About
Born and raised in Wales, Oliver Manning leads a busy career as performer, whilst also studying for a master’s degree in classical guitar at the Royal College of Music London, under Gary Ryan & Chris Stell. In 2023, Oliver was selected by John Williams to become a Julian Bream Trust Scholar, supporting his postgraduate studies in London. Career performance highlights include the Wigmore Hall, Dora Stoutzker Hall, Budleigh Music Festival and Centro Civico (Granada).
In 2023, Oliver graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with First-Class Honours studying under Helen Sanderson & John Mills. During his studies, Oliver won a selection of awards and competitions including the John Mills solo guitar competition, the Orpheus voice and guitar competition, and the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales award for music.
In 2022, Oliver gave his international concert debut with a tour of Spain, performing the world premiere of ‘Farewell and Adieu’, the duo guitar concerto composed by Gerald Garcia. Since then, Oliver has continued with his mission to share new works for the guitar, recently giving two world premieres of new music in London (Cynefin by Delyth Field & Nocturne XI by Deniz Dortok).
Alongside performing, Oliver is a keen composer and arranger. In 2022 Oliver’s original piece “The Gondolier’s Dream” was published in the London College of Music Examinations Classical Guitar Grade 1 book & syllabus. Following on from this, Oliver has composed an educational book of early stage guitar music that is soon to be published.
Oliver performs on a guitar built in 2024 by the Canadian luthier Evan Kingma. In the summer of 2024, Oliver travelled a 7000 mile round trip to personally collect his new guitar from Evan Kingma’s workshop in Ontario, Canada. Click below to read about my experience with Kingma guitars.
