Commonwealth Musician of the Year, First Prize and Gold Medal winner of the 2014 Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, Huw Wiggin is one of the most popular saxophonists of his generation.
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, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 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.
Noriko Ogawa has achieved considerable renown throughout the world since her success at the Leeds International Piano Competition. Noriko’s “ravishingly poetic playing” (Telegraph) sets her apart from her contemporaries and acclaim for her complete Debussy series with BIS Records, confirms her as a fine Debussy specialist. Her Images Book I and II were chosen as the top recommendation ‘exquisite delicacy’, BBC Radio 3’s CD Review, January 2014. Noriko’s latest recording for BIS records is of solo piano music by Eric Satie.
Noriko appears with all the major European, Japanese and US orchestras including the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Richard Dubugnon’s Piano Concerto. Noriko made her BBC Proms debut in August 2013 and appeared again in 2014 with the Endymion Ensemble. She was the Artistic Director for the Reflections on Debussy Festival 2012 at Bridgewater Hall. In 2015 she continued as Associate Artist for Ravel and Rachmaninov Festival.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, with her piano duet partner Kathryn Stott, Noriko has performed Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Pianos at the 2013 BBC Proms.
Noriko regularly judges the BBC Young Musician, Munich International Piano Competition, Honens International Piano Competition and the Scottish International Piano Competition. Noriko has been appointed as Chairperson of the Jury for Japan’s prestigious 10th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2018.
Noriko’s Japanese translation of Susan Tomes’s book Out of Silence – a pianist’s yearbook has been reprinted due to popular demand.
Noriko is passionate about charity work, after the tsunami in Japan in 2011, she has raised over £40,000 for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Fund. Noriko founded Jamie’s Concerts a series for autistic children and parents and is a Cultural Ambassador for the National Autistic Society.
Noriko is a professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Free recital (retiring collection)