Richard Hancock, a Washington, D.C. native, has been Principal Clarinet of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and Florida Grand Opera since 1984. Richard came to South Florida after playing in numerous orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. Especially interesting was his tenure as Principal Clarinet of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico in Mexico City, a position he held for six years. Aside from his permanent posts, he has played extra clarinet with the Dallas Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestras for concerts, tours and recordings. Some of Richard’s instructors included Clark Brody, Harold Wright and Loren Kitt, and he was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival for two years. Richard has been a soloist numerous times with the FPO and appears regularly as a chamber musician throughout South Florida with many groups, including his own Dalbergi Trio. As Principal Clarinetist, he has recorded on the Audiofon, Angel, RCA, Varese-Sarabande, Harmonia Mundi and Naxos labels, including the FPO’s award winning recording of Mahler Sym. #1.

Aside from his musical activities, Richard enjoys the South Florida outdoors: fishing, scuba diving and cycling. A special passion is volunteer work with a local racing greyhound adoption group. Richard has helped find homes for dozens of retired dogs through local efforts and by transport to other states where greyhound racing fortunately doesn’t exist.

A resident of Fort Lauderdale, he lives with his wife, Karen Kang (FPO English Horn soloist), son Ross (10 years old and a local children’s theater and TV commercial veteran) and their two greyhounds, Gabe and Vanilla.