About this Artist
Described as “the Bernstein of Early Music” by National Public Radio, RICHARD EGARR brings a joyful sense of adventure and a keen, enquiring mind to all his music making. He is renowned for directing from the keyboard, conducting, playing concertos (on the organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, or modern piano), giving solo recitals, playing chamber music, or indeed talking about music at any available opportunity.
Since 2006 Egarr has been Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom current plans include a three-year Monteverdi opera cycle at the London’s Barbican Centre, where the orchestra is Associate Ensemble. Early in his tenure Egarr established the Choir of the AAM, and operas and oratorios lie at the heart of his repertoire.
Egarr regularly appears as guest-director with other leading ensembles, ranging from Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society to the Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia orchestras. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, and Associate Artist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He holds teaching positions at the Juilliard School and at the Amsterdam Conservatorium.
Egarr’s plans in North America in 2014/15 include an eight-concert tour with the Academy of Ancient Music, with appearances at Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; his debut with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra; a return to the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Les Violons du Roy at Carnegie Hall in April; and a Bach and Handel harpsichord recital, also at Carnegie Hall, in January.
Richard’s extensive recording output, mainly for Harmonia Mundi, includes solo works by Gibbons, Couperin, Purcell, Mozart, and Bach; an inspired collaboration with violinist Andrew Manze; and numerous discs with the AAM, including Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos, “Brandenburg” Concertos, and a MIDEM-, Edison- and Gramophone Award-winning series of Handel discs. His latest releases are of Bach’s St. John Passion and Orchestral Suites with AAM on their own label AAM Records and Handel’s Harpsichord Suites for Harmonia Mundi.
Richard trained as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, as organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge and with Gustav and Marie Leonhardt, who formed the inspiration for his work in historical performance.