Mark Wigglesworth

Mark Wigglesworth (born 19 July 1964) is a British conductor.

Biography
Born in Sussex, Wigglesworth attended Bryanston School, Manchester University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He won the Kondrashin Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in 1989.  John Drummond appointed him associate conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1991, a post he held until 1993. Wigglesworth was principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 1996 until 2000.  He was principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2001.

Wigglesworth led his first opera production in 1991, conducting Cosi fan Tutte for Opera Factory in London.  He made his first conducting appearance with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November 2002. He has also conducted at the Welsh National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and Glyndebourne. In 2005, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Le Nozze di Figaro.  In April 2006, Wigglesworth had been named the next music director of the La Monnaie opera, Brussels, succeeding Kazushi Ono.  After a season of working together with the company's then-music director, Kazushi Ono (2007–2008), Wigglesworth had originally been scheduled to assume sole control as music director with the 2008–2009 season. In April 2008, La Monnaie announced that Wigglesworth would not take up the post of music director at La Monnaie.

In January 2014, English National Opera (ENO) named Wigglesworth its next music director, succeeding Edward Gardner effective September 2015. Shortly into his tenure, Wigglesworth expressed disapproval of proposals by ENO management for economising measures, such as a reduction in the contract of the ENO chorus. On 22 March 2016, he resigned from the music directorship of ENO, effective at the close of the 2015–2016 season. The resignation report indicated that he was to honour existing conducting commitments with the company.  In a separate letter to ENO musicians, Wigglesworth said:

 "The company is evolving now into something I do not recognise, and as hard as I have tried to argue to maintain what I believe to be the fundamental pillars of our identity, I have failed to persuade others of this necessity.”

Wigglesworth has recorded commercially for such labels as BIS.  In 2018, Faber & Faber published Wigglesworth's book The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters.  In November 2021, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Wigglesworth as its next principal guest conductor, with immediate effect. In 2023, he conducted a new Garsington production of Ariadne auf Naxos with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Wigglesworth is married to the University College London archaeologist Annemieke Milks.  The couple have a daughter and live in Sussex.

References

External links
 Official website of Mark Wigglesworth
 Intermusica agency biography of Mark Wigglesworth
 CM Artists biography

Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Alumni of the University of Manchester
English conductors (music)
British male conductors (music)
People educated at Bryanston School
Living people
1964 births
Music directors (opera)
Laurence Olivier Award winners
21st-century British conductors (music)