33 Facts About Stephen Hough

Sir Stephen Andrew Gill Hough is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer.

Stephen Hough became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality.

Stephen Hough's father, who was born in Australia, worked as a technical representative for British Steel before his death at the age of 54.

At an early age, Stephen Hough was able to memorise approximately 100 nursery rhymes.

Stephen Hough studied at Chetham's School of Music, which he later called "not a wonderful place while I was there", and at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Stephen Hough holds a master's degree from the Juilliard School, where his studies were assisted by the receipt of the first Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship for study abroad.

Stephen Hough has studied with Heather Slade-Lipkin, Gordon Green, Adele Marcus, Martin Canin, and Derrick Wyndham.

Stephen Hough premiered his Sonata for Piano at the Wigmore Hall in 2011.

Stephen Hough has recorded more than 60 albums, one of his most notable being a set of the four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, recorded during live performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under then music director Andrew Litton, which have been compared to Rachmaninoff's own recordings.

Stephen Hough's recording of Saint-Saens's piano concertos won the Gramophone Record of the Year in 2001 and was later voted the Gold Disc, "winner of winners" in a poll commemorating 30 years of the award.

Stephen Hough's recording of the complete Chopin waltzes won the Diapason d'Or de l'Annee in 2011.

Stephen Hough is known for championing lesser-known composers considered outside the standard repertoire, such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Xaver Scharwenka, York Bowen, and Federico Mompou.

Stephen Hough is a visiting professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Stephen Hough is on the faculty of the Juilliard School.

Stephen Hough joined the Roman Catholic Church when he was 19.

Stephen Hough has written about his homosexuality and its relationship with both his music-making and his religion.

Stephen Hough had a solo exhibition of his paintings at the Broadbent Gallery in London in October 2012.

In October 2016, Stephen Hough was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

Stephen Hough's choices were Cortot's recording of Chopin'sPrelude No 17 in A-flat, Rachmaninoff's recording of Kreisler's Liebesleid, Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, the Kyrie eleison from Bach's Mass in B minor, the third movement of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, his own sonata for cello and piano left hand, and Bird Songs at Eventide by Eric Coates.

Stephen Hough's favourite was "Proficiscere, anima Christiana " from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

Stephen Hough's book choice was a bilingual edition of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, and his luxury item was a panama hat.

Stephen Hough made a special request for a copy of the Tyndale Bible.

Stephen Hough's father was born an only child at Mayfield, a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1926.

Stephen Hough's grandfather wrote Stephen Hough's father letters, none of which he ever received.

Stephen Hough says his assumption of Australian citizenship was in part a tribute to his father, who wanted to return to the land of his birth but was unable to do so before his death in 1980 at the age of 54.

Stephen Hough is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he is a visiting professor, a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he is the International Chair of piano studies, and an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Stephen Hough received an honorary doctorate from the University of Liverpool in 2011.

In 2001, Stephen Hough became the first classical music performer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

Stephen Hough was a Governor of the Royal Ballet Companies.

Stephen Hough is a patron of the charity The Nightingale Project, which takes music and art into hospitals and of Music in Prisons.

Stephen Hough was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to music.

Stephen Hough was made an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2017.

Stephen Hough was created a Knight Bachelor, for services to music, in the Queen's 2022 Birthday Honours.