Richard Decker is currently in his second year of postgraduate study at the RCM with Ben Johnson, as a Theo Max van der Beugel scholar. A lover of early music, Richard has performed in various Baroque operatic roles, including Poro (Cleofide, RCM opera scenes), Arsamene (Serse) and The Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas). He has also worked recently on a recital of lute-songs with renowned lutanist Jakob Lindberg, as well as a concert of Bolivian Baroque music with conductor Ashley Solomon. Other recent concert work includes Haydn’s Stabat Mater with Gravesham Choral Society, Dvorak’s Mass in D with the Orpington Festival Choir, and various performances of the ‘roasted swan’ solo from Carmina Burana.

Richard also enjoys new works; last year he appeared in the UK première of Larsen’s Barnum’s Bird with the RCM Opera Studio, and in 2021 premièred the song cycle Seasons by Jonathan Whiting. In September, he will take on the title role in Geoffrey Burgon’s opera The Fall of Lucifer. A budding conductor and organist, Richard conducted a production of Mozart’s The Impresario at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and is the current Choir Director and Organist at All Saints Church, Orpington, where he also runs a junior choir. Previously, Richard read Italian, French and linguistics at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was also a choral scholar and lay clerk in the college choir, and formerly worked as Director of Music in St Mark’s English Church in Florence, Italy.