Robert Ferguson LGSM ARCM LRAM
Piano
The Orchestra is delighted to welcome back Robert Ferguson who conducted the HCO for nearly 20 years during the 1980's and 90's.

Robert Ferguson's early music training was at the Guildhall School of Music. At the age of 18 he attended the Royal College of Music where he studied piano for five years with Cryil Smith. His piano playing gained him the Hopkinsol Gold Medal, presented by the Queen Mother and the Dannreuther Prize for his performance of Prokofief's 3rd Piano Concerto. His concert debut was at the Royal Festival Hall in 1973.

From 1972, Robert worked with the late Christopher Kite as a piano duo team. Their London debut was at the Wigmore Hall in 1973 and they appeared numerous times on the South Bank to critical acclaim. They performed throughout the British Isles and recorded much of the piano duet and two-piano repertoire for the BBC after their first live broadcast in 1980. Most of their performances were broadcast on BBC Radio 3, the most recent transmission being February 1990. Their concerts sometimes employed reproduction or antique early pianos for the works of J C Bach and Mozart. They toured Ireland twice and performed at the Belfast Festival and Bath Festival. Robert recorded the piano music for the cartoon film 'Rarg', which has been broadcast several times on British TV. He also recorded the piano music for the TV film 'The Grass Arena', first broadcast on BBC2 and subsequently in Norway, Greece, Israel and Australia. He also recorded a series of nine programmes for Radio Television Hong Kong in 1992.

Robert has had teaching commitments at the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge since 1979 and at the Anglian Polytechnic University since 1984. He has been an adjudicator at various competitive festivals including the Stratford and East London Festival and Exeter Festival. His work as an examiner has taken him worldwide, including Ireland, Jersey, the Orkneys and Shetlands and also to Honk Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunel and Indonesia.