Something unusual will happen to Nicholas McGegan on April 10. Rather than playing the piano, conducting an orchestra, leading a rehearsal or giving a lecture, this time he will be the audience for whom others perform.
The occasion, as announced by Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, is described as “A celebratory benefit event honoring Music Director Emeritus Nicholas McGegan with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his extraordinary 35-year tenure leading the ensemble from 1985 to 2020.”
Extraordinary indeed: James Nicholas “Nic” McGegan led PBO in approximately a thousand concerts and produced some 40 recordings with them. He has conducted more than 100 recordings with various organizations, including dozens of albums of Handel’s music.
In the words of PBO Executive Director and CEO, Emma Moon: “It will be an historic celebration of one of classical music’s most beloved figures, and serves as an opportunity to formally welcome McGegan back to Philharmonia with his new title of Music Director Emeritus. During his leadership, he transformed the ensemble into a world-renowned force for historically informed performance.”
The gala also has great importance for the orchestra itself, serving as the main fundraising event for the next season. The most recent publicly available fiscal report showed expenses of $3.6 million against revenue of $1.8 million in 2024.
Moon told SF Classical Voice about the connection between the orchestra’s past and hoped-for future under the leadership of the new music director, Peter Whelan:
“My vision is to build on the incredible legacy of Nicholas McGegan and [former music director] Richard Egarr by positioning Philharmonia Baroque at the vanguard of the ‘next generation’ of historical performance.
“I want us to be a laboratory for discovery, uncovering neglected masterpieces and revitalizing the 'hits' with the sense of hearing them for the first time. We aren't just preserving a museum piece, we are proving that this music is a living, breathing force that can speak directly to the modern soul.”
With tax deductible ticket prices for the benefit ranging from $1,000 for a single patron to $50,000 for a gala sponsor, the event offers a VIP reception with McGegan, cocktails, and dinner.
Performances are scheduled by soprano Sherezade Panthaki, tenor Nicholas Phan, violinist and longtime PBO concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock, and members of the orchestra.
McGegan’s response to the program: “It will be such a treat for me to have some of my favorite music [Handel and Purcell] performed by such dear friends. Apart from the aria from Almira, all the music has been performed by PBO while I was music director. It really is a charming bouquet of delights and I am so looking forward to hearing every one of these magical pieces.”
PBO was founded by Laurette Goldberg in 1981. McGegan joined four years later.
During his tenure, McGegan said, “I worked with some of the most wonderful singers and instrumentalists I know anywhere. We made some very moving recordings with dear Lorraine Hunt — someone I miss every single day of my life. She was not only possessed of a heavenly voice but she was just so fun to make music with, culminating in the live recording of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été.
“When everything came to a grinding halt with the coming of COVID, it was the most enormous change in the way we all lived and made music. Conducting is essentially very social and sociable — a conductor cannot really work alone, you have to have a group of musicians and you have to have an audience. COVID meant that neither of those were possible.”
“Since then, I have held an honorary position and have come back to the group a couple of times and always had the most tremendous time,” McGegan said. His latest concert with PBO was February, 2026, and the orchestra plans to have him back every other year, so his next will be in the 2027-2028 season.
PBO is just one of the music organizations McGegan has led. Among others: Göttingen International Handel Festival, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Drottningholm Court Theatre, Arcadian Academy, and Hungary’s Capella Savaria.
