Roderick Chadwick is a pianist, teacher and writer on music.
In recent years he has performed some of the most challenging works for piano, including Lachenmann’s Serynade at the inaugural London Contemporary Music Festival, Stockhausen’s Mantra with Mark Knoop and Newton Armstrong (a highly-regarded recording on the Hathut label), and John McGuire’s 48 Variations, also with Knoop. Other recordings include works by Gloria Coates, Edward Cowie, Maurice Duruflé, Sadie Harrison, Hans Werner Henze and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – several of these with violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and the Kreutzer Quartet.
Roderick is a member of ensembles Chroma and Plus-Minus, appearing with them at festivals such as Huddersfield, Ultima (Oslo) and the 2019 Warsaw Autumn Festival. His first performance on BBC Radio 3 was at the age of 14 (the Britten Gemini Variations live from the Aldeburgh Festival), and broadcasts since have included solo works by Laurence Crane, Richard Barrett and Will Gregory. Duo partnerships with several violinists have taken him to venues such as Tokyo Opera City, Auditorium du Louvre, Wigmore Hall and Seoul Arts Centre.
In 2018 Roderick published Messiaen’s ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, From Conception to Performance (CUP), co-authored with Peter Hill, and he was artistic advisor to the Royal Academy of Music for their Messiaen centenary celebrations in 2008. He is currently recording the Catalogue book by book for the Divine Art label, alongside thematically-linked repertoire.
He first encountered Messiaen’s music at Chetham’s School, where he was taught piano by Heather Slade-Lipkin, before going on to study with W Dean Sutcliffe, Peter Pettinger and Hamish Milne at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and the Academy. He was made Reader of the University of London in 2013.
'Possessor of devastating musicality and technique'
Sunday Times
Selected Recordings
Edward Cowie Bird Portraits for violin and piano with Peter Sheppard Skaerved (Métier, 2021)
Olivier Messiaen Catalogue d’oiseaux Book 1 and works by David Gorton and Karol Szymanowski (Divine Art, 2020)
Peter Dickinson, various chamber works (Toccata, 2020)
Thomas Simaku ENgREnage, Sound Tree and Albanian Folk Song for violin and piano (Naxos, 2019)
Hans Werner Henze, works for violin and piano with Peter Sheppard Skaerved (Naxos, 2018)
Gloria Coates Piano Quintet, with Kreutzer Quartet (Naxos, 2018)
Mihailo Trandafilovski Duos 1, 2 and 3 for violin and piano (Métier, 2018)
Jeremy Dale Roberts Capriccio for violin and piano, and Tombeau for solo piano (Toccata, 2018)
Sadie Harrison Hidden Ceremonies I for solo piano (Toccata, 2015)
Karlheinz Stockhausen Mantra with Mark Knoop and Newton Armstrong (Hathut, 2015)
Alex Hills After and Before for piano and ensemble, with Ensemble Plus-Minus (Carrier, 2013)
Leopold Godowsky works for violin and piano, with Nazrin Rashidova (Naxos, 2013)
Written Publications
‘“Un sens artistique très développé”: Messiaen’s cahiers as performance aid’, in Messiaen in Context, ed. Robert Sholl (Cambridge: CUP, forthcoming)
Messiaen’s ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, From Conception to Performance with Peter Hill (Sheffield University), (Cambridge: CUP, 2017)
‘La Fauvette des jardins and the ‘spectral attitude’’, in Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2013) eds. Dingle and Fallon
‘Existence’s whole arc, filled up’ – the piano music of Gloria Coates (chapter in ‘Komponisten in Bayern’ series No. 54: Tutzing, Hans Schneider Press, 2012)