People

Richard Uttley

Pianist

Richard was born in 1987 and began playing the piano at the age of nine. He attended the Junior School of the Royal Northern College of Music, and then went to Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 2008 with a double first in Music. He studied piano with Ian Buckle for ten years, and now studies with Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

As a teenager, Richard had numerous successes in music festivals, and won the Moray Piano Competition in Scotland in 2005. In 2006, he took first prize in the seventh British Contemporary Piano Competition and also won the Sonic Arts Network prize. That same year, he was placed first in the national finals of the Lions Forum European Piano Competition, and went on to represent the British Isles in the finals held in Bucharest in 2007.

Richard has a particular interest in contemporary music, and has commissioned works from composers including Chris Willis and Timothy Jackson. In 2008 he made his first CD, Piano, with UH Recordings. The disc showcases previously unrecorded British piano music, and includes the première recordings of works by Robin Holloway. Nicholas Salwey, writing in International Record Review, said of the release, ‘…it’s a fascinating disc with which I cannot find fault, and it represents an impressive and auspicious debut for Richard Uttley. I hope it receives the widespread critical acclaim that it clearly deserves’. Gramophone also called it an ‘auspicious debut’, and in the BBC Music Magazine, Paul Riley wrote ‘…contemporary piano music has some fine young interpreters right now; Richard Uttley’s is a name to add to the distinguished litany’.

So far, Richard has performed concertos by Beethoven, Gershwin, Grieg, Haydn, Poulenc and Rachmaninov. Most recently, he performed Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkte with the Guildhall New Music Ensemble, at LSO St Luke’s. In masterclasses Richard has played to Peter Donohoe, Rolf Hind, Paul Lewis, Yonty Solomon and Martino Tirimo. Future plans include commissions, recitals, concertos and more recordings with UHR. Richard is grateful to be supported by a Musicians’ Benevolent Fund Education Award 2008-9, the Drapers’ and Salters’ Companies, and funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Featured on:

UHR008: 'Pataphysical Piano - The sounds and silences of Andrew Hugill
UHR009: Piano - Richard Uttley
UHR016: Sonnets without words - Richard Uttley