Oliver Gooch
Conductor
An inspiring and charismatic musician, Oliver Gooch is highly regarded by colleagues, critics and audiences alike.
Antonio Pappano created a position for him at the Royal Opera House as the first Associate Conductor (Vilar) and he has since made his Royal Opera debut with them on tour in Australia with Haydn's L'isola disabitata. He also received a
Southbank Sky Arts Award nomination for the world premiere of Heart of Darkness in the Linbury.
Mr Gooch is rapidly establishing a reputation as a conductor of considerable versatility in a wide range of symphonic and operatic repertoire. Following his appointment by Sir Antonio Pappano as the first Associate Young Artist at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden in 2004, his conducting career to date has seen collaborations with many of the major UK orchestras, including the LSO, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Halle, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Northern Sinfonia. He
has also continued to have a fruitful relationship with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as a regular guest conductor. Further afield, he has made highly acclaimed debuts with the Queensland and Tasmanian Symphonies in Australia, New York
Sinfonietta, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, and Orchestra della Toscana. He has an ongoing relationship with Italy's major touring company, Associazione Lirica e Concertistica Italiana (AsLico).
He remains committed to nurturing new talent. He spearheaded the development of two Young Artist Programmes, one for Mid Wales Opera and, most recently, Iford Arts' New Generation Artists, an initiative to identify and support young singers,
directors, designers, costume designers and conductors in the early stages of their careers. He has also conducted and presented a number of community operas as Artistic Director of Music at Bray, in partnership with the Windsor Festival,
including Noye's Fludde, The Happy Prince, The Little Sweep, Amahl and the Night Visitors and Saint Nicolas. He was also invited to conduct performances of Noye's Fludde with over five hundred school children for the North Wales International
Festival in St Asaph's Cathedral in 2015. He has also received recognition for his desire to take opera into new places. His resurrection of the 18th century ballad opera, Inkle and Yarico by Samuel Arnold in Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, was
produced alongside the anniversary of the Act to abolish the slave trade, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Oliver received his training at Cambridge University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He studied conducting at the Tanglewood Festival under Robert Spano and Seiji Ozawa, and was subsequently nominated for
the prestigious Rolex/Mentor Protege Arts Initiative in Geneva, under Sir Colin Davis. In 2006 he was awarded a prestigious Clore Fellowship, a programme designed to nurture new generations of cultural leaders, and in 2007, he was elected the
youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
"Oliver Gooch, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, approaches the score with a blend of command and flexibility, never short-changing the grand emotional climaxes"
GEORGE HALL,
The Guardian