A former BBC New Generation Artist, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner and recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award, Sean Shibe continues to prove himself a truly original mind at the frontier of contemporary classical music. This season sees him premiere new concertos by Cassandra Miller and Oliver Leith, as well as tour Thomas Adès’s first work for a non-keyboard solo instrument. He also appears in recital at iconic venues across Europe including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Wien and Wigmore Hall as he takes up the title of ECHO Rising Star. Further highlights comprise a US tour with tenor Karim Sulayman, performances with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, and the UK premiere of Francisco Coll’s Turia, for guitar and large orchestra with Delyana Lazorova and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Edinburgh in 1992, Shibe studied at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Allan Neave, with further studies at Kunst-Universität Graz in Austria and in Italy under Paolo Pegoraro. He is now a Guitar Professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
2024/25 season highlights include a residency at Wigmore Hall with four concerts across the season, including a special programme dedicated to Pierre Boulez’s centenary performing the chamber cantata ‘Le Marteau sans maître’. He tours the UK with folk fiddler Aidan O’Rourke; across the UK and Europe with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, exploring the many iterations of the Orlando myth through electronics, melodica, protest song and recitation; and with Karim Sulayman for a US tour of their breathtaking duo programme Broken Branches. Other notable engagements include debuts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and a debut tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra performing Cassandra Miller’s new guitar concerto Chanter in thirteen performances across the country. Shibe also premieres an electric guitar concerto by Mark Simpson at the BBC Proms and a solo work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tyshawn Sorey.
Shibe is a former BBC New Generation Artist, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, a Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner, a multi-GRAMMY nominee, and the recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award.
Sean Shibe 