Ryan Wigglesworth

Conductor

Management

Jonathan Groves
[email protected]

Fiona Wells
[email protected]

Groves Artists represents Ryan Wigglesworth worldwide

Biography

Ryan Wigglesworth, who took up the position of Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in September 2022, has established himself as one of the foremost composer-conductors of his generation. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra from 2015 to 2018 and Composer in Residence at English National Opera. He held the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellowship with the Cleveland Orchestra for the two seasons 2013/15 and 14/15 and was Composer-in-Residence at the 2018 Grafenegg Festival. In close partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, he recently founded the Knussen Chamber Orchestra which made both its Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms debuts in 2019.

Recent concerts include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio SO, Tokyo, Seattle, Melbourne, Lahti Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He returned to the Proms in 2023 for Beethoven 9 and the UK premiere of Kurtag’s opera Endgame, and to the Aldeburgh Festival for further concerts with the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.

Also active as a pianist, recent play/direct projects across Europe and the Far East have included concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, and he regularly appears in recital partnering with Mark Padmore, Lawrence Power and Sophie Bevan.

One of the leading composers of his day, his first opera, The Winter’s Tale, premiered at ENO in February 2017 in a production directed by Rory Kinnear and conducted by the composer. Other works include commissions from the Royal Concertgebouw and Cleveland orchestras, BBC Symphony (BBC Proms), song cycles for Sophie Bevan (Wigmore Hall/Grafenegg) and Mark Padmore (Aldeburgh Festival/Wigmore Hall). Further performances of his works have been directed by, amongst others, Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Pablo Heras-Casado, Vladimir Jurowski, Oliver Knussen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Franz Welser-Möst. Recent and current projects include a song cycle for Roderick Williams (Barbican), a piano concerto for Marc-André Hamelin (BBC Proms), and Magnificat, for soprano, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the Bergen Philharmonic and Hallé.

Born in Yorkshire, he studied at New College, Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.  Between 2007-9 he was a Lecturer at Cambridge University where he was also a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. In January 2019 he took up the position of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

This biography is for website use only. For a full and updated biography, please email [email protected]

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Reviews

  • Schoenberg - Pelleas und Melisande - BBC Symphony Orchestra

    Wigglesworth clearly knew the difficult and rarely performed Schoenberg tone poem well, and not only was his direction of it completely secure and confident, but he painted the work’s sharply contrasted episodes with a deep understanding of its power and passion. It was a most remarkable performance and demonstrated why this gifted and versatile musician (he is of course a composer and an accomplished pianist) has been steadily making his way up the conductors’ tree in recent times.

    Alan Sanders Seen and Heard International
  • The Silver Tassie - BBC Symphony Orchestra

    The performance was tremendous. Wigglesworth prised open the score with fiery intensity and formidable control, inexorably ratcheting up the tension as the evening progressed and immaculate in his judgment of orchestral colour and detail.

     

    Tim Ashley The Guardian
  • Discovery of Heaven – London Philharmonic

    Wigglesworth led a virtuoso account of music teeming with detail.

    Colin Anderson Classical Source

News

  • Ryan Wigglesworth to Celebrate Schoenberg 150 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
    18.07.24

    Ryan Wigglesworth to Celebrate Schoenberg 150 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

  • Ryan Wigglesworth and Sir Mark Elder feature prominently in the 2024 Aldeburgh Festival
    19.12.23

    Ryan Wigglesworth and Sir Mark Elder feature prominently in the 2024 Aldeburgh Festival

  • Ryan Wigglesworth at the Proms, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh this summer
    09.06.23

    Ryan Wigglesworth at the Proms, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh this summer

  • Ryan Wigglesworth appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
    08.02.22

    Ryan Wigglesworth appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

  • Ryan Wigglesworth widely featured in 2020 Aldeburgh Festival
    04.02.20

    Ryan Wigglesworth widely featured in 2020 Aldeburgh Festival

  • Ryan Wigglesworth named as artist in association with the Hallé
    08.11.19

    Ryan Wigglesworth named as artist in association with the Hallé