Hough was born in Heswall (then in Cheshire) on the Wirral Peninsula, and grew up in Hoylake, where he began piano lessons at the age of five. In 1978, he was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and won the piano section. In 1982, he won the Terence Judd Award in England. In 1983, he took first prize at the Naumburg International Piano Competition in New York.
Hough holds a Master's degree from the Juilliard School and was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. He has studied with Heather Slade-Lipkin, Gordon Green, and Derrick Wyndham. He is also a notable composer and transcriber, and often includes his own works in his recitals. The premiere of his cello concerto, written for Steven Isserlis, took place in March 2007, and in the summer of the same year Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral performed masses he wrote for them.[4] In 2009 his trio for piccolo, contrabassoon and piano ('Was mit den Traenen Geschieht') was premiered at the Philharmonie in Berlin by members of the Berlin Philharmonic.
He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he is a visiting Professor, and a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he is the International Chair of piano studies.
This biography was provided by the artist or their representative.
