Described as an ‘endlessly fascinating artist’, Ashley Wass’s musical career is one of unusual creativity and variety. Alongside his work as soloist and chamber musician, he is co-founder of Mash Productions, was Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival for eleven years, has devoted over 15 years to music education, and was formerly Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School (UK) and the Yehudi Menuhin School Qingdao. The diverse list of people and organisations with whom he has collaborated include film festivals, art galleries and animators, children’s television presenters and stars of the stage and screen, illustrators, literary festivals and renowned authors, and mime artists and comedians.

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Ashley began playing the piano at the age of five, and studied music at Chetham’s School of Music from age 11. In his teens he studied on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Christopher Elton, Maria Curcio and Hamish Milne. His watershed moment came in 1997 when he won the London International Piano Competition (the only British winner thus far), a success that led to a recording contract with Naxos, making him the first solo artist to obtain an exclusive deal with the label. His debut recording was a highly praised CD of César Franck piano music, released in 1999. He was also a prizewinner at the Leeds Piano Competition, and is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.

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Ashley has performed at many of the world’s finest concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has performed regularly as soloist with all of the BBC orchestras, the Philharmonia, Orchestre National de Lille, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony, and many more, under the baton of conductors such as Simon Rattle, Osmo Vanska, Donald Runnicles, Ilan Volkov and Vassily Sinaisky.

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He appeared alongside the likes of Sir Thomas Allen, Mstislav Rostropovich and Angela Gheorghiu in a gala concert at Buckingham Palace to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, a performance broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2008 with Vaughan Williams’ Piano Concerto, and returned in following seasons to perform works by Foulds, Stravinsky, Antheil, and McCabe.

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Ashley continues to appear in public as both soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights have included a debut at the Melbourne Recital Centre, concerts in Singapore, Italy, Spain, Berlin, Dubai, Malta and France, and acclaimed performances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC NOW. He returned to the studio in late 2023 to record a retrospective album called ‘Black and White’ for Blue Cloud, which was released in 2024. Following the success of the album, he returned for a follow-up album called 'Meditations', recorded with his wife, the violinist Doriane Gable, in 2025.

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Renowned for a broad and eclectic repertoire, Ashley has received great critical acclaim for his recordings of music from a wide range of styles and eras, with glowing reviews of his interpretations of composers such as Liszt, Franck, Beethoven, and Bridge. His survey of Bax’s piano music was nominated for a Gramophone Award and his discography boasts a number of

Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ recordings and BBC Music Magazine ‘Choices’.

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Much in demand as a chamber musician, Ashley is a frequent guest of international festivals such as Pharos (Cyprus), Bath, Ako (Japan), Cheltenham, Kuhmo, Mecklenburg, Gstaad, City of London, and Ravinia and Marlboro in the USA, playing solo recitals and chamber works with musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Sarah Chang, Steven Isserlis, Emmanuel Pahud, Maxim Rysanov, Richard Goode and members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. He was also a co-founder of Trio Apaches, a piano trio that broadcast frequently on BBC Radio 3, including Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BBC NOW, and was renowned for its imaginative programming, including the commissioning of new music.

 

Ashley co-founded Mash Productions, a production company that is focused on realising innovative and ambitious projects, in 2016. Through this platform, he has commissioned over a dozen new works from some of the world’s leading composers, produced a series of musical plays, worked with illustrators and animators to create a number of short films set to music, collaborated with Carl Davis and the Chaplin Foundation on a show about the life and music of Charlie Chaplin, and curated a number of mini-festivals for leading arts organisations around the UK. Their acclaimed series for children - Musical Myths - which combines their own specially written scripts with great pieces of classical music has been toured and performed to thousands of children by orchestras around the UK and Europe, whilst their show inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice continues to be performed by artists around the world, most recently as a run at the Sydney Opera House.

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Ashley Wass was the Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival from 2007-2018 and helped develop the festival into one the UK’s leading events of its type, with with sold-out performances of challenging and diverse repertoire, and regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.

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Music education is a central focus of Ashley’s professional life. He was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music from 2008-2018, Deputy Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2018-2020, and was Director of Music of the Yehudi Menuhin School from 2020-2025, during which time he led the school through an extensive process of restructuring and modernisation. He was also the founding Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Qingdao, and played a key role in the school's architectural design, the development of its curriculum, the recruitment of key staff members, and the training of instrumental teachers.

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Today, Ashley's greatest passion is to find ways to support the wellbeing of musicians around the world. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Zenezen, an innovative new platform, due to launch in 2026, that aspires to foster a greater sense of togetherness across the musical community.