Raymond Clarke was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1963. He was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he held exhibitions for both academic work and musical performance. After graduating, he studied with Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he was awarded the first Peter Donohoe Prize. Despite his advocacy of twentieth-century scores such as the Boulez and Tippett sonatas, the Preludes and Fugues of Shostakovitch and Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus, he does not regard himself as a specialist in this field; his recitals have also featured all of the Mozart and Schubert sonatas.

Mr Clarke's South Bank debut in 1988, was described by Music and Musicians as 'truly an historic performance'. The Times commented: '… just as overwhelming was Clarke's magisterial performance … a confidence and energy that simply left one in dazed admiration.' Other London engagements have included a five-recital Beethoven series (concluding with the 'Hammerklavier' Sonata), a complete Prokofiev sonata cycle at St John's Smith Square, and the first performance of Simpson's Piano Concerto in over 25 years.

Raymond Clarke has premiered works written especially for him by composers such as Alun Hoddinott (Tenth Sonata, 1989), Matthew Taylor (Sinfonia Concertante, 1990) and John Pickard (Sonata, 1987). After giving the first performance of Andrzej Panufnik's Concerto in its 1986 revision, Michael Kennedy described him in The Daily Telegraph as 'an astonishing virtuoso of the contemporary keyboard … destined to be a major champion of twentieth-century music.'