Mentors, muses and new music: conductor and composer Ryan Wigglesworth

The musician first visited Aldeburgh as a teenage fanboy. Now, he is at the centre of this year’s festival as its featured artist – and he’s opening with his favourite opera Ryan Wigglesworth cuts a confident figure striding through the Royal Academy of Music in London. He’s been a professor here since 2019 – juggling his duties with his role as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, guest conducting internationally, regular recitals as a pianist, and a busy schedule as a composer. Oh, and he’s also the father of three “boisterous” young children, whose sleepless antics have left him bleary and clutching his coffee this morning. He sits at the head of the long table in the Academy’s oak-panelled boardroom, looking perfectly at home. Was he inevitably going to end up here? Wigglesworth, 46, squirms at the suggestion. “I certainly wasn’t confident as a child,” he’s quick to correct. “I was actually very timid and shy. Maybe that helped; I just used to blend in with the furniture, so no one noticed I was there.” But he stood out sufficiently at nursery school – “A strange boy, belting out hymns” – that a teacher took notice and he was sent to audition for Sheffield Ca