Since winning the sinfonia ViVA Conducting Scholarship in 2001, Richard has established a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors in Britain. In 2002, after nine months of study, he graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a Master's degree, a postgraduate diploma in conducting, and the Conservatoire's Postgraduate Prize for the most outstanding contribution to the musical life of the college. Subsequently he was supported by the Foyle Foundation to work intensively on operatic conducting at Dartington with Diego Masson.
Richard has conducted extensively in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. He is Music Director of the critically acclaimed Birmingham-based professional opera company Operamus, Music Director of The Midlands Sinfonia, Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, Lancashire Youth Symphony Orchestra, Leamington Chamber Orchestra, Leicester Bach Choir and the Midlands Chorale, and a regular guest conductor with Queen's Park Sinfonia, Hallam Sinfonia, Chandos Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Sinfonia and the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.
Richard's operatic performances have included Albert Herring, Hansel and Gretel and Noye's Fludde (Operamus), La Traviata and La Bohème (Dartington Festival Opera), Malcolm Williamson's English Eccentrics (Birmingham Conservatoire), Adrian Cruft's Dr Syn (Kent Opera) and Handel's Orlando (Pigotts). He has accompanied many distinguished artists including Brigitte Engerer, Anthony Halstead, Robert Hayward, Neil Jenkins, John Turner, Alan Hacker and Joanne Lunn. Richard is a conductor and coach in the Department of Vocal and Operatic Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire where he assists Lionel Friend; he is Associate Conductor of the virtuoso young ensemble Sinfonia Cymru, and Associate Conductor of the internationally renowned Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra in Surrey. He has premiered many new works, and is in demand as a coach at festivals and summer schools and as a leader of orchestral and choral workshops around the UK.
Richard studied violin at the University of Illinois and the RNCM, and plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Orchestra of the Swan, the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, and as a guest leader for the Queen's Park Sinfonia, Sinfonia of Birmingham, Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.
In his limited spare time Richard pursues a wide range of academic interests: his undergraduate work in Manchester on John F. Kennedy's policy in Vietnam won him the Kaiser Award for American History, and he has presented papers on subjects as diverse as Hollywood film, reality TV and the Ring cycle at the International Conferences on Film and Literature at Florida State University and the International Wagner Symposium at the University of Adelaide. Among his proudest achievements are being appointed Vice President of the University of Illinois Triathlon Club and having articles published in the iconic games magazine White Dwarf.