New Zealand cellist Richard Belcher has performed as a chamber musician and soloist across the USA and internationally. A founding member of the Grammy-nominated Enso String Quartet, he tours regularly and has performed in many of the major concert halls throughout the USA, including Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center of New York, and the Library of Congress. Richard is Principal Cellist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared at many festivals, including St Bart’s, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Prussia Cove, Great Lakes, SummerFest La Jolla and the Laguna Beach Music Festival. He has been involved with many live and pre-recorded radio and internet broadcasts in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Richard enjoys teaching and has served as Adjunct Faculty at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and currently is on the faculty at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp.
Richard moved to the USA in 1998 to study with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, and it was there in 1999 that he founded the Enso Quartet. Other major teachers include Norman Fischer, Marc Johnson and Alexander Ivashkin. Richard plays an N.F Vuillaume cello made in 1856, and lives in New York City with his wife, ROCO violinist Cece.
Question I am most often asked: Where’s that accent from?
Answer: Nothing fancy, just a standard East Coast accent…of New Zealand…but I have had a lot of people guess. Mostly Australian, quite a lot English, but occasionally there’ve been some fun ones – French was a personal favourite! (from an elementary school student!) Ooh-la-la!
ROCO principal cellist Richard Belcher will perform as soloist for Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major at the ROCO In Concert performance February 18th.