Visit this artist's website: http://www.stephenhough.com

With a singular vision that transcends musical fashions and trends, STEPHEN HOUGH is widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive pianists of his generation. In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2001, joining prominent scientists, writers and others who have made unique contributions to contemporary life. He is also the 2008 winner of Northwestern University School of Music’s Jean Gimbel Lane prize in Piano Performance.

Hough has appeared with most of the major American and European orchestras and plays recitals regularly in the major halls and concert series around the world. He is also a guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, and the BBC Proms, where he has made over 15 concerto appearances. Recent engagements include a recital on the main stage of Carnegie Hall, performances with the New York, Los Angeles, and London philharmonics, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and London symphonies, among others. In June 2006 he performed a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle conducting, which was televised worldwide, and in 2008 he toured the U.S. with the Russian National Orchestra led by Vladimir Jurowski.

In the 2009/10 season Stephen Hough appears with the St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Atlanta and Indianapolis symphonies; the Russian National Orchestra; the Czech Philharmonic; and the BBC Symphony, among others; continues recording all of the Tchaikovsky piano concertos in live concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra led by Osmo Vänskä for Hyperion; and makes numerous other orchestral and recital appearances, including London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Over the summer of 2009 he played all of the works for piano and orchestra of Tchaikovsky during four separate BBC Proms concerts, three of which were televised.

An exclusive Hyperion recording artist, many of Hough’s catalogue of over 40 CDs have garnered international prizes, including the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or, the Monde de la Musique, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Magazine awards, including “Record of the Year” in 1996 and 2003 and the Gramophone “Gold Disc” award in 2008, which named his complete Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos as the best recording of the past 30 years. His 2005 live recording of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos with the Dallas Symphony and Andrew Litton is the fastest selling recording in Hyperion’s history, while his 1987 recording of Hummel concertos is Chandos’ best-selling disc to date. His most recent release is Stephen Hough in Recital, a program juxtaposing variations by Mendelssohn and Beethoven with waltzes by Weber, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, Debussy, and Liszt.

Hough is also an avid writer and composer. In addition to scholarly and critically acclaimed CD liner notes and articles for music publications, he has written for The Guardian, The Times, and was invited by the Telegraph Media Group in December 2008 to start a cultural blog. He has also written extensively about theology for the print media and his book, The Bible as Prayer, was published in the U.S. and Canada by Paulist Press in 2007.

Earlier in 2007, Hough’s cello concerto, The Loneliest Wilderness, was premiered by Steven Isserlis and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Two choral works – Mass of Innocence and Experience and Missa Mirabilis – were performed at London’s Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, respectively. In January 2009, his trio, Was mit den Tränen geschieht, commissioned by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, received its world premiere at the Berlin Philharmonie. He also wrote a string sextet, Requiem Aeternum: after Victoria, for the National Gallery’s major 2009 exhibition, The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700. Hough has published numerous compositions with Josef Weinberger Ltd.

A resident of London, Stephen Hough is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at his alma mater, the Royal Northern College in Manchester.

For further information, please visit stephenhough.com.