Since 2019, Egarr has been Principal Guest of the Residentie Orkest and Artistic Partner of the St Paul Chamber. He was Music Director (now Laureate) of the Philharmonia Baroque 2020-2024, Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music 2005-2020, and Associate Artist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra 2011-2017. He straddles the worlds of historically-informed and modern symphonic performance and has conducted many leading symphony orchestras, notably the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia orchestras, last season returning to the Seoul Philharmonic, Finnish Radio and Cincinatti symphony orchestras and conducting the London Philharmonic for the first time. He made his Glyndebourne debut in 2007, and has conducted opera cycles of Monteverdi, Purcell and Mozart with AAM at the Barbican. Handel oratorios lie at the heart of his repertoire.
In 2025/26, he conducts the Sao Paulo Symphony, Belgian National and NDR Radiophilharmonie, the latter in Bach’s St John’s Passion with the NDR Vokalensemble. He also leads the Chicago Baroque, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and tours the Netherlands with Netherlands Bach Society in Bach’s B minor Mass. Highlights this season with the Residentie Orkest include Walton’s First Symphony, and with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, a programme of John Adams and George Butterworth sung by Roderick Williams.
As half of Duo Pleyel, Egarr regularly plays four-hands repertoire with his wife Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya; they have released 4 acclaimed albums on Linn – Mozart/J.C. Bach, Dussek, Schubert and a compilation of Yuletide favourites - with a project to record all Beethoven Symphonies in arrangements by Czerny for the composer’s anniversary year in 2027. Egarr is noted for his many solo harpsichord recitals over the years, notably at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall.
Egarr’s extensive discography includes solo keyboard works by Byrd and Sweelinck on Linn, and by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Couperin on Harmonia Mundi. His long list of recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music includes several award-winning Handel discs (2007 Gramophone Award, 2009 MIDEM and Edison awards) and both of J.S. Bach’s Passions. His world premiere recording on AAM Records of Dussek’s Messe Solemnelle won the Gramophone Best Choral Recording 2021.
Egarr trained as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and as organ scholar at Clare College Cambridge. His studies with Gustav and Marie Leonhardt further inspired his work in the field of historical performance. He taught for many years at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and was Visiting Professor at the Juilliard School for over 10 years.
Not to be altered without the permission of Intermusica. Correct as of 4 August 2025, 446 words.