Will Duerden, double bass

Double bassist, Will Duerden, is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader with a growing international career spanning four continents. Will rose to prominence after reaching the Strings Category Final of the 2018 BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. 

In 2023 Will was a winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust international auditions, and was subsequently nominated as a Classic FM ‘Rising Star’ 2024, and announced as a Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship artist.

Recent performance highlights for Will include his debut at St. George’s Bristol and performances at the North Norfolk Music and Buxton International Festivals as well as at Wigmore Hall, Brighton Dome, Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, and at the Aldeburgh Festival where he was part of a stellar ensemble of YCAT artists past and present to celebrate the charity’s 40th anniversary. This season, Will makes his debut at the Bendigo Music Festival in Australia, as well as making appearances at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the University Leeds Concert Series and Wigmore Hall. 

Competition successes include winning the Yorke Double Bass Prize in the 2023 Royal Overseas League Strings Competition Final, and reaching the upcoming semifinal in the 2023 International Society of Bassists Competition. He has also been a First Prize winner at the Haslemere String Competition, RCM Bass Competition two years running, Peter Morrison Concerto Competition, and most recently the RCM Concerto Competition.

Will is a keen chamber musician, and has worked with such fine artists as Lawrence Power, the Sitkovetsky Trio, Echea Quartet, Castalian Quartet, Daniel Lebhardt and Olivier Stankievicz, among others. He is also a member of the LGT Young Soloists, a group of outstanding young musicians who perform internationally in venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. 

Soon after he started playing aged 7, Will was awarded a full scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School, and studied with Caroline Emery. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music on a full ABRSM scholarship for his Bachelor's Degree, and continued there to complete his Masters under the tutelage of Rodrigo Moro Martin. His studies were supported by the Drake Calleja Trust. 

As a soloist, he has appeared with the Horsham Symphony Orchestra, the European Youth Summer Music Symphony Orchestra and the Waverley Ensemble, and performed Ian Stephens’ double bass concerto ‘Scenes from a Modern War’ with the Kensington Chamber Orchestra in October 2024. A purveyor of new music, Will has had several significant new works specially written for him, with recent premieres of a significant new solo work in London and Milan, with further commissions in the planning. 

Will has also distinguished himself as a leading orchestral player, regularly performing with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London. As the principal bassist in many orchestral projects, he has worked closely with conductors such as Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Andrew Davis and Vasily Petrenko, and during the 2025/26 season Will takes on the position of Principal Bassist with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

He is also honoured to have been selected by the LSO Conservatoire Scholarship, LSO Scheme, the BBC Symphony Orchestral Scheme and Countess of Munster Musical Trust. 

Will enjoys all aspects of the double bass. He has a passion for everything from baroque music to jazz, and wants to pursue a performing career encompassing all styles and genres.