and Geoffrey Parsons. 

In the field of contemporary music he created major roles in stage works by Wolfgang Rihm, Michael Finnissy, Gerald Barry, Peter Eötvös, Maurizio Kagel, and Pascal Dusapin - at London's Almeida Festival, as well as in Amsterdam, Dublin, Warsaw, and Mexico City: Pierre Audi, David Fielding and Benedict Andrews were among directors he worked with. 

Richard appeared in mainstream operas for La Monnaie, ENO, Opera North, and Glyndebourne, under such directors as John Cox, Tim Albery, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Glen Byam Shaw. He was the original Christus in Jonathan Miller's celebrated staging of the St Matthew Passion. On the concert platform he worked with John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington, Philippe Herreweghe, Neville Marriner and Mstislav Rostropovich. 

Richard now enjoys a flourishing teaching career, leading art-song classes at GSMD, RCM, and Trinity Laban. He has taught in France, Norway, Hong Kong - and Australia, where he collaborated with Joan Sutherland in a series of classes. He has served on the jury of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards three times.