timothy ridout - viola

With recent awards including the inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize in Hamburg and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Timothy Ridout has confirmed his position at the forefront of young European soloists. He has been a BBC New Generation Artist since 2019 and will join the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021. 

Concerto engagements this season and last include Berlioz Harold en Italie with the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Orchestre National de Lille; Mozart Sinfonia Concertante at the Sion Festival (alongside Janine Jansen) and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Camerata Salzburg; Bartok with the BBC Symphony, Hamburger Symphoniker and Sinfonieorchester Aachen; Walton with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester; and the Britten Double Concerto with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Siberian State Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, David Zinman, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Sylvain Cambreling and Sir Andras Schiff.

 Equally in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, his engagements include several appearances per season at the Wigmore Hall as well as throughout the UK, Europe and Japan. Festivals invitations encompass Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Heimbach, Bergen, Evian, Boswil Sommer, Heidelberger-Frühling, Montpellier, Aspen, the Enescu Festival and the Marlboro Academy; whilst his chamber music collaborators include Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Nicolas Altstaedt, Steven Isserlis, Kian Soltani, Benjamin Grosvenor, Lars Vogt and Christian Gerhaher, among many others. He also maintains a regular relationship with the Nash Ensemble.

His second album, Music for Viola & Chamber Orchestra: Vaughan Williams, Martinu, Hindemith & Britten with Jamie Phillips and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne was released to general acclaim in February 2020 on Claves Records. He released his debut album with Champs Hill Records in spring 2017 Henri Vieuxtemps: Complete works for Viola, with pianist Ke Ma. 

In 2016 Ridout won 1st Prize in the Lionel Tertis Competition and was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). Other prizes include the 2019 Thierry Scherz Award at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and 1st Prize at the 2014 Cecil Aronowitz Competition.

Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his Masters at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and in 2018 took part in Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World.

He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565–75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare's International Violin Society.