RICHARD PANTCHEFF

Richard Pantcheff  (b.1959) is internationally renowned as a composer in many genres, and has established a prominent reputation as a composer of Choral, Organ, Chamber and instrumental music of the highest quality. His musical career commenced as Head Chorister at Ripon Cathedral, in England. During his five years as a Music Scholar at senior school, he corresponded regularly with Benjamin Britten, who acted as occasional mentor to him in composition. Thereafter, he graduated with Honours in Music at Christ Church, Oxford University, under Simon Preston and Francis Grier.

His choral music has been performed in at least ten of the college chapels of Cambridge and Oxford Universities, including Magdalen College Oxford, Trinity College Cambridge, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Jesus College, Cambridge. His work has also been commissioned and performed in numerous cathedrals and churches in the United Kingdom (including St Paul’s Cathedral, London; Salisbury, and Winchester Cathedrals), Germany (the Berliner Dom), and the USA. His work has appeared at many international music festivals, including the National Arts Festival Grahamstown (South Africa), the Southern Cathedrals Festival (UK), and the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.

His festival anthem King Henry VIII’s Apologia was specially commissioned in 1996 by the Choir of Christ Church, Oxford, in celebration of the 450th Anniversary of the college’s foundation. The same work was performed in London as part of the 80th birthday celebrations of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in 2014. He has recently completed a setting of the Jubilate Deo, in the Zulu language (Ihubo Ikhulu), for the 750th anniversary celebrations of the foundation of Merton College, Oxford.

His instrumental and chamber music has been performed all over the world, including major works in the USA, the Caribbean, the UK, Europe, and, lately, South Africa. His recent work for organ, Passacaglia on a Theme of Benjamin Britten (using a theme Britten wrote in 1958, and which has not been heard since) was premiered by Jane Parker-Smith in Essen Cathedral in 2013 as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten.

Richard’s work is broadcast frequently on radio and TV, notably in the USA, Germany, the UK, South Africa, the Caribbean, Norway, and Canada.

A large proportion of his work is published, distributed, and performed around the world, and much of it has been released on CD, to wide critical acclaim. There are nine CDs currently in the catalogue featuring his work, three of which are devoted to his music exclusively.

His most recent choral work is the Service of Holy Communion (1662) for choir and chamber organ, premiered in November 2018 by the St. George’s Chamber Choir, at the Anglican Church of St. George, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was Director of Music from 2013-2019, and remains as Composer in Residence since 2010, and where a new two-manual Rieger organ was installed in 2012.

In 2015 he was appointed a Patron of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, for which he has been commissioned to write a new work for each of the last four years, including, in 2016, a striking new unaccompanied setting of the Mass (Missa Brevis – St. Pancras). His commission for the 2015 Festival, Rex Gloriae, was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

His most recent instrumental works include the Sonata for Violin and Organ, which was recorded by Rupert Marshall-Luck (Violin) and Duncan Honeybourne (Organ) in the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge, England, was released on CD to wide critical acclaim on the EM Records label. This disc was Classic FM’s disc of the week in September 2015.

The English Music Festival recently commissioned his Suite – King Richard III for solo violin, the premiere of which took place at the English Music Festival in Yorkshire, England. Following this bravura premiere by Rupert Marshall-Luck (Violin), Richard Pantcheff has been described as “…one of the UK’s foremost composers”.

For 2017, he completed a work for solo organ (Fantasia on ‘Haec Dies‘) commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

His latest set of Evening Canticles, specially commissioned for The English Choir, Berlin, were premiered in Berlin Cathedral in 2018. An extract of this work was recently broadcast on German radio as part of a documentary programme about The English Choir, Berlin.

He has also just completed his latest commission, the Sonata for Piano, for the English pianist Duncan Honeybourne, which was premiered at the 1901 Arts Club in London on 6th November 2019.

Other recent projects include Introduction and Allegro No.2 (for two solo violins), for the South African violinists Zanta Hofmeyr and Miro Chakaryan, premiered in May 2019.

Richard Pantcheff’s Introduction and Allegro No. 3 (‘Beethoven-Besinnung’) for piano trio was commissioned by The Lee Trio, and premiered by them in Leipzig in October 2019 as part of the Beethoven 250 celebrations.

Several new CDs are currently in production, of which one features his works exclusively.

Richard Pantcheff now lives in Oxford, England. 

He can be contacted at richardpantcheff@hotmail.com.

The majority of his works are published, either by MusicaNeo (www.musicaneo.com), or by English Music Publishers (www.em-publishing.com)