Stephen Hough awarded RPS Honorary Membership

Congratulations to Stephen Hough, one of our International Chairs in Piano, who has been awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Stephen, who graduated from the RNCM in 1980, is the 141st person to receive Honorary Membership since Carl Maria von Weber in 1829. He was presented with the award at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 31 May by RPS Council member Sally Groves and RPS Executive Director Rosemary Johnson.

In its citation, the Royal Philharmonic Society said: ‘Stephen Hough is a concert pianist, internationally renowned for his virtuosic command of his instrument as well as the intelligence and insight of his beautifully crafted interpretations. He has appeared regularly on the major stages of the world as a recitalist, in concerti and in chamber music. His discography runs to more than 50 recordings and he has twice been awarded the coveted Gramophone recording of the year.

But Stephen is a man with many hats; and in 2009 was named by the Economist as one of ‘20 Living Polymaths’. It is a title which he justly deserves: – as well being a musician he is remarkable for being acclaimed as a fine composer, a painter, a teacher, and through his public writings. This year he published his first novel and many will have followed his cultural blog in the Daily Telegraph over many years to discover that as well as music, his interests range from theology and poetry, to hats and soap operas.

The impulse behind, and which links all this creativity, is his understanding of the complexities of life, and his continual questioning, and desire to explore the very essence, of what makes us all human. RPS is proud to welcome him as an Honorary Member.’

Illustrious Honorary Members have included Rossini (1839), Brahms (1882), Clara Schumann (1887), Stravinsky (1921), Aaron Copland (1970), Paul Sacher (1991) and Lady Evelyn Barbirolli (2001). Recent recipients have included founder of El Sistema José Antonio Abreu (2008) Sir Brian McMaster (2009) Graham Johnson, Fanny Waterman (2010) George Benjamin, Tony Fell, Mark Elder (2011) John Stephens (2012), Dr Ahmad Sarmast, Rosemary Nalden, Aaron Dworkin, Ricardo Castro, Armand Diangienda (2013) Martin Campbell-White, Marin Alsop (2014) Evelyn Glennie (2015) and Graham Vick (2016) and Barrie Gavin (2017).

5 June 2018