Mentors, muses and new music: Ryan Wigglesworth

Ryan Wigglesworth cuts a confident figure as he moves through the Royal Academy of Music in London. A professor there since 2019, he combines that role with being chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, guest conducting abroad, regular piano recitals and a busy composing life — all while parenting three "boisterous" young children and clutching his coffee through a bleary morning.

He remembers a shy childhood: "I certainly wasn't confident as a child," he says. A teacher’s notice at nursery led to an audition for Sheffield Cathedral Choir, and Graham Matthews’s mentorship opened doors — Charterhouse, an organ scholarship to Oxford, Guildhall and Cambridge.

United Kingdom, London

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