Richard Jenkinson

Richard Jenkinson’s musical education began at the age of five when he started to play the cello. In 1990 he won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, studying cello with Raphael Wallfisch and William Pleeth and conducting with Alan Hazeldine. He graduated with Distinction in 1994 and was awarded the Guildhall's coveted Gold Medal for a performance of the Dvořák ‘cello Concerto in the Barbican. In 1995 Richard was appointed principal cello with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and from 1998-2016 was principal cello with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

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In May 2012 Richard joined the Dante String Quartet and has performed at the Wigmore Hall, King’s Place and given several live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. The quartet’s ‘Beethoven journey’ was also featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. As the cellist of the Dante Quartet, he has recorded Kodály’s String Quartets for Hyperion, Herbert Howells Quartets for Naxos and Stanford’s complete string quartets on the Somm label. 

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Richard is also Musical Director of the British Police Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St John, Bromsgrove. From 2016-19 he was Music Director of the orchestra and choir of the G.K.T. Music Society at King's College, London and, since September 2017, has been conductor of the Worcestershire Youth Orchestra. In May 2019 Richard conducted the B.P.S.O. at the Royal Albert Hall, London celebrating the orchestra’s 30th anniversary involving fanfare trumpets, troupes of bagpipers and massed choirs from around the United Kingdom which involved over 600 performers. 

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Richard is now delighted to be the Choral Conductor for the Issigeac International Music Festival. In 2023 he conducted the choir in pieces by Bruckner and Faure and in Mozart’s Requiem to universal acclaim.