Australian cellist Richard Narroway enjoys an international career as a performer, recording artist, and teacher. He has given performances across Australia, North America, Europe, and Asia, in prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Koerner Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Recent highlights have included a featured appearance championing the cello in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s gala “Classic 100: Your Favourite Instrument” concerts in 2023, and a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations before an enthusiastic audience of thousands at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. As a result of his stylistic versatility, innovative programming, and wide-ranging musical pursuits, Richard has earned an international reputation as one of his generation’s most notable artists.
His debut album of Bach’s unaccompanied Cello Suites was described by Gramophone as “riveting...an adventure in expressive possibility,” with the cello a “messenger of exhilarating and pensive authority in Narroway’s hands.” His most recent album, released on Australia’s premier label ABC Classics, features works for solo cello and cello with electronics written by a diverse selection of Australian composers. In addition, Richard has achieved top prizes at several major competitions, including the 2010 Stulberg International String Competition, the Third Beijing International Cello Competition, and the Australian Youth Classical Music Competition. In 2020 he was announced winner of The Music Trust’s Freedman Classical Fellowship, offered to an exceptional instrumentalist annually.
Richard earned degrees from the Juilliard School and Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, before completing a Doctorate at the University of Michigan, where he also served as teaching assistant. Currently, Richard is Lecturer and Head of Cello at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.