Stephen Hough has been awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2022. He is the first British-born classical pianist to be made a Sir since Clifford Curzon in 1977.
The honours, which usually coincide with the Queen's official birthday, were this year announced two weeks early, on the eve of the Platinum Jubilee weekend, to mark the 70th anniversary of her reign.
Other classical artists featured in the 2022 Honour List include Chineke! founder Chi-Chi Nwanoku, who receives a CBE, and English Concert artistic director Harry Bicket, who receives an OBE.
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Juilliard School, Hough has appeared as a piano soloist at The Proms 29 times and has an extensive discography of 70 recordings. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, the National Gallery in London, Musée du Louvre, the Cliburn Foundation, the Takács Quartet and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. He was made a CBE in 2014.
Photo: Sam Canetty-Clarke