Richard Leo Tognetti AO (born 4 August 1965) is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director.
He was raised in Wollongong where he began his violin studies with Harold Brissenden, the retired Scottish violist William Primrose and his wife Hiroko who was a Suzuki method specialist.
His teacher was Alice Waten, herself a graduate of the Moscow Conservatoire and former student of Valery Klimov and David Oistrakh.
[2] While there Tognetti became leader and soloist of the chamber orchestra conducted by John Painter who was the Conservatorium's Director and later founder of ACO.
It tours several times a year around Australia presenting concerts in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney and Wollongong and participates regularly in various Australian arts festivals.
It has held residencies in Hong Kong, a three-year post in London as International Associate Ensemble at the Barbican Centre's Milton Court, and through Tognetti's role as artistic director of Slovenia's Maribor Festival has had regular engagements there.
For example, Vincent Plush in The Weekend Australian said, "The Australian Chamber Orchestra is uniformly high-octane, arresting and never ordinary",[4] The New York Times' Jeremy Eichler noted "virtuoso ensemble playing and an invigorating spontaneity that seemed to flow from Mr Tognetti's charismatic leadership",[5] The Washington Post's Anne Midgette described the orchestra as having "the energy and vibe of a rock band with the ability of a crack classical chamber group",[6] the Los Angeles Times's Mark Swed said, "this red hot band is long overdue for a major record contract and star treatment",[7] Andrew Clements from the UK's The Guardian declared, "If there’s a better chamber orchestra in the world today, I haven’t heard it",[8] and London's The Times hailed one of its appearances there by saying, "This must be the best chamber orchestra on earth."
As his rapid professional progress suggests, Tognetti is highly regarded as a soloist with the opinions of many expressed in a review from the UK's The Telegraph: "He is one of the most characterful, incisive and impassioned violinists to be heard today.
Other works by Tognetti include The Red Tree for children's choir, chamber orchestra and projected images, co-written with Australian composer Michael Yezerski and inspired by Shaun Tan's illustrated book of the same name, music for Peter Weir's motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World co-written with Iva Davies and Christopher Gordon, and his music integrated with that of other composers in his documentaries such as Musica Surfica, The Reef, The Glide, The Crowd and Mountain.
He has also performed with various musicians from different genres including an appearance with Scottish classical accordionist James Crabb at the Opening Ceremony of the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Either leading or conducting ACO in association with other international musicians he has also recorded many works including Beethoven's piano concertos with Stephen Kovacevich (EMI Eminence CD-EMX 2177 (nla), CD-EMX2190 (nla) & CD-EMX 2184 (nla), Bach's keyboard concertos with Angela Hewitt (Hyperion CDA 67307 & CDA 67308), Vivaldi's flute concertos with Emmanuel Pahud (EMI Classics 0946 3 47212 2 6), Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No 1 in E flat major, Op 107 with Pieter Wispelwey (Channel Classics CCS 15395), Baroque trombone repertoire with Christian Lindberg (BIS BISCD1688), Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58 with Dejan Lazić (Channel Classics CCS SA 30511), Haydn's cello concertos with Daniel Müller-Schott (Orfeo C080031A), and a ground-breaking 2000 collaboration with Australia's rock singer and former politician Peter Garrett and cartoonist, poet and cultural commentator Michael Leunig which resulted in the release of a recording of Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals accompanying a book of Leunig's text and illustrations (Sydney: Macmillan, 2000.