Timothy Ridout

Ridout began his viola studies in his mid-teens at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Jonathan Barritt. He was also principal violist with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. In 2014, he won first prize in the inaugural year of the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition. Ridout continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Martin Outram and graduated in 2016 with the Queen's Commendation for Excellence. He completed his master's at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019. In 2016 he won 1st Prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. He was the first British violist to win the first prize since the competition was established in 1980. He made his debut recital at the Wigmore Hall in London in March 2017 with Anthony Hewitt (piano), and also that year released his debut album 'Vieuxtemps – Complete Works for Viola' with Champs Hill Records. Ridout became a BBC New Generation Artist in 2019, which overlapped with being selected in 2020 by the Bowers Program of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center for a three-season residency (2021 to 2024). In January 2020, he was the first winner of the inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize in Hamburg, established by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in memory of its last conductor, Jeffrey Tate. Ridout released his second album, a quartet of orchestrally accompanied pieces, in February 2020, with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. In August 2020, Ridout collaborated in a recording of The Carnival of the Animals for the Decca label with the Kanneh-Masons, at Abbey Road Studios. The following August, Ridout performed the work with the Kanneh-Masons at a Family Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. His third album, ''A Poet's Love'', with music by Prokofiev and Schumann arranged for viola (Ridout) and piano (Frank Dupree), released in August 2021, was a Gramophone Magazine Critics' Choice, a Presto Editor's Choice and was nominated in the Chamber Music category at the International Classical Music Awards 2022. Ridout performed the Walton Viola Concerto at the BBC Proms in August 2021 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo. Ridout's performance was lauded by The Strad critic, who referred to his encore (Hindemith Viola Sonata, second movement), as the encore of the season. At the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Awards, held at London's Southbank Centre on 1 March 2023, Ridout received the Young Artists Award. In May 2023, BBC Music Magazine listed Ridout amongst the twelve greatest violists of all time. The twelve listed, were: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Stamitz, Lionel Tertis, Rebecca Clarke, Paul Hindemith, William Primrose, Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, Yuri Bashmet, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power and Timothy Ridout. In June 2023, Ridout was made a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the Gramophone Classical Music Awards on 4 October 2023, Ridout won the Concerto award for his recording of the Elgar ‘Viola Concerto’ and the Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. Ridout was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM) in 2024. In July 2024, at the Kissinger Sommer International Music Festival, Ridout was awarded the Luitpold Prize. In Berlin, at the Philharmonie, in December 2024, Ridout performed the world premiere of Mark Simpson's Viola Concerto, Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth, which was written for Ridout, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Robin Ticciati. Other works written for Ridout include Shadow Walkers, written by American composer Nahre Sol as a co-commission from the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Schloss Elmau, the Verbier Festival and the University of Birmingham, where he premiered it in October 2024 with Jonathan Ware. At the 2025 Opus Klassik awards in Berlin, Ridout won Young Instrumentalist of the Year for his 2025 solo album of unaccompanied works by Telemann, Bach, Britten and Shaw.The album also won the Instrumental Award category at the 2026 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Solo performances Ridout has performed as soloist with numerous UK orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo, The Hallé with Lionel Bringuier, the BBC Philharmonic with John Wilson, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the London Mozart Players. Internationally he has performed alongside the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle Camerata Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Hamburger Symphoniker with Sylvain Cambreling, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Nederlands Kamerorkest, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova with Riccardo Minasi, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre national de Lille, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse with Kazuki Yamada, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and the Wdr Sinfonieorchester Köln, among others. Ridout has played Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with at least fifteen different violinists in professional performances. The first performance was with Maxim Vengerov in 2014. In 2023, at the Solsberg Festival, Ridout performed a chamber version of the work with violinists Veronika Eberle and Dmitry Smirnov, violist Nils Mönkemeyer, cellists Sol Gabetta and Victor Julien-Laferrière, and double bassist Uxía Martínez Botana. Chamber Music Ridout has performed in solo and ensemble programmes in numerous venues including the Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Wigmore Hall in London. He has performed and collaborated with many leading musicians, such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Joshua Bell Daniel Blendulf, Isabelle Faust, Benjamin Grosvenor, Steven Isserlis, Janine Jansen, Denis Kozhukhin, Mischa Maisky, Hyeyoon Park, Kian Soltani, and Christian Tetzlaff. He performs, and has made recordings with pianists James Baillieu, Frank Dupree and Anthony Hewitt. Ridout currently plays a viola by the Brescian violin maker Pellegrino Micheli c.1565–75 on loan from the Beare's International Violin Society. The viola's back length is about 44 cm (~17.3 inches), but the bridge is further up the body than normal, so the playable string length is less and hence more manageable than what would be typical for such a large instrument.He previously played on a 1677 viola by the Italian luthier, Giovanni Grancino. ==Discography==