Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor is thought of as one of the world’s most wide-ranging and innovative musicians and has pursued a life connecting many genres of music defying categorizations. She has performed in over 60 countries, often appearing as a solo artist with many of the world's leading orchestras. These include the New York Philharmonic, London and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Netherlands Radio and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The many eminent conductors with whom she has worked include Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has premiered many landmark compositions ranging from Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Django Bates to John Adams and James MacMillan.
Joanna MacGregor made her conducting début in 2002 and regularly directs her own orchestral projects, including an all-Mozart programme with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Bach with the Hallé. She has had a close artistic partnership as conductor and performer with the Britten Sinfonia for the past 10 years; her programmes with them range from classical music to new collaborations with jazz and world musicians. She has toured South Africa with jazz artist Moses Molelekwa, recorded with pop artist and tabla player Talvin Singh, and in 2003 she created ‘Crossborder’, touring China with Jin Xing's Contemporary Dance Theatre of Shanghai (for which she wrote a new score combining Chinese traditional music with computer technology and film). In 2007 she curated the installation ‘On The Edge of Life’, a multimedia collaboration between paediatricians, artists and musicians, examining premature birth.
As a recording artist Joanna MacGregor has made 15 solo recordings for Collins Classics, ranging from Bach, Scarlatti, Ravel and Debussy, to jazz and contemporary music. Her own record label SoundCircus was founded in 1998 and has released many highly successful recordings including the Mercury prize-nominated Play (including music by Bach, Ligeti and Piazzolla) and Neural Circuits, with music by Messiaen, Arvo Pärt and Nitin Sawhney. Current releases include Sidewalk Dances - the Moondog/Bach Art of Fugue project with Britten Sinfonia - and Deep River, music inspired by the Deep South, with saxophonist Andy Sheppard. In 2008 she releases a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, made at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Joanna MacGregor has received honorary Fellowships from the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music and New Hall, Cambridge, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University. From 1997-2000 she was Professor of Music at Gresham College, London where she gave a series of public lectures. Her interest in education is reflected in her music books for young children, PianoWorld, hailed as “a new series for the Millennium”. She was the subject of a South Bank Show profile, and is a Professor at Liverpool Hope University.
Since 2005 Joanna MacGregor has been Artistic Director of Bath International Music Festival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
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