Ashley Wass is a British pianist and music educator, born in 1977 in Lincolnshire. He began studying piano at the age of five, took private lessons with Maria Curcio, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Chris Elton. He also worked under Hamish Milne and Murray Perahia.
In 1997, Wass won first prize at the London International Piano Competition, bringing him to the attention of Naxos. The label released his debut album in 1999, featuring solo piano works by César Franck. His recording career has focused particularly on English music: he has released four albums of works by Arnold Bax and three devoted to Frank Bridge, as well as recordings of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Piano Concerto, which he also performed at the BBC Proms, and works by Edward Elgar. He has released more than 20 albums, mainly for Naxos, EMI, Hyperion, and Kultur Video. His repertoire also includes works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Franck, and André Messager.
Wass has performed at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and appeared with leading orchestras, including the BBC orchestras, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Lille National Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. His conductors have included Simon Rattle, Osmo Vänskä, Donald Runnicles, Ilan Volkov, and Vasily Sinaisky. In 2002, he performed at Buckingham Palace in a concert marking the 50th anniversary of the Queen’s reign.
He regularly performs chamber music with the Denali Trio, which he founded with violinist Jesse Mills and cellist Sarah Carter. His chamber-music collaborators have included Chloe Hanslip, Mitsuko Uchida, Steven Isserlis, Emmanuel Pahud, Richard Goode, Daishin Kashimoto, Ilya Gringolts, Maxim Rysanov, Guy Johnston, the Guarneri Quartet, and the Beaux Arts Trio. Since 2007, he has served as artistic director of the Lincoln International Chamber Music Festival. He teaches at the Royal Conservatoire. His awards include fifth prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2000.