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Richard Ireland
Music Coaching, mentoring
Teaching Philosophy
MUSIC COACHING
Individuals and groups
Instruments: strings and piano
MENTORING
Post-study mentorship for professional musicians
Formal study finishes when many people are just beginning to ask questions for themselves and are becoming more aware of what they want and need, both musically and physically.
In my mentoring, I provide a safe, confidential, and inspiring environment in which to explore answers to these questions and refresh how you use your mind in your work.
We explore how to:
— Re-energise and inform your thinking with new ideas and awareness
— Re-connect your natural musicianship with instrumental craft
— Replace habitual or blocked practice with fresh approaches
— Deepen your understanding of core physical concepts
— Re-kindle your curiosity and desire to continue developing
For many people I mentor, the accumulated years of training have led to a feeling of there being
disconnected ‘sides’ to their work. This disconnect is often at the root of loss of confidence, and ideas
for how to embrace and re-connect these ‘pairings’, both in practice and performance, is at the heart of
my mentoring ethos. Here are some examples:
— the Score and the Performer::: merging our analytical understanding of the score with our own expressive input as a performer
— Natural gesture and Instrumental craft::: merging our intuitive singing expression with technical mastery
— Macro and Micro::: merging our overview of a whole movement or the arc of a phrase with our feeling for the intricate nuance inside each note
— Ego and Humility::: merging the confidence we need to be a performer with the humility to expose and share genuine emotion
— Rhetoric and Honest ‘telling’::: merging the ‘skill of persuading’ with artistic integrity
Sessions length: 75 mins
3 sessions / person or group available in Richard Ireland’s class.
Extra session: 125 EUR / session
Biography
London-born into a musical family, Richard is one of the UK’s leading chamber musicians with an international career as performer and teacher. He is sought after as a mentor and performance coach for professional musicians at all stages of their careers.
In 2010 Richard founded ChamberStudio which provides specialised coaching and support for emerging professional chamber musicians. He was CEO and Artistic Director until stepping down in 2024. In 2017 he founded Offstage to provide a safe haven for established performers where they can temporarily step ‘offstage’, re-energise, and explore fresh thinking alongside artists from different disciplines.
Richard was Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London until stepping down in September 2025 – his ex-students hold principal positions in top orchestras and chamber ensembles across Europe.
As a chamber musician, Richard was a regular performer at all the major chamber music venues. Alongside his chamber music career, he was Guest Leader of orchestras such as the City of London Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Richard studied the violin with Eli Goren and Shmuel Ashkenasi, both eminent quartet leaders. He was Teaching Assistant to Shmuel Ashkenasi in the USA for three years.
In recognition of his teaching and mentoring and for his work creating and running ChamberStudio, Richard was awarded the 2014 Cobbett Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In March 2017 he was awarded Honorary Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon ARAM) for special contribution to the institution.
Richard holds a first-class Pure Mathematics degree from the Open University which he studied part time in his 30s purely for his love of the subject.
In his free time, Richard is a keen mountain walker and wild camper together with his cellist wife and their 850 gram 2-man tent. He was a passionate rock climber until he broke a knuckle on his left hand. His two grown up children both live and work in London.
In 2025/26 Richard is a Fellow of the Distinguished Careers Institute program at Stanford University in USA.
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