Nicholas McGegan

James Nicholas McGeganOBE (born 14 January 1950 in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England) is a British harpsichordist, flautist, conductor and early music expert.

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, 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. In the USA, 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 his residency extended into the mid-1980s.

Since 1985, McGegan has been music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. In 1988, he served as Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival alongside Peter Maxwell Davies and Diane Wittry. From 1993-98 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Opera in Glasgow. From 1991 to 2011, McGegan was also Artistic Director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival. He was music director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra from 2002 to 2005. Since 2013 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, and in 2014 the became Artist in Association with Australia’s Adelaide Symphony. He has also held long-term appointments with the Drottningholm Theatre, where he served as principal conductor from 1993–96, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. McGegan also founded the chamber music group, The Arcadian Academy.

Nicholas

Nicholas or Nikolas or Nicolas or Nickolas is a male given name, derived from the Greek name Νικόλαος (Nikolaos), a compound of νίκη nikē 'victory' and λαός; laos 'people', that is, victory of the people. The name became popular through Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, the inspiration for Santa Claus. The customary English version of spelling "Nicholas", using an "h", first came into use in the 12th century and has been firmly established since the Reformation, though "Nicolas" is occasionally used.

In the United States, Nicholas – and its variations – was the 17th most popular male name given to babies in 2006. Roughly 0.7151% of the baby boys born that year, or 15,414, were given that name. It is decreasing in popularity, from a high in 1997, when 27,248 males in the United States were given the name Nicholas. That year was the most popular year for Nicholas since 1880, when U.S. records were kept for given names.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and its derivatives are especially popular in maritime regions, as St. Nicholas is considered the protector saint of seafarers.

Baroque orchestra

The Baroque orchestra is the type of orchestra that existed during the Baroque era, commonly identified as 1600-1750. Its origins were in France where Jean-Baptiste Lully added the newly re-designed hautbois and transverse flutes to his vingt-quatre violons du Roy. As well as violins and woodwinds, the baroque orchestra contained continuo instruments such as the theorbo and harpsichord.

In the Baroque period, the orchestra was not standardised in size. There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles - and therefore orchestral soundscapes and palettes - between the various European regions. The 'Baroque orchestra' ranged from smaller orchestras (or ensembles) with one player per part, to larger scale orchestras with many players per part. Examples of the smaller variety were Bach's orchestras, for example in Koethen where he had access to an ensemble of up to 18 players. Examples of large scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions.

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is an orchestra based in San Francisco, which is dedicated to historically informed performance of Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music on original instruments. It was founded in 1981 by harpsichordist, teacher, and early music pioneer Laurette Goldberg (1932-2005). The ensemble added the Philharmonia Chorale in 1995.

Nicholas McGegan has been Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque since 1985. In addition, Philharmonia Baroque has welcomed eminent guest conductors to its podium including William Christie, Andrew Parrott, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Trevor Pinnock, Monica Huggett and Stanley Ritchie.

Philharmonia performs a seven-concert subscription season in three cities in the San Francisco Bay Area -- San Francisco, Berkeley, and Atherton/Palo Alto—and is regularly heard on tour in United States and internationally. In 2005 Philharmonia debuted at the BBC Proms, Snape Maltings (UK) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as part of its European tour. In August 2011, the Orchestra performed Handel’s opera Orlando at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, and Tanglewood festivals.