Richard Crabtree
Richard Crabtree
Richard enjoys a well-balanced and forward-looking musical life as a 21st-century musician. For more than four decades, teaching has been his enduring passion—constantly evolving and deepening through experience.
His violin and viola students regularly gain places in Junior and Senior National Youth Orchestras across the UK, Ireland, and Europe. Many of his advanced pupils go on to win national competitions, earn scholarships to leading specialist music schools, and secure professional positions with major orchestras both in the UK and abroad.
Since 2007, through his work with LMFL, Richard has pioneered online teaching, delivering lessons to students across four continents. He has also given masterclasses and performed concerts internationally, with appearances in China, Korea, Turkmenistan, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA.
Biography
Richard studied violin and viola with his mentor Nicholas Roth at Trinity College of Music (now Trinity Laban). Early in his career, he worked with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Mozart Players. As a principal violist and soloist, he has appeared with the London Soloists Ensemble, Wessex Sinfonia, Clifton Virtuosi, and the English National Baroque Orchestra. In 1989, he made his BBC Radio 3 solo recital debut and has since recorded numerous solo soundtracks for radio and television.
A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Richard has premiered works by Leonard Salzedo, Ellis Pehkonen, Chris Toon, Chari Numerov, John Marsh, Sarah Class, Martin Pring, and William Godfree, helping expand the modern viola repertoire. His commitment to new music led to performances for the British Council and Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Culture at the Makhtumkuli Festival, where his concerts were broadcast nationwide—making him the first British musician to perform there since Glasnost.
In addition to performing and teaching, Richard has contributed to music education resources. In 2011, he published The Crabbers Scale Manual for violin, viola, and cello—a unique system using letters and numbers to help students of all ages and abilities build confidence in scale practice.