Combining a uniquely insightful career as a pianist with those of composer and writer, Stephen Hough distinguished himself as a true polymath. The first classical pianist to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), his mastery of the instrument as well as an individual and inquisitive mind has earned him a multitude of prestigious awards and a longstanding international following.
Highlights of Mr. Hough’s 21/22 orchestral engagements include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Orchestre National de Fance in Paris, Tonkunster Orchestra in Vienna, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, as well as with the Dallas, Atlanta, Utah, and San Antonio symphonies. He is the BBC Philharmonic’s 21/22 Artist in Residence and in Spring 2022, he returns to Asia to perform with the Singapore and National Taiwan symphonies as well as the China Philharmonic and Guangzhou symphony orchestras. Recent performance highlights include the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony, the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic in London, and the City of Birmingham and Finnish Radio symphonies, among others.
Stephen Hough is a regular guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, La Roque-d’Atheron, Aldeburgh and the BBC Proms, where he made his 29th appearance in the fall of 2020. In June 2020, he returned to London’s Wigmore Hall to give the UK’s first live classical music concert in a major venue since the nationwide lockdown earlier that year. Recital highlights in 21/22 include a return to London’s Royal Festival Hall (International Piano Series) and performances at Caramoor, the Estonia National Concert Hall, and in Toronto, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Miami.
Mr. Hough’s extensive discography of over 60 CDs on the Hyperion label has garnered international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. Recent releases include the complete piano concertos of Beethoven with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu; Brahms: The Final Piano Pieces; Stephen Hough’s Dream Album, a compilation of his favorite short pieces; and Vida Breve, a solo album featuring his Vida Breve Sonata and works by Chopin, Liszt, Busoni, and Bach/Gounod. Among the highlights of Mr. Hough’s 21/22 season are two recording releases on Hyperion – an all-Schumann album and a double CD of Chopin’s complete nocturnes. Both recordings, to be released in September and October 2021 respectively, were the product of studio sessions in 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown in the UK, and four additional recordings from these sessions will be released at a later date.
As a composer, Stephen Hough has written for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble and solo piano. Recent commissions include composing the commissioned work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, to be performed by all 30 competitors, and his String Quartet No. 1 Les Six Recontres composed for the Takacs Quartet. The world premiere of the quartet will take place in Wigmore Hall with the North American premiere being performed at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA. Mr. Hough has also been commissioned by the Musee de Louvre, London’s National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet among others.
A noted writer, Mr. Hough’s collection of essays Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More, published by Faber and Faber in London and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in New York, won the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards’ Storytelling category, and was named one of the Financial Times’ Book of the Year 2019. Hough’s first novel, The Final Retreat, was published by Sylph Editions in 2018. He has been published by the New York Times and in London in The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and the Evening Standard. For seven years he wrote more than six hundred articles for his blog in The Telegraph, which became one of the most popular and influential forums for cultural discussion.
Stephen Hough resides in London and is an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York.