Nicholas McGegan

“...conducted with implacable intensity by McGegan”. Tim Ashley, The Guardian

Nicholas McGegan is “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (Independent) and “an expert in 18th century style” (New Yorker). In his capacity as Music Director of San Francisco based Philharmonia Baroque he has established the group as the leading period band in America. In 2005 they marked their 20 year association with concerts at Carnegie Hall, their first European tour with appearances at the BBC Proms, Snape Maltings Aldeburgh,the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the International Handel Festival, Göttingen where McGegan was Artistic Director 1991 - 2011.

Active in opera as well as the concert hall, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of Scottish Opera and Principal Conductor of Sweden’s 18th Century theatre in Drottingholm, running the annual festival there. He has been a pioneer in the process of exporting historically informed practice beyond the world of period instruments to wider conventional symphonic forces, guest-conducting with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Houston, Concertgebouw, Royal Scottish National, BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Chamber, Northern Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony, Halle and the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Montreal and Sydney. Opera companies he works with include Royal Opera House Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Washington. He has broken new ground in experimental dance-collaborations with Mark Morris, notably at festivals like Edinburgh International and Ravinia.

His discography of over 100 releases includes the world premiere recording of Handel's Susanna, which ttracted both a Gramophone Award and Grammy nomination. Recent issues of the same composer's works include Solomon, Samson, and Acis and Galatea (a rarity in that it unearths the little-known version adapted by Felix Mendelssohn). Among his other rediscoveries is the first performance in modern times of Handel's masterly but mislaid Gloria.

Born in England, he was educated at Cambridge, Oxford and the Royal College of Music, London. His awards include an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Göttingen, and an official Nicholas McGegan Day, declared by the Mayor of San Francisco in recognition of two decades’ distinguished work with the Philharmonia Baroque.

He was made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2010.