Sax star Huw revisits some favourite pieces

A GLOBALLY successful saxophonist who grew up in Henley is returning to play with Henley Symphony Orchestra for its autumn concert later this month.

Huw Wiggin, who last played with the orchestra for Henley Festival in 2019, will play Eric Coates’s Saxo-Rhapsody, as well as Marcello’s Concert for Oboe, transcribed for saxophone.

The late afternoon concert, with guest conductor Margarita Mikhailova, is at St Mary’s Church in Henley on Saturday, November 16. It also features Mahler’s Blumine from Symphony No 1 and Adagietto from Symphony No 5, in addition to Dvorak’s Symphony No 8.

Huw, 38, who lives in London, is pleased to be playing on home turf. He says: “It will be wonderful to work with Margarita and one of the great things I’m excited about as well is playing in St Mary’s Church in Henley. It will be really nice to play with the orchestra in there.

“That’s a venue that I’m always very comfortable in and it’s quite a special and unique experience coming back to Henley to play because it’s where I grew up.”

Huw studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, going on to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln.

In 2012, he gained a master’s degree with distinction from the Royal College of Music. Ten years ago, Huw won a gold medal at the Royal Over-Seas League contest and the following year, he won Commonwealth Musician of the Year.

He attributes much of his inspiration to Alfie Hay, the former headmaster of Trinity Primary School and one of the founders of Henley Youth Festival, which Huw took part in.

“I did their Rotary competition when I was 10 or 12,” he says. “I was at Trinity School and I’d played a saxophone duo with Joshua Stuart-Bennett, we did a young performer competition at Henley Youth Festival.

“Then I did the solo competition four times. I was really involved because of Alfie and because of what an amazing man he is. He was really so instrumental in making music, he was so enthusiastic about music when he was head of Trinity Primary School.

“It was really because of him that I was so involved with the Henley Youth Festival and it was really the choirs we did at school.

“He used to compose music and he really made music so much better in school.

“I had free instrumental lessons with the recorder and then I learned with Wendy Hawkins, who lives in Berkshire Road, and we’re still in touch now, which is great.”

A member of the Ferio Saxophone Quartet and one half of the Wiggin — Wass duo with harpist Oliver Wass, the saxophonist has performed at pianist Anita D’Attellis’s Winter Recitals Wallingford and will be performing again in next year’s Chiltern Arts Festival.

Last March, he and Japanese classical pianist, Noriko Ogawa, released an album called Rhapsody, and Huw is looking forward to revisiting one of the pieces of music from the album at the concert in Henley.

“So the Eric Coates, I recorded on Rhapsody, and that was rhapsodic works for saxophone.

“Obviously, Eric is one of the most prolific composers from the UK and he wrote Saxo-Rhapsody.

“It’s quite a special piece for me, because when I had just graduated from the Royal College of Music, I was invited to Beijing to perform in the Forbidden City Concert Hall, which is in the middle of Beijing.

“So, I was flown over there and it’s an amazing experience performing in China, because the volume of people is so much bigger than you ever get in Europe, in my experience.

“The Forbidden City Concert Hall is a huge auditorium and I performed that work with an amazing conductor called Nicholas Smith.

“That really stuck in my memory from when I graduated and I wanted to bring back that work for my album.

“Then I played with Henley Symphony Orchestra before and they asked me about which works I’d like to perform. I’ve done the Eric Coates before, but it was very much a piece that I wanted to revisit.

“The Marcello concerto is originally for oboe but often, pieces that are written for oboe transfer well on to soprano saxophone.

“It has a similar sort of tone and colour to the oboe and it brings new life to the original. It’s a popular work anyway and I love it, particularly the second movement.”

• Henley Symphony Orchestra’s autumn concert is at St Mary’s Church in Hart Street, Henley, on Saturday, November 16 at 5pm. Tickets cost £22 reserved (central aisle), £18 or £20 unreserved and £8 students/under-16s. For more information and to buy tickets, call 07726 459261, email hsoboxoffice@gmail.com or visit henleysymphonyorchestra.co.uk