Richard was born in Surrey and showed an interest in music from a very early age. Both of his parents were singers in local choirs and the Finch-Turner household was always full of music of all genres. It was no surprise when Richard chose a career in music.
Although already a competent musician and natural singer, after seeing the famous “Three Tenors” concert during the 1990 World Cup, Richard felt singing was his calling, and he enrolled for classical voice training at The Blackheath Conservatoire in London. He had weekly lessons for the next 4 years, and it totally changed the musical direction he was heading in. He still has regular voice lessons to this day, and is very passionate about the English classical song repertoire, in particular the vocal works of Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland and Ian Venables.
Even before vocal training, Richard was very comfortable and natural when singing in the style often referred to as saloon singing, lounge singing, or crooning. He loved to sing songs from that Golden Age of contemporary singing from the 1920’s to the 1960’s. Songs from “The Great American Songbook” and show tunes; composed by the song writing luminaries including Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Rogers and Hammerstein. Having classical training gave Richard's voice greater power, range and flexibility.
Richard has been influenced by many of the great swing and jazz singers, and cites Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, Vic Damone, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Al Bowlly, and of course, Frank Sinatra, but his favourites are without doubt, Matt Monro and Tony Bennett.
To date Richard has performed all over the UK in some of the most prestigious venues in the country, including the Grosvenor, Hilton and Dorchester hotels on Park Lane, The London Hippodrome, Blenheim Palace, Hampton Court Palace, and Drumtochty Castle in Aberdeen. He has also performed in Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Cyprus, Crete, the Czech Republic, and further afield in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Muscat in Oman.