Huw Wiggin & Oliver Wass
Biography Huw Wiggin & Oliver Wass
Huw Wiggin
He has performed in venues as far afield as the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing – where he gave recitals and a concerto performance of Eric Coates’s Saxo Rhapsody – as well as those closer to home such as London’s Wigmore Hall. Other past highlights include appearances at Brighton, Newbury, Henley, Ripon and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. His performance of Milton Babbitt’s Accompanied Recitative was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on ‘Hear and Now’ to celebrate the composer’s centenary.
Huw is professor of saxophone at the Royal Academy of Music in London and has given master classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, NAFA in Singapore and the Universities of Calgary and Lethbridge in Canada. He has also been a member of the judging panel for major competitions including the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition. A keen educator, he is also an ambassador for the Henley Music School.
In March 2018 Huw featured on ‘BLAKE, The Anniversary Album’, conducted and orchestrated by James Sherlock. Other collaborations include working with singer Laura Wright, harpist Oliver Wass and pianist John Lenehan.
‘Reflections’ – Huw’s debut disc (with John Lenehan and Oliver Wass) – was released in June 2018 on Orchid Classics to great acclaim in the press, reaching no. 6 in the iTunes Classical Chart and no. 2 in the UK Specialist Classical Chart.
As someone who is passionate about travelling, Huw has given concerts on Cunard ships all over the world. He is a regular performer on Cunard’s flagship ocean liners: Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and the Queen Mary II.
Huw’s early studies were at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Andrew Wilson and Rob Buckland. On graduating in 2008 with a 1st Class honours degree he won a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) to continue his studies with Daniel Gauthier at the Hochschule für Musik, Cologne. Huw completed his studies at the Royal College of Music with Kyle Horch and gained a Master’s Degree with Distinction in 2012. Further prizes and awards early in Huw’s career include the RCM Concerto Prize, a ‘Star Award’ from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, a Music Education Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Philip & Dorothy Green Award, a Martin Musical Scholarship and selection as a Park Lane Group Artist.
Huw is a member of the Ferio Saxophone Quartet and regularly performs with them in the UK and abroad. They have been major prize-winners in the UK at the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, Philharmonia’s Martins Musical Scholarship Fund, and the Park Lane Group. The quartet signed with Chandos Records in 2016 and has recorded two highly successful discs for the label. ‘Flux’ was released in July 2017 and ‘Revive’ in November 2018.
Oliver Wass
studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Imogen Barford. He graduated from the University of York with a First Class Honours degree in Chemistry.
He recently won the Suoni d’Arpa International Competition in Italy, and will record a CD with the Tactus Label early next year. In May 2016, he became the first harpist ever to win the Guildhall Gold Medal, the Guildhall’s most prestigious prize. Previous winners of the competition include Jacqueline du Pré, Bryn Terfel and Tasmin Little. He has performed all the major harp concertos, including directing the Handel Harp Concerto in the Barbican Hall. He has also performed concertos at the London Handel Festival, the City of London Festival, with the Oxford Sinfonia, and with the World Chamber Orchestra. He won the Andrea Vigh Jury Prize at the 4th International Harp Competition Szeged. He is a Musicians’ Company Yeoman, and will give his Purcell Room debut in 2017. He is very grateful for support from the Hattori Foundation.
He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2016, where he was praised for his “tremendous dynamism” and “remarkable range of timbres and warmth of the tone” (Seen and Heard International).
Playing with “verve and polish” (The Times), his flute-viola-harp trio The Pelléas Ensemble won the Royal Philarmonic Society Henderson Award and the 2017 Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble at the Royal Overseas League competition. In 2016 they won both the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition and won a place on the prestigious Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Programme. In 2015 they won First Prize at the British Harp Chamber Music Competition. They are Park Lane Group Young Artists. They have a busy recital schedule performing around the country, and are active in commissioning new works for the combination which have been performed at St John’s Smith Square, Wigmore Hall, the Two Moors Festival, and the United Kingdom Harp Association. They have appeared live on Radio 3.
An experienced soloist, Oliver competed in and won music festivals throughout his childhood. He studied with Charlotte Seale at the Junior Department of the GSMD, where he became the only harpist to have been a prizewinner in the prestigious Lutine Competition, and he was Principal Harp in the National Youth Orchestra.
Leander Kippenberg
loves to stay versatile! Chamber music, solo performances, and collaborations with professional orchestras and ensembles such as the Stegreif Orchestra Berlin and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are just some of his engagements in the music world. Since 2020, Leander has also been active as a conductor. Leander Kippenberg has already given numerous concerts as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe in renowned concert halls such as the Tonhalle Zurich, the Sendesaal and the Glocke in Bremen, St. John Smith Square in London, and the Barbican Hall. At the age of 15, he began his studies in the master class of Professor Michael Sanderling at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. At the age of 20, he then transferred to the class of Professor Louise Hopkins at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London on a full scholarship. After graduating with distinction from his Master's degree, he secured a position as an academy member of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in the spring of 2017. There, over a two-year period, he participated in numerous orchestral projects and worldwide concert tours, while also undertaking a comprehensive training curriculum encompassing both musical and non-musical content. His regular participation in renowned music festivals such as the Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall, the Youth Classics International Music Festival, and the Virtuoso et Belcanto Festival in Lucca served as inspiration and provided him with the opportunity to collaborate with well-known musicians such as Gary Hoffmann, Adrian Brendel, Erich Höbarth, Valentin Erben, Ralph and Marc Gothoni, and Thomas Adés. In addition to his work as a cellist, Leander is also active as a conductor, having founded and led the string orchestra "Strings Unlimited Bremen," and is deeply committed to promoting cultural diversity in Bremen.
