Hailed as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (Independent) and “an expert in 18th-century style” (The New Yorker), Nicholas McGegan, through twenty-seven years as its Music Director, has established the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorale as the leading period performance ensembles in America with notable appearances at the Carnegie Hall, the London Proms, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the International Handel Festival, Göttingen where he was Artistic Director from 1991 to 2011.

Active in opera as well as the concert hall, he was Principal Conductor of Sweden’s Drottningholm Court Theatre (1993-1996), running the annual festival there., guest conducting the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Northern Sinfonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as opera companies including Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Washington. In 2014, McGegan will rejoin the Mark Morris Dance Group, for the premiere and touring of Mr. Morris’s new production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea in an arrangement by Mozart.

His discography of over 100 releases includes the world première recording of Handel’s Susanna, which attracted both a Gramophone Award and Grammy nomination.

Born in England, Nicholas McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford and taught at the Royal College of Music, London. He was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2010. In recognition of two decades distinguished work with the Philharmonia Baroque, the Mayor of San Francisco declared an official Nicholas McGegan Day.