Mark Wigglesworth

Born July 19th, 1964, Mark Wigglesworth is a British Conductor known for his masterly performances in both the opera house and the concert hall. He received the 2017 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, and currently holds Chief Conductorships with the Bournemouth and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.

Educated at the University of Manchester and London’s Royal College of Music, Wigglesworth won the famous, but now discontinued, Kondrashin Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in 1989. Two years later, he led his first opera production, and in the same year was appointed Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In a career spanning more than three decades, Wigglesworth has enjoyed long and fruitful relationships with the English National Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera New York. He has led many of the world’s elite orchestras in concert including the Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and held the positions of Principal Conductor with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (1996 to 2000) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1998 and 2001).

Following a spell as Principal Guest Conductor with the Bournemouth and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, Wigglesworth was recently appointed Chief Conductor of both, commencing the roles in Autumn 2024 and January 2025 respectively. He is also notable for his critically acclaimed recordings of the Shostakovich Symphonies, his BBC television series Everything to Play For, and his book The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters - an illuminating account of what it means to lead an orchestra.