Violist
Timothy Ridout’s 2025/26 season features appearances with many top international orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu, Orchestre de Paris/Lorenza Borrani, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Ed Gardner, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest/Sir Mark Elder and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/Donald Runnicles.
A popular soloist for many conductors Richard Egarr takes him to the Residentie Orkest, Roberto Abbado to the Orchestra Filarmonica di Bologna, Mark Wigglesworth to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and Anthony Hermus to the Ulster Orchestra. In addition, he continues his close relationship with Sir Simon Rattle for Berlioz’ Harold in Italy on gut strings with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for concerts in London and Dublin.
Following the successful world premiere last season of Mark Simpson’s Viola Concerto ‘Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth’ with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati, Ridout brings the work to Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Andrew Manze, Musikkollegium Winterthur with Alexandre Bloch and Philharmonie Zuidnederlands with Duncard Ward.
A highly respected chamber musician, Ridout continues to present both solo and ensemble programmes across major venues and festivals. In summer 2025, he appeared at Verbier, Lanaudière, Salzburg, Rosendal, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Ryedale festival where he was Artist in Residence. This season, he plays around the UK with Federico Colli, with Leonkoros Quartet at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and with his regular quartet partners – Benjamin Grosvenor, Hyeyoon Park, Kian Soltani – at Vienna Musikverein.
In March 2026, he is Guest Artistic Director at Festspiele Frühling Mecklenburg Vorpommern presenting 17 programmes. He also continues his three-year residency at Junge Wilde in Dortmund and performs three different programmes at Wigmore Hall. In Asia, he plays at the very first edition of the Verbier Festival in Shenzhen, at Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong and at the NSO International Chamber Music Festival in Taipei. His other chamber partners include Janine Jansen, Frank Dupree, Isabelle Faust, Vilde Frang, Pablo Ferrández, Denis Kozhukhin and Klaus Mäkelä.
Recent orchestral highlights include concerts with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Hamburger Symphoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Across his engagements, he has worked with conductors such as Sakari Oramo, Jonathan Darlington, Martyn Brabbins, Riccardo Minasi, Sir András Schiff, Lionel Bringuier, Sylvain Cambreling, Nicholas Collon, David Zinman, and Kazuki Yamada.
Known for his wide-ranging discography, Ridout regularly records for Harmonia Mundi and his next album features 20th century French music with pianist Jonathan Ware and is coming out in May 2026.
In 2025, he won the Opus Klassik award in the ‘Young Instrumentalist of the Year’ category for his first solo viola album featuring works by Telemann, Bach, Britten and Shaw, and in 2024 he released an album which paid tribute to the great violist Lionel Tertis. Ridout also won a Gramophone Award for his recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, arranged for viola by Lionel Tertis, in the Concerto Category in 2023.
Previous recordings include works by Prokofiev, Schumann, Britten, Vaughan-Williams, Hindemith, Martinu and see Ridout collaborating with BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne as well as with pianists Frank Dupree and James Baillieu.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and Kronberg Academy, Ridout has earned accolades such as First Prize at both the Lionel Tertis and Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competitions. As well as being a former BBC New Generation Artist, he is also a recipient of the Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship and was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society 2023 Award for Young Artist. He was the inaugural recipient of Hamburger Symphoniker’s Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize and took part in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program.
Timothy Ridout performs on a 1565-75 viola by Peregrino di Zanetto, generously on loan from a patron of the Beare’s International Violin Society.
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