Richard Gowers

Richard Gowers is an organist, pianist and conductor

He began his musical training as a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, returning as organ scholar in 2014. He graduated from Cambridge University with a starred first class degree in Music, and studied Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek and Joseph Middleton, before taking further study at HMDK Stuttgart with Nathan Laube.

As a concert organist he gives recitals across Europe in France, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the UK. He has also toured the USA and Australia. He became a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17, and in 2018 released a CD of Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur, which was awarded a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’.

Richard’s work as a collaborative pianist has seen performances at Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder Festival, and partnerships with singers such as Mary Bevan, Ashley Riches, Kieran Carrel and Helen Charlston. He plays regularly for the BBC Singers, and privately for leading conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Edward Gardner and Francois-Xavier Roth.

As of 2023 he is the Director of Music at St George's Hanover Square. In October 2023 he directed the Academy of Ancient Music at the Festival of Sacred Music in Monreale, Italy.

As a freelance keyboard player, Richard appears with many London orchestras including regular BBC Proms and in European tours with the London Symphony Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra. He teaches Keyboard Skills at the Academy and runs an annual Harmony & Counterpoint preparatory course for Cambridge University.