L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

Following a 34-year tenure as Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, Nic McGegan 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 (1991-2001), and the Mozart canon as Principal Guest Conductor at Scottish Opera in the 1990s. He was also Principal Conductor of Sweden’s Drottningholm Court Theatre from 1993 to 1996.

Best known as a Baroque and Classical specialist, McGegan’s approach has made him a pioneer in broadening the reach of historically informed practice beyond the world of period ensembles to conventional symphonic forces. His guest-conducting appearances with major orchestras—including the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics; the Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Toronto, Sydney, and New Zealand Symphonies; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestras; and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw—often feature Baroque repertoire alongside Classical, Romantic, 20th-century, and even brand-new works. He has led performances of Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Britten, Bach, and Handel with the Utah Symphony; Poulenc and Mozart with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; and the premiere of Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, paired with Haydn, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. He collaborates frequently with the Mark Morris Dance Group, including the premiere productions of Rameau’s Platée and Handel’s Acis and Galatea.

Highlights of his 22/23 guest bookings in North America include leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an all-Mozart program at the Hollywood Bowl; performances of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2-4 with the Philadelphia Orchestra; a program of Campra and Rameau with Philharmonia Baroque; return engagements with the St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Edmonton Symphonies; and a performance and recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Cantata Collective. In Europe, he appears with Denmark’s Aalborg Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia in a program of Bach, Vivaldi, and Caroline Shaw.

McGegan’s 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. Since the 1980s, more than 20 of his recordings have been with Hungary’s Capella Savaria on the Hungaroton label, including groundbreaking opera and oratorio recordings of repertoire by Handel, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Telemann, and Vivaldi. Recently, the collaboration has produced albums of Kraus, Mendelssohn, Schubert, a two-CD set of the complete Mozart violin concertos, and Haydn’s Symphonies 79, 80, and 81. McGegan also released two albums with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under the BIS label: Josef Mysliveček’s Complete Music for Keyboard with soloist Clare Hammond and an album of early horn concertos with soloist Alec Frank-Gemmill. His extensive discography with Philharmonia Baroque includes two GRAMMY nominations, Handel’s Susana and Haydn’s Symphonies 104, 88, and 101. This past season, his album of Mozart violin concertos launched with violinist Gil Shaham and the SWR Symphonie Orchester.

Mr. McGegan is committed to the next generation of musicians, frequently conducting and coaching students in residencies and engagements at Yale University, the Juilliard School, Harvard University, the Colburn School, Aspen Music Festival and School, Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. He has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Göttingen; and in 2016 was the Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Harvard. McGegan’s fun and informative lectures have delighted audiences at Juilliard, Yale Center for British Arts, American Handel Society, and San Francisco Conservatory.

Learn more about Nic McGegan.

Chas Rader-Shieber has directed over 30 productions for the Curtis Opera Theatre. His recent work outside of Philadelphia includes new productions of Rusalka and Rameau’s Platée for Des Moines Metro Opera; La finta giardiniera for Portland Opera; Artaserse for Pinchgut Opera in Sydney, Australia; and Shining Brow for Arizona Opera. His work has been seen at the opera companies of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Santa Fe, Houston, Glimmerglass, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Vancouver; Staatstheater Darmstadt; the New York City Opera; Washington National Opera; and the Spoleto Festival, among others.

Having made a specialty of 17th- and 18th-century operas, Mr. Rader-Shieber has directed Mozart’s Idomeneo, La clemenza di Tito, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Il re pastore, and Così fan tutte; Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Semele, Ariodante, Acis and Galatea, Imeneo, Alcina, Xerxes, Partenope, Rinaldo, Tolomeo, and Flavio; and works of Cavalli, Charpentier, Gluck, Monteverdi, and Purcell.

His most recent work for Curtis is the opera/film MERCY, based on Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. In the coming seasons, he directs new productions of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Des Moines Metro Opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for OrpheusPDX, and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt for Opera Colorado.

Mr. Rader-Shieber joined the Curtis faculty in 2009.

Through visionary productions, bold concepts, and compelling narratives, the artists of Curtis Opera Theatre prepare to become stars of the world stage. The combination of key elements of artistry—music, acting, singing, and design—allows these student-artists to create a lasting connection with audiences.