Biography
“Musically things are in excellent hands. Andrew Mogrelia is a magnificent Tchaikovskian – his Sleeping Beauty on Naxos is at the top of my poll for recordings – and here he manipulates the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra to great effect, knowing just where to take liberties with rubato. Not even the melodically inventive Délibes ever quite matched the Tchaikovsky of Swan Lake, and in Mogrelia’s hands the score is given every opportunity to blossom.” Limelight Magazine, Australia
British conductor Andrew Mogrelia was born in Wales to Welsh and Indian parents. He studied conducting and piano at the Royal College of Music with Norman Del Mar and David Parkhouse and then went on to study at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He was awarded a Diploma of Honour at the 1984 Hans Swarowsky Conducting Competition and was a prize-winner in the 1986 Leeds Conductors Competition. He has had an exceptionally versatile career as a prolific recording artist and conductor of both symphonic and ballet repertoire.
He has conducted orchestras throughout Europe, USA, Australia and Asia including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Dutch Radio SO, Residentie Orkest, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Slovak Radio SO, Slovak PO, Prague Chamber Soloists, RTE National Symphony (Dublin), Queensland SO, Australian Opera & Ballet Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.
He was Conductor-in-Residence at the Birmingham Conservatoire (UK) from 1992-2002 and in during that period also conducted the National Youth Orchestra of GB, the Irish National Youth Orchestra and New Perspectives Ensemble of the Royal College of Music. From 2005-2012 he was Music Director of the orchestra at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, establishing a major programme of orchestral concerts, workshops with distinguished guest conductors and a week-long Residency for composer/conductor John Adams in 2007, conducting The Wound Dresser and Harmonielehre in the presence of the composer.
He has an extensive discography on the Naxos label including many rare orchestral works and full-length ballets. His recording of Tchaikovsky’s complete Sleeping Beauty was Gramophone magazine’s “first choice among all available recordings”.
Andrew has worked with many of the world’s top international ballet companies - English National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet and American Ballet Theater including performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Festival Hall, London Coliseum and Sydney Opera House.
His operatic experience includes Britten’s Albert Herring at the Birmingham Conservatoire; Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Die Fledermaus for Opera Queensland and Adams’ The Nixon Tapes I for Opera Australia.
He was co-Music Director of Dutch National Ballet (1992-1994) and Music Director & Principal Conductor of San Francisco Ballet (2003-2005), including conducting the orchestra’s 30th anniversary concert on stage in San Francisco’s Opera House in 2005. Most recently he was Principal Guest Conductor of Australia’s Queensland Ballet from 2009-2012 and Music Director & Principal Conductor from 2013-2015.
In 2015 he worked with Edgar Meyer, conducting the world-renowned bassist’s third Double-Bass Concerto with composer as soloist and the Camerata of St. John’s for the Queensland Music Festival. He also returned to the Royal Ballet Sinfonia for Queensland Ballet’s tour to the London Coliseum, having previously worked with the orchestra in it’s early years in Birmingham for Nutcracker, Swan Lake and a concert of Stravinsky (Symphony in Three Movements) and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
2016 saw a major tour of Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet, having worked with the company in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2012. Performances in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne received great critical acclaim. A return to the RTE National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin included an Opera Gala with soprano Celine Byrne. He led a collaboration between the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and dancers from Queensland Ballet - a concert that included dance elements, finishing with concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet and Stravinsky’s 1919 Firebird, two works he conducted at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in November 2016 before returning to Hong Kong in December for Nutcracker with Hong Kong Ballet and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. He returned to the HK Academy each year from 2017 and to the HK Ballet in 2018 for Giselle. In 2017 he conducted a concert with Opera Australia Orchestra & Opera Australia Chorus at Sydney Opera House including works by Bryce Dessner and John Adams (The Nixon Tapes), celebrating Adams’ 70th birthday year and in 2018 conducted the Final of the Dublin International Piano Competition with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra.
1985-1990 Assistant Conductor, London Festival Ballet
1992-1994 Co-Music Director, Dutch National Ballet
1992-2002 Conductor-in-Residence, Birmingham Conservatoire
2003-2005 Music Director, San Francisco Ballet
2005-2012 Orchestra Music Director, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
2009-2012 Principal Guest Conductor, Queensland Ballet
2013-2015 Music Director, Queensland Ballet, Australia
