Biography

Stephen Hough has distinguished himself not only as a concert pianist, but also as a writer and composer. In 2001 he was the first classical performing artist to win a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He was awarded Northwestern University’s 2008 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano, won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award in 2010, and in January 2014 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in the New Year’s Honors List.

Mr. Hough’s 2015-16 season includes an extensive tour to Asia, and return appearances with the orchestras of Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, Houston, Vancouver, and New Jersey in North America, and with the London Philharmonic and the Finnish Radio Symphony in Europe. He gives recitals at New York’s 92nd Street Y, London’s Barbican Centre, in Quebec and Kansas City, and at Dartmouth and Northwestern University.

Mr. Hough’s music for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and solo piano is published by Josef Weinberger. His works have been commissioned and performed by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, the Indianapolis Symphony, musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, and by London’s National Gallery, Wigmore Hall, La Musée du Louvre, and Musica Viva Australia, among others. He has performed his two piano sonatas in London, New York, Saint Paul, and Chicago. Also a noted writer, Mr. Hough regularly contributes articles in print and online for leading publications in the UK. His book, The Bible as Prayer, was published by Continuum and Paulist Press in 2007.

Mr. Hough’s more than fifty recordings have garnered several Grammy nominations and such awards as the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Diapason d’Or, Monde de la Musique, and eight Gramophone awards, including two Record of the Year awards and the Gold Disc. His 2012 recording of the complete Chopin waltzes was awarded the Diapason d'Or de l’Année. Mr. Hough’s most recent releases, all for Hyperion, include the two Brahms piano concertos with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth; In the Night, featuring works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Mr. Hough himself; Grieg’s Lyric Pieces; and a recording of his Missa mirabilis with the Colorado Symphony.

Mr. Hough resides in London where he is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at his alma mater, the Royal Northern College in Manchester. He is also a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1990.

(January 2016)