Hamish McKeich

New Zealand born conductor Hamish McKeich has forged an impressive international conducting career alongside a passionate loyalty for developing the repertoire of contemporary and experimental music. He has established an acclaimed partnership with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra since 2002 and is currently their Associate Conductor in collaboration with Music Director Edo de Waart. He has performed in New Zealand, Australia, China, the Netherlands, Italy, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Armenia and Lebanon. Working regularly in Europe, Australia and with all New Zealand’s major orchestras, he has given over 100 world premieres of new works and is also chief conductor of the contemporary ensemble Stroma. He has worked with many orchestras and ensembles, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, ELISION ensemble, Metropole Orkest, Asko Ensemble of Holland, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Stroma, Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, Adelaide Symphony, Armenian Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, Queensland Symphony, West Australian Symphony, 175 East, Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony, Dunedin Symphony and the EX Orchestra, amongst others. Initially a bassoonist, he studied conducting with Professor Ilya Musin, Valery Gergiev and Sian Edwards. Highlights of Hamish McKeich’s immediate upcoming engagements include concerts and recordings with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Zealand Opera, Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony,  Adelaide Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 Hamish McKeich was awarded a Douglas Lilburn Trust citation for services to New Zealand music.

Hamish first collaborated with Free Theatre on the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's The Soldier's Tale for the 2013 Christchurch Arts Festival and was artist-in-residence along with Gao Ping for The Mauricio Kagel Project ​(2015) and for the next phase of the work Ars Acustica (2019).

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