Born in Bradford in 1987, Richard Uttley read Music at Cambridge University, graduating in 2008 with a Double First.  He studied with Ian Buckle for ten years, and since 2008 with Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he was appointed a Fellow and is currently undertaking an Artists’ Diploma.  In 2010 he was awarded a Distinction in his Master’s and won 1^st Prize in the Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist Competition.  He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust in 2011.

Over the last two years Richard has given recitals at major venues and festivals throughout the UK including the Royal Festival Hall (where his programme included the premiere of Barkham Fantasy by Mark Simpson), Bridgewater Hall, Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room (for the Park Lane Group), the City of London Festival, Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival, Ribble Valley International Piano week and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.  In 2012 he was resident at the Banff Centre for the Arts and took part in the Schwetzinger Festspiele Chamber Academy.  Engagements this season include recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Nottingham International Piano series and solo appearances with the Brighton Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestras.

A passionate exponent of new music, in 2009 he worked with Louis Andriessen in a BBC Proms Composer Portrait recorded by Radio 3 and in 2011 with Brian Ferneyhough as part of a BBC Total Immersion Day followed by a studio recording for the ‘Hear and Now’ programme. His concerto work has included performances of works by Gershwin (Symphony Hall Birmingham), Grieg (Cadogan Hall), Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Poulenc, Rachmaninov and Ravel, as well as music by Adams (Grand Pianola Music) and Stockhausen (Kontra-Punkte).

Richard has released two discs of 20^th and 21^st Century piano music on the UH Recordings label to critical acclaim.  The first CD features premiere recordings of works by Robin Holloway and led to a Rising Star feature in BBC Music Magazine.  He has also commissioned works from composers including Timothy Jackson, Mark Simpson and Chris Willis, with funds from UH Recordings and the RVW Trust.  As a chamber musician Richard regularly works with singers and instrumentalists and has played orchestral piano for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and their contemporary chamber group, Ensemble 10:10.

During his studies Richard won numerous prizes and awards, including 1^st prize in the Moray Piano Competition 2005 and the British Contemporary Piano Competition 2006.  He has received awards from the Hattori Foundation, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, Tillett Trust, the Arts & Humanities Research Council and Worshipful Companies of Drapers and Salters.

Aside from classical music, Richard loves film (particularly Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen), the novels of Ian McEwan, and musicals by Stephen Sondheim.  He also composes occasionally, his short song cycle, Five Yeats Songs being performed by baritone Stephen Varcoe and pianist Christina Lawrie.