Although he has an impressive catalogue of solo appearances to his career, Richard Cunningham is perhaps best known as a choral conductor. He is the founding director of the Central City Children’s Choir of Hamilton, a position held from 1996 until September of 2004. Richard took on the post of director of the Brantford Children’s Chorus in 2005. As the music director of the Renaissance Singers of Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge since 1995, Richard has helped to increase the choir’s profile and standing in the Ontario arts community. Richard also conducts the University of Waterloo Chamber Choir, and is the Artistic Director of the Grand River Chorus in Brant County. Richard is also a voice teacher at McMaster University.

Richard earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Toronto. He has studied choral conducting with Derek Holman, Edgar Hanson, William Wright, Douglas Bodle, and Jon Washburn. As a concert artist, Richard graduated from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Lillian Weichel and Edgar Hanson. The grateful recipient of three scholarship grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Richard traveled to England to study with Timothy Penrose and James Bowman, two of the finest practitioners of the countertenor’s art.