Nicholas McGegan
conductor
About this Artist
In his sixth decade on the podium, Nic McGegan is recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods. Following a 34-year tenure as Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, he is now Music Director Laureate. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of Hungary’s Capella Savaria. At home in opera houses, McGegan shone new light on close to 20 Handel operas as the Artistic Director and conductor at Germany’s Göttingen Handel Festival for 20 years (1991–2011) and the Mozart canon as Principal Guest Conductor at Scottish Opera in the 1990s.
Highlights of his 2022/23 guest bookings in North America include his return to the Hollywood Bowl and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performing the Mendelssohn Walpurgisnacht (in English) and selections from Beethoven’s Egmont. In Europe, he appears with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia in a program that brings together Bach’s Magnificat in D major and Caroline Shaw’s Is a Rose, performed by singers from the Samling Institute for Young Artists.
McGegan’s prolific discography includes more than 100 releases spanning five decades. Having recorded over 50 albums of Handel, McGegan has explored the depths of the composer’s output with a dozen oratorios and close to 20 of his operas. His extensive discography with Philharmonia Baroque includes two Grammy nominees, Handel’s Susana and Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 104, 88, and 101. McGegan’s recent disc of Mozart violin concertos with Gil Shaham (SWR Music) was released to great acclaim.
English-born, Nic McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to music overseas.” Other awards include the Halle Handel Prize; the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany); the Medal of Honor of the City of Göttingen, and a declaration of Nicholas McGegan Day by the mayor of San Francisco in recognition of his work with Philharmonia.