Richard Jenkinson was born in 1971 and started to play the cello at the age of five. He studied with Forence Hooton, William Pleeth and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Raphel Wallfisch. He also studied conducting with Alan Hazeldine. In July 1994, Richard became the winner of the Guildhall's Gold Medal and in the same year won top prize at the Vittorio Gui competition in Florence, Italy. In 1998, he was invited to become principal cellist in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and has also been invited to guest-lead the Royal Liverpool Orchestra and the Philharmonia. He has toured extensively as a soloist and in cello/piano recitals in the U.S.A., South America, Italy, Republic and Northern Ireland as well as appearing regularly in Scotland, Wales and England. Recent concerto performances have included the Dvorak concerto in Caracas, Venezuela and in London, numerous performances of the concertos of Boccherini, Haydn and Vivaldi with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Schumann, Tchaikovsky and both Haydn concertos in various parts of the U.K.

Richard gives frequent music recitals with Benjamin Frith in such venues as the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Blackheath Concert Halls in London and in music societies from Inverness to Devon. He has also made various T.V. appearances. Richard has a great interest in the works of contemporary composers and has premiered works written for him by Buxton Orr, Martin Ellery, Richard Roderick Jones and Paul Da Vinci. He has also made various recordings including the complete Martinu sonatas and variations, chamber music by Dohnányi and Lennox Berkley and works for cello and piano by the Swiss composer Czeslaw Marek.

For further details of this exciting young soloist, his recordings and work you can visit his website here...