Stephen Hough
( [1], born 22 November 1961) is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality (his father was born in Australia in 1926). [2]
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STEPHEN HOUGH TICKETS
| EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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| Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: Jean-Marie Zeitouni & Stephen Hough - Mozart Tickets 1/31 | Jan 31, 2026
Sat, 7:30 PM |  | | Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: Jean-Marie Zeitouni & Stephen Hough - Mozart Tickets 2/1 | Feb 01, 2026
Sun, 2:30 PM | | | Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: Robert Spano, Stephen Hough & Kelley O'Connor - America @ 250 - Rachmaninoff Tickets 4/30 | Apr 30, 2026
Thu, 8:00 PM | | | Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: Robert Spano, Stephen Hough & Kelley O'Connor - America @ 250 - Rachmaninoff Tickets 5/2 | May 02, 2026
Sat, 8:00 PM | |
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Biography
Hough was born in
Heswall (then in
Cheshire) on the
Wirral Peninsula, and grew up in
Hoylake, where he began piano lessons at the age of five. In 1978, he was a finalist in the
BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and won the piano section. In 1982, he won the
Terence Judd Award in England. In 1983, he took first prize at the
Naumburg International Piano Competition in
New York.
Hough holds a Master's degree from the
Juilliard School and was the recipient of a
MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. He has studied with
Heather Slade-Lipkin,
Gordon Green, and
Derrick Wyndham. He is also a notable composer and transcriber, and often includes his own works in his recitals. The premiere of his
cello concerto, written for
Steven Isserlis, took place in March 2007, and in the summer of the same year
Westminster Abbey and
Westminster Cathedral performed
masses he wrote for them.
[3]
Performances
Hough performs as a
recitalist and
chamber musician, and has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras around the world including the
Chicago Symphony, the
Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
Toronto Symphony, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the
London Symphony, the
New York Philharmonic, the
Boston Symphony, the
Hong Kong Philharmonic, the
Berlin Philharmonic, the
English Chamber Orchestra, the
Malaysian Philharmonic, the
City of Birmingham Symphony, the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Recordings
He has made over 40 CDs, one of his most notable being a set of the four
Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos and the
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
, recorded during live performances with the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra under the baton of then music director
Andrew Litton, which have been compared to the recordings by the composer himself. These recordings won him his seventh
Gramophone Award as well as the Classical BRIT Critics Award.
His recording of the five
Saint-Saëns concertos won the Gramophone Record of the Year in 2001, and was later voted the "winner of winners" in a poll commemorating 30 years of the award.
[4]
Teaching and writing
He is visiting professor of piano at the
Royal Academy of Music in
London and the International Chair of Piano Studies at the
Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester. He was awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, joining prominent writers and scientists who have made significant contributions in their fields.
He joined the
Roman Catholic Church when he was 19. He has written about his
homosexuality and its relationship with both his music-making and his religion.
[5] [6] He has also published
The Bible as Prayer: a handbook for lectio divina
.
[7]
In 2008 he won the Sixth International Poetry Competition.
[8]
Selected discography
- Hummel: Piano Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op.89; Piano Concerto No. 2 in A minor, Op.85: English Chamber Orchestra (Chandos 1987)
- Stephen Hough: Liszt (Virgin Classics, 1988)
- My Favorite Things: Virtuoso Encores (Musicmasters, 1988)
- Xaver Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor and Emil von Sauer: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster, Hyperion, 1994 CDA66790)
- Piano Music by Federico Mompou (Hyperion, 1997)
- Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, BBC Symphony Orchestra (Virgin Classics 1998)
- Stephen Hough's New Piano Album (Hyperion, 1999)
- Saint-Saëns: The Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion, 2001)
- Hummel: Piano Sonatas (Hyperion, 2003)
- Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
; Andrew Litton/Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion CDA67501/2)
- The Stephen Hough Piano Collection (Hyperion, 2005)
- Liszt: Années de Pèlerinage
- "Première Année: Suisse", S. 160 (Hyperion, 2005)
- Stephen Hough's Spanish Album (Hyperion 2006)
- George Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows
for piano & orchestra (Hyperion 2007)
- Mozart Album (Hyperion 2007)
References
- http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/9886997/Hough_Wheres_that/
- Why I Became An Australian Citizen
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/01/21/svhough21.xml&si
- Playing to his strengths
- http://www.stephenhough.com/writings/files/the-tablet.pdf
- Amazon.co.uk: The Way We Are Now: Gay and Lesbian Lives in the 21st Century: Books: Ben Summerskill
- Amazon.co.uk: hough prayer: Books
- First Writer Magazine