Dr Paul Rickard-Ford
Patron / Director of PRSTP
Paul Rickard-Ford completed his BMus at the Melbourne Conservatorium and was awarded the Clarke Scholarship to undertake postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, London where he gained the ARCM and the Dannreuther Prize for the most outstanding concerto performance playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
He has won many major competitions and awards in Australia, including Commonwealth winner of the 1983 ABC’s Instrumental & Vocal Competition, and in 1984 was invited to perform before HRH the Duchess of Kent in a recital at the residence of the American Ambassador in London. He stayed in the UK for further study in 1986 as the inaugural David Paul Landa Memorial Scholar. In 1988 he received an “Australia Achiever” award for his achievements in music, which was presented personally by the Prime Minister.
Paul gave recitals in London at St. James’s, Piccadilly, Leighton House and a series of recitals at Colnaghi Galleries as well as performing at various festivals throughout England. In 1994 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is in demand as a recording artist, recitalist, examiner, adjudicator and master teacher throughout Australia. In 2000 he was invited to give masterclasses at the Beijing Central Conservatory and the Shanghai Conservatory and gave recitals at the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Shanghai Concert Hall. He has been a frequent performer on ABC Radio and has recorded Liszt’s complete “Annees de Pelerinage”, two all Schumann recitals, an all Chopin recital and several “Sunday Live” programs, all of which were broadcast nationally. Since 2016 he has been part of the Bach Project, performing the Double Concertos with Kirill Monorosi, followed in 2017 by the Triple Concertos, which also included Inge Rosar. In 2018 the Project will extend to performances and recordings of solo concerti and chamber works.
He tours Asia annually and regularly visits Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong giving masterclasses for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed his PhD on the late piano works of Schumann in 2010 and was shortlisted by the University of Adelaide for the University Medal. His students and former students have achieved outstanding success in major international competitions in Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, USA, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Russia, Denmark and the UK. In both the 2012 and 2016 Sydney International Piano Competitions his students were awarded Best Australian Pianist. He has been on the jury for International Piano Competitions in China, Russia and in 2018/19 in Germany, where he will be on the jury of the International Hans von Bülow Piano Competition, and the International Piano Competition J. S. Bach, Würzburg. Paul is a Senior Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium – the University of Sydney, and served as Chair of the Piano Unit from 2007-2016. In 2017 he was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstand Teaching.