- Fanfare (US) - 

"This is music of dream sequences and visions that can be disturbing, scary even, in ways and for reasons you can’t put your finger on, which is the point, for it draws you into a maze of mirrors where subconscious fears lurk and mesmerise you with ever-changing vanishing points of reflection… a most intellectually involving and emotionally engrossing work."

- Fonoforum (Germany)- 

"Richard Birchall’s work explores phantasmagorical worlds of sound in which soloist and orchestra are inextricably intertwined. Birchall is a master of orchestration"

- The Times - 

"Fully at home in the cello's world, Birchall brilliantly exploited the instrument's facets, from autumnal melancholy and comic surprise to the percussive effect of scurrying fingers tapping the wood. I only wished the piece had been longer."  

- The Guardian - 

"An evidently gifted composer as well as performer"

- International Record Review -

"Masterly arrangements... it's impossible to imagine that the composer would be anything other than highly approving" 

- Classic FM-

"This might just be the most beautiful thing of Christmas 2016" (on Richard's arrangement for cellos of Silent Night)

Golriz Photography

 

Richard Birchall read Music at Cambridge University and studied as a postgraduate cellist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, under Louise Hopkins.

Richard pursues a varied and colourful career as cellist, composer, arranger and orchestrator. As no. 3 cello in the Philharmonia Orchestra he performs regularly in the great concert halls of the world; he has also appeared as Guest Principal cello with the Phiharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Opera House, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Opera, English Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and Irish Chamber Orchestra, and as concertmaster of the London Cello Orchestra. Richard’s solo and chamber work has ranged from Wigmore Hall to the catwalk at London Fashion Week. He was a founder member of cello octet Cellophony and is cellist of the Minerva Piano Trio.

Richard's arrangements and compositions have been performed at the BBC Proms, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, The Purcell Room, The Sage Gateshead and throughout the UK, and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and French and German national radio. Recent works include a Clarinet Concerto for Michael Collins (released on the BIS label); Conundra for cello and harp; and an Oboe Sonata for the Philharmonia’s Principal Oboe, Timothy Rundle. Richard has also been commissioned by the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), the Philharmonia, the London Cello Orchestra, the Doric and Tippett quartets, Trio Klein, violist Lawrence Power and many others.

Richard has served as Deputy Chairman of the Philharmonia and on the Artistic Committee of the Park Lane Group, and is currently a Lecturer in Music at the University of West London.