Richard Egarr brings to all his music making a joyful sense of adventure and a keen, inquiring mind--whether conducting, directing from the keyboard, giving recitals, playing chamber music, or even just talking about music at every opportunity. Not only acting as music director of the Academy of Ancient Music since 2006, he is also associate artist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Egarr has a flourishing career as a guest conductor with orchestras that include the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and also acts as a visiting artist at The Juilliard School.

This season, Mr. Egarr makes his debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He also returns to the Seattle Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, The Hague Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Boston's renowned Handel and Haydn Society.

Mr. Egarr continues to play solo recitals around the world, with concerts this season at Wigmore Hall, the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, as well as across North America. His extensive discography on Harmonia Mundi includes solo keyboard works by J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Couperin, with an album of Bach partitas to be released in February. His long list of recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music includes seven Handel discs (which have received such accolades as Gramophone, MIDEM, and Edison awards), and most recently Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion on the orchestra's own label. In 2015, he conducted a sold-out performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore at the Edinburgh International Festival--a performance that was recorded live and released on Linn Records in 2016 to enthusiastic reviews.

Mr. Egarr trained as a choirboy at York Minster, as a student at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and as an organ scholar at Cambridge's Clare College. His studies with preeminent harpsichordists Gustav and Marie Leonhardt further inspired his work in the field of historical performance.