Background
Lester was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, the only son of Elsie Violet Evelyn and Sydney Arthur Lester, both of whom were amateur musicians.
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Richard Lester
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He attended Whitton Secondary School in Middlesex, and the London College of Music, where he graduated as a Fellow. He studied piano with Bernard Roberts, organ with David Language, and harpsichord with George Malcolm.
Career
Lester made his London debut (sponsored by George Malcolm) in 1973 at London"s Wigmore Hall and two years later, following a Purcell Room recital, he was described by the Daily Telegraph critic, David Money as "one of our leading players." Since then he has given harpsichord and organ recitals in the United Kingdom and abroad and performed on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio and television Dame Janet Baker selected his recording of Scarlatti sonatas as her "favourite" on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Desert Island Discs in 1982. As Master of the Choristers at Cirencester Parish Church in 1994, he directed courses there and at Bristol Cathedral for the Royal School of Church Music.
His meeting with the Spanish/American harpsichordist, Fernando Valenti at the Dartington Summer School sparked Lester"s interest in the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and in 2004, he began recording the complete keyboard works of Scarlatti, subsequently released by Nimbus Records.
The Frescobaldi recording also received the "outstanding" accolade in International Record Review. Lester is the author of several articles including sixteenth century Italian fingering methods, and another on Frescobaldi for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine.
In 2013 he participated in International Piano Magazine"s Scarlatti symposium with Peter Katin, Nikolai Demidenko, Yevgeny Sudbyn, and Andreas Staier Since 2009, Lester has devoted his attention to recording 16th century Italian keyboard music for Nimbus.
