Andrew Mogrelia

British conductor Andrew Mogrelia is Queensland Ballet’s first Music Director and Principal Conductor. Appointed in 2013, he has enjoyed, with QB Artistic Director Li Cunxin, the explosive growth of the company that saw a sold-out season in his first year and has culminated so far in the unprecedented critical and commercial acclaim of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet earlier this year. That production broke all box office records in the company’s 54-year history, and garnered widespread admiration from every quarter for Queensland Ballet.

Andrew began his association with Queensland Ballet in 2008 after two years as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet. In 2009 he was named Principal Guest Conductor and in that capacity returned each year to conduct the Company’s December season. In 2014 he conducts Coppélia, Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker.

Andrew has had an exceptionally versatile career as a prolific recording artist and conductor of both symphonic and ballet repertoire. He has conducted many of Europe's leading orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony in the UK and the bRTÉ NSO in Ireland; the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Residentie Orchestra and Dutch Radio Symphony in the Netherlands; and the Slovak Radio Symphony and Slovak Philharmonic in the Czech and Slovak Republics, among others.

He was Conductor-in-Residence at the Birmingham Conservatoire (UK) from 1992-2002 and has worked with the National Youth Orchestra (UK & Eire) and the New Perspectives Ensemble at the Royal College of Music in London. 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 Residence for composer/conductor John Adams.

He conducted Adams’ Harmonielehre and Wound Dresser in the presence of the composer. Unquestionably one of today's leading ballet conductors, Andrew has worked with such companies as the English National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, both Australian and West Australian Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre in venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and the Sydney Opera House.

Andrew has an extensive discography, appearing as conductor on 99 discs for the Naxos, Amadis and Marco Polo labels. These include orchestral works by Bernstein, Handel, Fibich, Suk and Novak, and numerous complete ballets by Tchaikovsky, Delibes, Prokofiev and Adam. His complete recording of The Sleeping Beauty was acclaimed as a ‘clear first choice’ by Gramophone magazine.

Andrew has had a long association with Brisbane, first conducting the Queensland Orchestra in 1996 in recordings for Naxos. In 2007 he was a guest conductor at the Bonyi International Music for Youth Festival in Brisbane, and in 2012 gave an orchestral workshop at the Queensland Conservatorium. He conducted the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for the first time since his association with Queensland Ballet in 2011, was invited back to conduct their 20/21 Series in November 2012 and will return again in 2015.

Elsewhere in Australia Andrew has conducted Orchestra Victoria, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and at the Canberra International Music Festival. He established a connection with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for The Australian Ballet’s production of Romeo and Juliet in Perth in 2012 and conducted a symphonic programme in Hobart in November 2014.

In 2013, in addition to his responsibilities with Queensland Ballet, Andrew was invited back to conduct the English National Ballet, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, and Paul Dean's tutti youth music festival Beijing, a festival he helped inaugurate in 2011. In 2012, 2013 & 2014 he conducted concerts with the RTÉ NSO in Dublin and in 2014 recorded for Naxos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

2015 engagements include Queensland Ballet projects as well as a programme with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a concert for Queensland Music Festival with Camerata of St. John’s and world famous bassist Edgar Meyer and Die Fledermaus for Opera Queensland.

In 2016 he will guest conduct for the Australian Ballet in Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide and conduct a project with the Queensland Conservatorium.