Flute & Piano Duo
Richard Shaw - Pianist
“incisiveness and fluent sensitivity” (The Independent)
“excellent support” (The Times)
“fervent, intensely moving performance” (The Strad)
Richard Shaw specialises in chamber music and accompaniment and has performed extensively in Britain and abroad. In the last few years his many broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 have included live duo performances with violinists James Ehnes, Viviane Hagner, Leonidas Kavakos, Pekka Kuusisto, Andrew McGee, Vadim Repin, Ittai Shapira, Nikolaj Znaider, cellists Richard Harwood and Li Wei, flautists Jean Ferrandis and Laura Lucas, clarinettists Martin Fröst and Sarah Williamson, Karen Geoghegan (bassoon), Christopher Orton (recorder), sopranos Elizabeth Atherton, Elizabeth Byrne, Nicole Cabelle (winner of Cardiff Singer of the Year 2005), Majella Cullagh, Eva Kallberg, Jennifer Smith and Ailish Tynan, mezzo-sopranos Alice Coote, Catherine Griffith and Jean Rigby, Anna Larsson (contralto), counter-tenors Robin Blaze and Michael Chance, tenors Paul Agnew, Hal Cazalet, John Hudson, Richard Margison and Kurt Streit, Matthew Rose and Jonathan Veira (bass-baritone) and Robert Pomakov (bass).
He is also Staff Accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music and gives masterclasses for accompanists at CSSM (formerly the Charterhouse Summer School of Music) each July, and tutors flautists and pianists at Hawkwood (Gloucestershire) each October. He has given recitals for the Double Reed Society, Lionel Tertis International Viola Festival, British Horn Society, British Flute Society, Barbirolli International Oboe Festival & Competition, and the British Clarinet and Saxophone Society. He regularly performs at the Dartington Festival, partnering musicians such as Sally Burgess (mezzo soprano), Neil Jenkins (tenor), Stephen Varcoe (bass baritone), Sarah Francis (oboe), and the Dante String Quartet, among others.
Richard takes a keen interest in music of our day. The many composers with whom he has worked include Malcolm Arnold, Elena Firsova, Karl Jenkins, Patrick Nunn, Vladislav Shoot and Dmitri Smirnov. He has performed Firsova’s music with Patricia Rozario (soprano), Alexander Ivashkin (cello), Yuko Inoue (viola), and Julian Sperry (flute), among others. His music album, Malcolm Arnold: Songs and Arias, is published by Novello & Co/Music Sales very shortly. His series of Wigmore Hall concerts featured Malcolm Arnold’s chamber music, which he performed with Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Karen Jones (flute), Ian Partridge (tenor), Paul Watkins (cello), Roger Chase (viola), Ensemble Lumière, and many others. These included premieres of works by Sir Malcolm, performed in his presence. In 2009 Richard premieres a series of piano works written for him by the composer and artist Edward Cowie.
His current CDs include music by the great French flautist Phillipe Gaubert, with Kathryn Thomas (flute), on the Deux-Elles label (DXL 923), and a critically acclaimed CD of chamber works (with the Galliard Ensemble) and piano solos by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (DXL 1019). His ‘Piper’s Dream’ CD (with Ensemble Lumière) features the piano solos and chamber works of the British composer Cecilia McDowall (DXL 1033). He has recorded 26 CDs for Cramer Music. His CD of the music of Fauré and his circle (DXL 1125) appears this summer, to be followed by a series of CDs for Toccata Classics with the Ashton Piano Trio, and a CD of French music for Chandos.