Leading composer, conductor and pianist Ryan Wigglesworth was born in Yorkshire in 1979. He studied at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and between 2007 and 2009 and was a lecturer at Cambridge University before being appointed the Richard Rodney Bennett Professor at the Academy in 2019.
Sternenfall, written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and premiered under the composer’s direction in February 2008, firmly established Wigglesworth as one of the leading composers of his generation. Following this, his orchestral song cycle Augenlieder (2009), for soprano Claire Booth and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, went on to receive the vocal prize at the 2010 British Composer Awards. Five Waltzes for viola and orchestra was first performed by Lawrence Power and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2021 and Magnificat, his large-scale work for solo soprano, chorus and orchestra (commissioned by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and The Hallé Concerts Society) was premiered in early 2022.
Wigglesworth’s residency with English National Opera culminated with the premiere of his first opera, The Winter's Tale, in 2017. This was shortly followed by an orchestral work based on themes from the opera Clocks from a Winter’s Tale, which was premiered by the Concertgebouw Orchestra later that same year.
Wigglesworth is currently chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His recording of Birtwistle’s orchestral works with the Hallé won awards from Gramophone and BBC Music magazines in 2012.