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The English harpsichordist, organist, fortepianist and musicologist, Richard Lester, was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, the only son of Elsie Violet Evelyn and Sydney Arthur Lester, both of whom were amateur musicians. He attended Whitton Secondary School in Middlesex, and the London College of Music, where he graduated as a Fellow. He studied piano with Bernard Roberts, organ with David Lang, and harpsichord with George Malcolm.
Richard Lester made his London debut (sponsored by George Malcolm) in 1973 at London's Wigmore Hall and two years later, following a Purcell Room recital, he was described by the Daily Telegraph critic, David Money as "one of our leading players." Since then he has given harpsichord and organ recitals in the UK and abroad and performed on BBC Radio and television. Dame Janet Baker selected his recording of Scarlatti sonatas as her "favourite" on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1982; and the artists, Sophie Ryder and David Gentleman both chose sonatas from his Nimbus Scarlatti recordings on BBC Radio Three ‘Private Passions’. He has given master-classes at Dartington Summer School, and was Director of music at the Mall School in Twickenham from 1986 to 1992 before taking up the position as head of music at Oakley Hall School in Cirencester, a town where he has lived with his wife, Jackie since 1989. As Master of the Choristers at Cirencester Parish Church in 1994, he directed courses there and at Bristol Cathedral for the Royal School of Church Music.
Richard Lester's meeting with the Spanish/American harpsichordist, Fernando Valenti at the Dartington Summer School sparked Lester's interest in the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and in 2000, he began recording the complete keyboard works of Scarlatti, subsequently released by Nimbus Records. The series, recorded with his friend and engineer, Raymond Fenton received rave reviews on an unprecedented level from recording magazines and international websites and was described in The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music as "an exceptional issue on every count." The whole project was completed in 2006 with a personal profile in Gramophone. The Scarlatti series was followed by recordings of Haydn and W.A. Mozart piano works on on the Schantz fortepiano in the Bath Holbourne Museum, harpsichord works by Soler and Seixas, and in 2010, a five disc set of harpsichord and organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, on the Giovanni Boni harpsichord (c1619); an instrument it is thought the composer played, and the historic Costanzo Antegnati organ of 1588 in Alemenno, San Salvatore, Italy. The latter project was included in the 2012 Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings. The G. Frescobaldi recording also received the "outstanding" accolade in International Record Review. From the year 2000, his great friend Raymond Fenton, acted as recording engineer and advisor. He sadly passed away in 2014 after a short illness. Since then, Paul Arden Taylor has acted as recording engineer in collaboration with Nimbus Records.
As an organist, Richard Lester has given recitals in many Cathedrals, including St. Paul’s, Ely, Coventry, Westminster Cathedral and King’s College Cambridge and in 2013 he gave recitals at St Mark’s in Venice and at Bergamo Cathedral.
Richard Lester is the author of several articles in leading early music publications including the Hungarian book on early music, Regi Zene, 16th century Italian fingering methods, and another on G. Frescobaldi for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine. In 2013, he participated in International Piano Magazine's Scarlatti symposium with Peter Katin, Nikolai Demidenko, Yevgeny Sudbyn, and Andreas Staier. Since 2009, he has devoted his attention to recording 16th century Italian keyboard music for Nimbus.
Richard Lester married Jacqueline Susanna Woolford in 1981 and they live in Devon. The couple have two children, Christian (a sports therapist lives in Cirencester) and Elizabeth, a recorder player, flautist, and graduate in 2011 with Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons) in Music from York University, and has recorded for Nimbus two CD's with her father on Renaissance recorders. Richard has two older sons from his first marriage, Marc and Dominic who also live in the Cirencester area. |
