Richard Harvey is a graduate of the Royal College of Music whose passion for musical instruments from all around the world, old and new, has led him to work on an extraordinary range of composing projects – from Hollywood movies to TV dramas and documentaries. As a performer, he was a founder of the ‘mediaeval rock’ band Gryphon and has been a long-time collaborator with John Williams, besides playing as a session man on recordings for Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Gerry Rafferty, Richard Thompson and many others. ¶

Richard began his composing career in the 1970s as assistant to the celebrated composer Maurice Jarre. Since then, he has delivered scores for over 70 television and film projects and his work has been recognised with a British Academy Award for the drama series G.B.H. (shared with his co-writer, Elvis Costello) and four Ivor Novello nominations. ¶

Richard’s skills as multi-instrumentalist and conductor are often called upon for feature films, including Disney’s The Lion King and several of the Harry Potter films. He was commissioned to write his first guitar concerto, Concerto Antico (1995), for guitar virtuoso John Williams, and an ambitious cathedral work and eco-musical, Plague and the Moonflower (1989), with artist and writer Ralph Steadman. ¶

In 2009, he wrote his Recorder Concerto (Concerto Incantato) for Michala Petri, the world’s leading recorder player. Ms Petri has recently featured the new piece on an excellent CD entitled English Recorder Concertos, alongside works by Malcolm Arnold and Gordon Jacob. ¶

Richard currently lives in the UK and spends each winter working at his home and studio in Thailand. He is proud to be a co-founder of the ROSL/Conrad Young Musician of Thailand awards, and enjoys cricket, wine, world travel and adding to his collection of several hundred musical instruments. ¶

In 2010, Richard launched an ambitious new charity, the MAE Foundation (www.maefoundation.org.uk), with the aim of bringing musical instruments and music teaching to the thousands of refugee children from Burma who live behind the wire in semi-permanent jungle camps along the Thai/Burmese border. ¶