{{Short description|English conductor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Use British English|date=June 2012}}'''James Nicholas McGegan'''<ref>St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, pre-concert talk by Nicholas McGegan and Amy Kaiser, 31 January 2015.</ref> OBE (born 14 January 1950 in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England) is a British harpsichordist, flutist, conductor and early music expert.
==Biography== McGegan received his early education at Nottingham High School. He subsequently studied music at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and at Magdalen College, Oxford. McGegan has participated in some of the earliest "authentic-performance" recordings during the 1970s as a baroque flautist,<ref name="Clements">{{cite news | author=Andrew Clements | title=Baroque star | url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/aug/01/classicalmusicandopera.proms20051 | work=The Guardian | date=1 August 2005 | access-date=2009-10-18}}</ref> including Christopher Hogwood's seminal recordings of Mozart symphonies. He has taught music at such UK institutions as King's College, Cambridge, Oriel College, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music. From 1993 to 1998, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Opera in Glasgow.
In the US, McGegan has served as artist-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, beginning in 1979, when he was initially scheduled for one semester in residence, but continued until 1985.<ref>{{cite news | author=Jason Victor Serinus | title=Nicholas McGegan: 30 Years and Counting with Philharmonia Baroque | url=https://www.sfcv.org/article/nicholas-mcgegan-30-years-and-counting-with-philharmonia-baroque | work=San Francisco Classical Voice | date=2015-09-29 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref> McGegan first guest-conducted the St. Louis Symphony in 1986, and has since returned continuously as a guest conductor.<ref>{{cite news | author=Sarah Bryan Miller | title=Conductor Nicholas McGegan brings all-Mozart program to SLSO | url=https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/conductor-nicholas-mcgegan-brings-all-mozart-program-to-slso/article_98c9c34c-1fcb-5967-b78f-0382269b9c96.html | work=Saint Louis Post-Dispatch | date=2016-10-01 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref> In 1985, McGegan became music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco and Berkeley, California.<ref>{{cite news | author=Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim | title=Like a Jazz Band, but 18th Century | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/arts/music/philharmonia-baroque-orchestra-joins-mostly-mozart.html | work=The New York Times | date=2014-08-05 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref> In 1988, he served as music director of the Ojai Music Festival alongside Peter Maxwell Davies and Diane Wittry. Since 2013, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony. In October 2018, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra announced that McGegan is to stand down as its music director after the 2019–20 season, becoming music director laureate.<ref>{{cite news | author=Michael Cooper | title=Maestro of the Influential Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to Step Down | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/arts/music/nicholas-mcgegan-philharmonia-baroque-orchestra.html | work=The New York Times | date=2018-10-02 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref>
From 1991 to 2011, McGegan was artistic director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival.<ref>{{cite news | author=Michael Schäfer | title=Händel-Festspiele: Ära McGegan geht zu Ende | url=http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Nachrichten/Kultur/Regionale-Kultur/Haendel-Festspiele-Aera-McGegan-geht-zu-Ende | work=Göttinger Tageblatt | date=30 December 2010 | access-date=2011-06-12 | archive-date=5 October 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005224059/http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Nachrichten/Kultur/Regionale-Kultur/Haendel-Festspiele-Aera-McGegan-geht-zu-Ende | url-status=dead }}</ref> He was music director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra from 2002 to 2005. In 2014, he became artist-in-association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.<ref>{{cite news | author=Ilona Wallace | title=Adelaide Symphony Orchestra 2015 program released | url=https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/arts/adelaide-symphony-orchestra-2015-program-released/ | work=The Adelaide Review | date=2014-09-16 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref> He has also held long-term appointments with the Drottningholm Theatre, where he served as principal conductor from 1993 to 1996, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. McGegan also founded the chamber music group the Arcadian Academy.
McGegan has made more than 100 recordings, including many with Philharmonia Baroque and singers such as Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Lisa Saffer, for such labels as Philharmonia Baroque Productions and harmonia mundi.<ref>{{cite news | author=James R Oestreich | title=Brahms: Serenades | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/arts/music/brahms-serenades.html | work=The New York Times | date=2012-10-26 | access-date=2018-10-02}}</ref> In 2023, he conducted Cantata Collective's performance of Bach's St John Passion for Avie Records.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-st-john-passion-mw0003988987|accessdate=19 June 2023|title=Cantata Collective, Nicholas McGegan - Bach: St. John Passion Album Reviews|first=James|last=Manheim|website=AllMusic}}</ref>
McGegan resides in Berkeley, California and Glasgow.<ref name="Clements"/> He has collected a number of honors, including an honorary degree from the Royal College of Music in London; the Handel Prize from the Handel Festival in Halle, Germany; the honorary medal of the Friends of the Drottningholm Theatre; 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 Baroque. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=59446 |date=12 June 2010 |page=24 |supp=y }}</ref> He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 2011 release on the orchestra's label of Joseph Haydn's Symphonies nos. 88, 101, and 104.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.nicholasmcgegan.com/ Official Nicholas McGegan website] * [https://www.harmoniamundi.com/?s=Nicholas+McGegan&submit= harmonia mundi page on Nicholas McGegan] * [http://www.philharmonia.org/ Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra web site] * [http://www.bruceduffie.com/mcgegan.html Interview with Nicholas McGegan], 19 July 1988 * [http://www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/nicholas-mcgegan/#biography Rayfield Allied Biography]
{{s-start}} {{s-culture}} {{succession box | title=Music Director, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra | before=Laurette Goldberg | years=1985–2020 | after=Richard Egarr}} {{succession box | title=Artistic Director, Göttingen International Handel Festival | before=John Eliot Gardiner | years=1991–2011 | after=Laurence Cummings}} {{succession box | title=Music Director, Irish Chamber Orchestra | before=Fionnuala Hunt | years=2002–2005 | after=Anthony Marwood (Artistic Director)}} {{s-end}}
{{Handel Prize}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGegan, Nicholas}} Category:1950 births Category:English choral conductors Category:English male conductors (music) Category:English classical flautists Category:British harpsichordists Category:Living people Category:People from Sawbridgeworth Category:English performers of early music Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People educated at Nottingham High School Category:Musicians from Hertfordshire Category:Handel Prize winners Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Category:21st-century English conductors (music) Category:21st-century English male musicians Category:21st-century British flautists Category:British male flautists Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music