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San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is one of the oldest and most renowned ensembles in the U.S. that specializes in historically oriented performance of music from earlier eras, using original instruments. Founded in 1981 by harpsichordist Laurette Goldberg, the orchestra has been led since 1985 by music director Nicholas McGegan. In the words of the group's mission statement, period instrument performance involves more than just using historically appropriate instruments; "it also means performing music with a passion, joy, and vitality that provide a meaningful contemporary artistic experience for today’s audience." The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra added an associated Philharmonia Baroque Chorale in 1996, and in 2016 established a New Music for Old Instruments initiative to commission new works for historical instruments. The orchestra plays a six-concert season at various locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group has also performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Tanglewood Music Festival as well as other major American venues, and it has toured the U.K. and Europe, with an appearance in 2005 at the BBC Proms and a collaboration with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles on the modern premiere of Rameau's opera-ballet Le Temple de la Gloire in 2017, released as a recording in 2018. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra's long recording career began in the 1980s, when they attracted the attention of the multinational historical-performance specialist label Harmonia Mundi. With flutist Janet See, they recorded an album of until-then largely underexposed Vivaldi flute concertos in 1988. As the group's repertory has developed, it has come to include Romantic music in addition to Baroque and Classical works, and when the orchestra formed its own label, one of its first releases was a recording of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été in 2011, taken from earlier live recordings with the late mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. A performance of Brahms serenades followed in 2012. Top European conductors who have appeared as guests with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra have included Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Parrott, Richard Egarr, and the American-French opera conductor William Christie. ~ James Manheim

Nicholas McGegan has done more for the early music movement in America than nearly anyone else, and his tireless explorations of the byways of Baroque opera have put many fascinating works into the concert hall and onto recordings. Although he is primarily identified with Handel, he has played repertoire stretching into the 19th century and has brought the same sense of fun to all of it. McGegan served as the music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for 34 seasons, taking on the role of music director laureate in 2020. McGegan, leading the SWR Symphonieorchester, backed Gil Shaham on a recording of music for violin and orchestra by Mozart in 2022.

McGegan was born on January 14, 1950, in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England. He studied piano at London's Trinity College of Music and learned to play the flute while he was there but entertained no special desire to study historical performance. When he entered Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, however, one of the courses required for a music degree was Professor Nicholas Shackleton's acoustics class. This course often met in the professor's home, which contained both a large collection of 18th century wind instruments and a tenant named Christopher Hogwood. Hogwood, of course, was then one of the leading lions of the period-instrument Baroque movement in England, so McGegan could not have been in a better position to learn about it. Although he had been studying 20th century music, one day he picked up a Baroque wooden flute and never looked back. During the 1970s, McGegan became one of the bright lights of England's starry period-instrument scene, playing the flute, harpsichord, and fortepiano with all the major period instrument groups in England, especially Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music. He became director of early music at the Royal College of Music in London in 1976.

In 1979, McGegan made the fateful decision to accept a three-month artist-in-residence position at Washington University in St. Louis. His teaching and performance caused quite a stir there, and numerous renewals of his initial term followed. In 1985, McGegan became music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, which had been a players' cooperative without a leader. The ensemble still places a premium on collaboration and creativity under McGegan's direction. It has become the finest period-instrument group in America and one of the finest in the world since McGegan took it over, making numerous recordings under his direction.

One of the international positions this very busy conductor held was as artistic director of the Gottingen Handel Festival from 1991 until 2011, the oldest festival for Baroque music in the world. He has also spread the ideas of historically informed practice in his work with groups around the world, such as Hungary's Capella Savaria, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, among many others. He has also worked with opera companies, including Covent Garden and San Francisco. McGegan also founded the Arcadian Academy, a chamber offshoot of the Philharmonia Baroque, and has served as the Baroque series director for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and as an advisory board member for the University of Maryland Handel Festival and London's Handel House. In his pursuit of reviving Baroque works, he's collaborated with dancer Mark Morris to present Rameau's Platée at the Edinburgh Festival and Handel's L'Allegro at Ravinia and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his academic credentials and background in period performance, McGegan's performances exemplify joy and fun rather than sober scholarship. He has compared the Philharmonia Baroque to a "jazz band" in terms of its ability to play together and play with spirit, and the comparison rings true when listening to the group, or, indeed, any of McGegan's performances. In 2019, he was heard on the BIS album Josef Myslivecek: Complete Music for Keyboard, with pianist Clare Hammond. McGegan remained in his role with the Philharmonia Baroque until 2020 when he stepped into his new role as music director laureate. In 2022, McGegan conducted the SWR Symphonieorchester on a recording of Mozart's violin concertos with violinist Gil Shaham. ~ Andrew Lindemann Malone & Keith Finke