Accompanist

Richard Pearce has been accompanist to the Royal Choral Society since 1996.

He was organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, then studied piano accompaniment for two years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.  He is now a professor at the GSMD, coaching singers and instrumentalists for careers in opera and the concert platform, and is a trustee of the Josephine Baker Trust, which supports young soloists at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London.
Richard is busy as a conductor, pianist and organist with professional and amateur choirs.  He records and broadcasts regularly with the BBC Singers, and particularly enjoys the challenge of preparing an extremely wide variety of repertoire, including much contemporary and new music.  He has conducted works by James MacMillan, Judith Bingham, Britten and Roxanna Panufnik for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  As organist and pianist he has performed with many of the UK’s best-known choral conductors, including David Hill, Stephen Cleobury, Paul Spicer, Bob Chilcott and Sofi Jeannin.
Richard has been musical director of the Waverley Singers, based in Farnham, Surrey, since 2009.  During this time, he has led the choir in some 40 performances.  Particular highlights have been concerts in Guildford Cathedral of Monteverdi Vespers, Verdi Requiem, Beethoven Mass in C, Brahms Schicksalslied, Mozart Requiem and Bach Magnificat in D.  Alongside these major works he has introduced new and varied repertoire to the choir, including commissions and many newly-written compositions.  He has recently taken up a new post as Director of Music of the Romsey Choral Choral Society.  In coming seasons he will be directing performances with them including Handel’s Messiah, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

Richard is regular organist with the Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestras in London; with them he has performed with many inspirational conductors including established maestri Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez, Oliver Knussen, Andrew Davis, Sakari Oramo, Marin Alsop and Ed Gardner, as well as up-and-coming stars such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Valentina Peleggi.  Recent performances have included the solo organ part in the European première of Unsuk Chin’s Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles with Esa-Pekka Salonen in London’s Royal Festival Hall, a tour of China performing Saint-Säens organ symphony with Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the solo organ part in the Glanert Requiem für Hieronymus Bosch with the BBC Symphony under Semyon Bychkov.   He also performs regularly in Promenade concerts and recordings, including at the Last Night of the Proms to a worldwide television audience.

Richard makes twice-yearly trips to Sweden to work with groups in the Stockholm and Malmö areas, and frequently conducts and plays for services at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster and at the Houses of Parliament.