Richard is Principal Flute with the BBC Philharmonic and has freelanced as principal
flute with most of the UK symphony orchestras including: the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra, the C.B.S.O., the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish
National Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé, and he has toured world-wide,
as principal flute with the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Whilst studying at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), with the celebrated Trevor Wye, he gave his London solo début in 1984 as a result of being a winner in the prestigious Park Lane Group 20th Century Music Competition. Since then he has been in great demand as a soloist especially within the BBC.
In 1985, Richard recorded the first British performance of Bernstein's Halil for flute and orchestra, live on Radio 3. He has also broadcast concertos ranging from Mozart to Maxwell Davies and, in 1992, Richard was the soloist in a performance of Malcolm Arnold's Flute Concerto No 1 as part of the composer's 70th birthday celebrations. Ten years later he performed and broadcast the work again for Arnold's 80th birthday.
Performing recitals regularly for Radio 3, Richard has broadcast works by Fukashima, Prokofiev, Gaubert, Doppler, Durufle, Martinu, Martin, Widor and many more. The flute concerto of Maxwell-Davies (Strathclyde Concerto No 6) has featured greatly in Richard's repertoire in the last few years, studying it with the composer and performing it first in 1994 for a live performance with Maxwell-Davies conducting. In January 1996 Richard performed the 'Strathclyde' again but this time it was broadcast 'live' throughout the world in countries as far a field as Canada, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Iceland, Israel, Rumania, Europe and Scandinavia.
Richard has also appeared as soloist on a CD for Chandos which was reviewed with great critical acclaim by the Guardian and Gramophone.
Richard is a Senior Lecturer and an orchestral coach at the Royal Northern College of Music where he has taught since 1989. As a conductor, he has directed concerts with professionals, students and amateurs all over the country.
In 1995 he was invited to appear in the International Who's Who in Music and in 1998 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies wrote a brand new flute concerto especially for, and dedicated to, Richard. It is entitled Themenos with Mermaids and Angels, and they premiered and broadcast it in Dublin in 1999.
Richard is married to a Canadian flautist, and is the author of Becoming an Orchestral Musician - a Guide for Aspiring Professionals (ISBN 1-900357-23-2).
Richard plays on an 1864 open G# Louis Lot.