Our Trainee Music Leader for 2021/22 is violinist Inês Delgado, whose devotion to community music has taken her to be the Music Ambassador for Turtle Song, a music project for people living with dementia, and which led her to conduct a research project on music and dementia for her Master’s degree. She is also a Research Assistant at the Royal College of Music for Songs from Home, a songwriting project for mothers experiencing postnatal depression. As Trainee Music Leader, Inês will have a range and depth of opportunities, enabling her to take part in and lead creative music workshops in a variety of contexts, developing her skills as a workshop leader before ultimately creating her own project at the end of the year. She’ll also receive mentoring as well as training both externally and with Wigmore Hall.

"Being this year’s Trainee Music Leader is a true privilege! I can’t wait to share music and happiness with the many people of all ages that I will meet in all the Wigmore Hall’s music programmes, and to learn from all the incredibly inspiring leaders! Learning and growing are lifelong journeys - and I am immensely grateful for this opportunity to learn, grow and challenge myself in this next step towards becoming the best musician and workshop leader that I can possibly be!"

Inês Delgado

Our Royal Academy of Music / Wigmore Fellowship Ensemble will be MIZU Duo, a partnership between horn player Lynn Henderson and pianist Hannah Chow. The pair have a particular interest in music written by diverse composers and contemporary music, as well as transcriptions and arrangements of music that would not traditionally be performed by horn and piano. They will have a range of opportunities to develop their experience as musicians in participatory workshops, and will work with the Apprentice Composer to perform a new piece to be premiered at Wigmore Hall.

“We are thrilled and very grateful to be the 21/22 Open Academy/Wigmore Hall Learning Fellowship Ensemble. We know it will be a remarkable and trail-blazing year for our duo as we are going to build our expertise and experience whilst having a lot of fun. We are delighted for the opportunity to engage in outreach activities and bring our music to a wider audience amidst the end of the pandemic.”

MIZU Duo

The Rosie Johnson RPS / Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer for 2021/22 will be Lucy Armstrong, a composer whose work is eclectic and theatrical, writing music for opera, concert hall and theatre. In 2015 Lucy wrote a chamber opera for Bergen National Opera and in 2017/ 2018 she wrote an opera in association with the Royal Opera House. After writing for Psappha Ensemble’s “Composing For” Scheme, Psappha commissioned Lucy to write the inaugural Sir Peter Maxwell Davies commission which premiered in 2019. As well as taking part in workshops across the Wigmore Hall Learning programme, Lucy receives a commission from the RPS to write for the MIZU Duo to be performed at Wigmore Hall in Summer 2022.

“I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Rosie Johnson RPS / Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer scheme this year. Outreach work is extremely important to me, so I’m particularly excited about working with Wigmore Hall's Learning Department. I’m really looking forward to working on a new piece for Hannah Chow and Lynn Henderson with the support of a mentor. At a time that is so difficult for so many, I am extremely grateful for this incredible opportunity.”

Lucy Armstrong