Andrew Gourlay
Andrew Gourlay is a British conductor.
Born in Jamaica, Gourlay was subsequently raised in the Bahamas, the Philippines, Japan and the United Kingdom. He is of Russian ancestry, with notable relatives including Alexander Dmitrievich Zinoviev.
Gourlay began his musical training on the piano and the trombone. As a trombonist in his early twenties, he played with such orchestras as the Philhamonia, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Hallé Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. He was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, with whom he played under the baton of their founder, Claudio Abbado.
Gourlay studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and University of Manchester, before specialising in conducting at the Royal College of Music in London, where he prepared orchestras for Bernard Haitink and Sir Roger Norrington. He acted as cover conductor for Kurt Masur, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Sir Colin Davis, twice replacing Davis at the Barbican Centre, London. In 2010, he won First Prize at the Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition. From 2010 to 2012, he was assistant conductor to Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé.
In 2014, Gourlay became Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. In 2015, the orchestra named Gourlay its Music Director, with an initial 3-year contract. This was extended until August 2020. Gourlay oversaw the launch in 2019 of the orchestra's in-house label, releasing its first disc of music by Rachmaninoff, followed by Shostakovich Symphony no.10, both conducted by Gourlay. During his tenure, subscriber numbers at the orchestra increased by 45%.
Gourlay has worked worldwide as a guest conductor. He has twice conducted the London Sinfonietta at the BBC Proms. In opera, he has conducted for the Royal Opera House and Birmingham Opera Company, the latter in a critically acclaimed production of Tippett's The Ice Break in 2015.
In 2019 Schott Music published "Parsifal Suite", a 45-minute suite of orchestral music from Wagner's Parsifal, constructed by Gourlay.
