Lester was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, the only son of Elsie Violet Evelyn and Sydney Arthur Lester, both of whom were amateur musicians. He attended Whitton Secondary School in Middlesex, and the London College of Music, where he graduated as a Fellow. He studied piano with Bernard Roberts, organ with David Lang, and harpsichord with George Malcolm.
Career
Lester made his London debut in 1973 at London's Wigmore Hall and two years later, following a Purcell Room recital, he was described by the Daily Telegraph critic, David Money as "one of our leading players." Since then he has given harpsichord and organ recitals in the UK and abroad and performed on BBC Radio and television. Dame Janet Baker selected his recording of Scarlatti sonatas as her "favourite" on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1982. He has given master classes at Dartington Summer School, and was Director of musicat the Mall School in Twickenham from 1986 – 1992 before taking up the position as head of music at Oakley Hall School in Cirencester, a town where he has lived with his wife, Jackie since 1989. As Master of the Choristers at Cirencester Parish Church in 1994, he directed courses there and at Bristol Cathedral for the Royal School of Church Music. His meeting with the Spanish/American harpsichordist, Fernando Valenti at the Dartington Summer School sparked Lester's interest in the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and in 2004, he began recording the complete keyboard works of Scarlatti, subsequently released by Nimbus Records. The series, recorded with his friend and engineer, Raymond Fenton was described in The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music as "an exceptional issue on every count." The Scarlatti series was followed by recordings of Haydn and Mozart piano works on fortepiano, harpsichord works by Soler and Seixas, and a five disc set of harpsichord and organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, the latter included in the 2012 Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings. The Frescobaldi recording also received the "outstanding" accolade in International Record Review. Lester is the author of several articles including sixteenth century Italian fingering methods, and another on Frescobaldi for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine. In 2013 he participated in International Piano Magazine's Scarlatti symposium with Peter Katin, Nikolai Demidenko, Yevgeny Sudbyn, and Andreas Staier Since 2009, Lester has devoted his attention to recording 16th century Italian keyboard music for Nimbus.
Richard Lester married Jacqueline Susanna Woolford in 1981. The couple have two children, Christian and Elizabeth, a recorder player, flautist, and graduate BA in music from York University, with whom he has made recordings with Nimbus. He also has a son, Dominic, from his first marriage.
