Nicholas McGegan: Music Director

Conductor Nicholas McGegan is one of the world's leading authorities on Baroque and Classical repertoire. A champion of such Baroque masters as Handel, Rameau, Bach and Vivaldi, his repertoire also encompasses Mozart and Haydn, the complete symphonies of Beethoven, and extends to Stravinsky, Britten, Tippett, and Glass.

Mr. McGegan's itinerary includes appearances on the most illustrious international podiums. In the United States these include regular engagements with the Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras. He has also conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London's Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and orchestras in Austria, Australia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, and Malaysia.

He appears regularly at the Aspen, Ravinia, and New York's Mostly Mozart festivals. In 2003 he conducted the first opera ever staged at Mostly Mozart, Il re pastore. His performances at Ravinia include the world premiere of "Los Sazones," Vivaldi's Four Seasons adapted for orchestra and salsa band by Jimmy Bosch. Another highlight is his Edinburgh Festival debut conducting Rameau's Platée in a production by Mark Morris, a frequent collaborator.

Mr. McGegan, known to nearly everyone who meets him as "Nic," has a long association with the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO), with whom he celebrates twenty years as music director in 2005. In 2004 they were named Musical America's "Ensemble of the Year." Since 1990, Nic has also been Artistic Director of the International Handel-Festival Göttingen. His Göttingen performances have resulted in more than a dozen notable recordings of Handel's operas, including the Gramophone Award-winning Ariodante with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Nic's extensive discography also includes 25 commercial recordings with PBO, including the recently released premiere recording of Alessandro Scarlatti's Cecilian Vespers, on the Avie label.

Nic was born in England, studied at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and has received an honorary degree from the Royal College of Music in London. He has been awarded the prestigious Handel Prize from the Halle Handel Festival in Germany, and in 1996 was presented with the Drottningholmsteaterns Vänners Hederstecken, the honorary medal of the Friends of the Drottningholm Theatre.

His hobbies include food, wine, reading, travel, and raising roses at his home in Berkeley, California. Find Nic on the web at www.nicholasmcgegan.com.