Through his long career as a musician, Richard Cunningham has travelled throughout North America and Europe. Performing as a countertenor soloist, Richard has sung in Bulgaria, Germany (including both sides of that once divided country), Holland, Sweden, France, and Great Britain as well as coast to coast in the U.S.A and Canada. He has also travelled widely as a chorister, performing with the Elora Festival Singers, the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, La Chappelle de Quebec, the Taverner Consort, Winchester Cathedral Choir and St George’s Chapel Choir of Windsor Castle.
Richard earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Toronto. He has studied choral conducting with Derek Holman, Edgar Hanson, William Wright, Douglas Bodle, and Jon Washburn. As a concert artist, Richard’s studies began at U of T with Lillian Weichel and Edgar Hanson. The grateful recipient of three scholarship grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Richard traveled to England to study with Timothy Penrose and James Bowman, two of the finest practitioners of the countertenor’s art.
In the last 15 years, Richard has spent more of his time as a choral conductor, passing on the skills of singing individually and in a choir to musicians in Kitchener, Hamilton, Brantford and Toronto. As well as conducting the Grand River Chorus for the last fourteen years, Richard has taught courses in vocal methods and conducting at McMaster University. He is also one of the vocal teachers on staff at McMaster. The Grand River Chorus gives him the opportunity to perform the masterworks in the choral repertoire with a group of talented and dedicated singers who share his joy of tremendous music. Richard is also the new musical director of the Canadian Orpheus Male Chorus in Hamilton.
When he is not directing a choir, singing or teaching, Richard may be found composing music (mostly vocal or choral with piano or orchestral accompaniment) or driving between rehearsals.
