A finalist in the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards at the Wigmore Hall, and described by OperaNow as a 'countertenor star of the future', Richard is a 26-year-old countertenor hailing from Sidcup in Kent. He has recently graduated with an MMus in Vocal Performance with distinction from the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Ben Johnson, and previously read languages and linguistics at St John’s College, Cambridge, focussing on Italian, French and phonetic science. He was a young artist at the Southrepps Music Festival in summer 2023, and this year has been invited as one of 24 countertenors from around the globe to participate in the inaugural Farinelli Wettbewerb competition in Karlsruhe, Germany.
In addition to his Ferrier success, Richard last year wonThird Prize and the Rodney Gibson Early Music Prize at the AESS Dame Patricia Routledge National English Song Awards, and was a finalist in the Schubert Song Prize. He has recently appeared in productions of Purcell's Fairy Queen with HGO (where he was acclaimed for his 'exquisite tone' (The Spy in the Stalls)), as well as premiering three new roles in the RCM's 'Revolutions' opera series in conjunction with Tête à Tête. Other operatic roles include Arsamene (Serse), Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus), Poro (Cleofide), Didymus (Theodora) and The Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas). He also appeared in the UK premiere of Libby Larsen's Barnum's Bird last year.
While studying at St John's Cambridge, he was a choral scholar and subsequent lay clerk with the renowned college choir, as part of which he performed in venues worldwide including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Singapore Esplanade. During his ‘year abroad’, he worked as the choir director at St Mark’s English Church in Florence, Italy, and has given various song recitals both in Tuscany and closer to home in the UK. Other recent concert highlights include Vivaldi's Gloria, Handel's Athalia, Purcell's Come ye sons of art and Orff's Carmina Burana.
Richard also works as a conductor, organist and private singing teacher.