BIOGRAPHY

Violinist, Violin Teacher

Biography

Violin Teacher

Ben runs his private teaching studio in London W9 and online throughout the year and also teaches at The Royal Academy of Music Junior Department.

He is constantly building an online library of work where you can see his performances as well as tutorials on both repertoire and technique. Over the past 20 years, Ben’s pupils have consistently won numerous scholarships, prizes in national competitions, have played in, lead and co-lead the National Youth Orchestra and National Children’s Orchestra plus regularly gain places at the UK’s top specialist music schools and music colleges as well as appearing in recital venues such as The Wigmore Hall & Milton Court (Barbican).

Soon after having finished his own studies at the Royal Academy of Music Ben was invited to begin teaching at the Junior Department.

His pupils there have often lead the symphony orchestra, have won the prestigious violin prize on many occasions as well as appearing regularly in public concerts and masterclasses.  As a result of Ben’s teaching successes he is often invited to teach on various international summer schools, he has been invited to take performance classes working with under and post graduate students at the Royal Academy of Music as well as often being asked to adjudicate at competitions such as the Trinity Laban Concerto Competition.

Ben offers both live and online lessons according to the individual needs of pupil.

Violinist:

Ben’s violin playing has been described by the legendary violin virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci as ‘technically and musically out of the ordinary’ and has been praised by Musical Opinion Magazine for his ‘smooth creamy sound.’  Ben has appeared live in solo performances and interviews for BBC Television, BBC Radio 2 and often on BBC Radio 3's In Tune. Born and educated in London, Ben started learning the violin at the age of 3 with Felicity Lipman. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama junior department, The Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music London with Mateja Marinkovic and was then awarded a scholarship to study with Ruggiero Ricci at The Mozarteum, Saltzburg. During this time he was winner of numerous awards and scholarships in addition to the Making Music Young Artists Award.

Discography:

 Commercial CD releases include Violin Alone (BWVL Records), a recording of solo violin music from Bach to the present day, Ravel & Shostakovich Piano Trios with Ibuki Trio (Claudio Records) and also an EP of folk inspired works for violin and guitar with Ahmed Dickinson (Cuba Fillin Records).

ABI WRAGG

Abi Wragg, Ben’s wife, has now taken on the role of administrative assistant, creative assistant and much more besides!

Ben and Abi met at The Purcell School, married in 2002 and have four wonderful children together. Abi is a professional cellist and trained at The Purcell School followed by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since graduating she has focused on teaching but mainly on raising their four children. Abi has gained a lot of experience as their children have been musicians in primary school, prep school, public school, home school, specialist music school, ballet school and Saturday junior music schools. She knows exactly what it's like to supervise early morning practice, to fit after school practice around homework and playdates and what it's like to prepare for exams and auditions...and nervously await the results!

Abi’s teaching experience has been at various prep and primary schools as well as privately at home. As a result of this experience she has quite an insight into the artistic and educational needs of a broad spectrum of children and an open approach to finding the right fit for each child.