Richard Narroway

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, cellist Richard Narroway pairs his dedication to performance with efforts to expand classical music’s reach. Born in 1991, he took up the cello in childhood and later trained under David Finckel, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Susan Blake, and Takao Mizushima. He completed studies at Juilliard and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, then worked toward a doctorate under Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan. While there, Narroway established Chamber Music Michigan to deliver chamber music programs throughout the state and served as its artistic director. He also presented a tour across Australia that paired Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete cello suites with pieces by living Australian composers, supplementing each concert with workshops and related events. Prior to his first studio album, he had appeared as soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, performing at the Kennedy Center, the Sydney Opera House, and the Chicago Symphony Center. His competition victories encompass first place at the Third Beijing International Cello Competition and the top prize at the 2010 Stulberg International String Competition, where he additionally received the Bach Award for the finest reading of a Bach solo work. Narroway’s debut recording, Johann Sebastian Bach: Six Cello Suites BWV 1007-1012, appeared on Sono Luminus in 2017; captured when he was 24, the project employed a 1930 Carl Becker cello fitted with a modern bow.