McGegan's St. Matthew Passion Wins Gold
There is a passage in Bach's St. Matthew Passion where the Evangelist sings that Christ has died — and then Bach writes nothing at all. Only silence, left for the room to fill. Nic McGegan first met that silence as a teenager, playing the work in a freezing English church. At the very moment the line landed, a great weight of snow slid off the roof with a groan that shook the building. He has never forgotten it. Six decades later, his recording of that same score has just been honored with a Gold Medal.
A Gold Medal for the St. Matthew Passion Recording
This summer, the Cantata Collective recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, conducted by McGegan and released on AVIE Records, was awarded a Gold Medal in the choral category of the Global Music Awards. It is the latest recognition for a project that has drawn a steady run of acclaim since its spring release — a five-star notice from INFODAD, praise from Early Music America, and admiration from critics following McGegan's ongoing Bach series with the ensemble.
What sets the recording apart is not a matter of tempo or scholarship alone, though there is plenty of both. It is that nearly everyone in the room was a friend. Every instrumentalist, every soloist, every chorister was someone McGegan has worked with — in many cases for decades. "Making music with friends, for friends," he has often said, "is about the best thing a musician can have." That trust is audible. The St. Matthew Passion is one of the pinnacles of Western music, and to conduct it among people who already know how you breathe is a rare kind of luxury — the kind that lets a performance find its own weather in the room.
For McGegan, the work has always been as much about what isn't written as what is. The silence after Christ's death; the snow that once answered it; the conviction that no two performances can ever be the same. "You never stick a performance in the microwave and expect it to come out the same the next day," he says. The Gold Medal honors a recording, but what it really marks is a lifetime of listening for the moments that can't be planned.
The St. Matthew Passion is available now on AVIE Records.
Photo credit: Orchestra of St. Luke’s
A Return to Carnegie Hall
In June, McGegan joined the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall for a program pairing Bach and Mozart, with violinist Stella Chen. Writing in Bachtrack, "[McGegan's] deep experience in 18th-century music was evident in crisp articulation, clean textures and buoyant pacing. Historically informed choices came across as second nature rather than doctrine." It was a characteristic McGegan evening: two composers a century apart, set side by side so that each threw the other into sharper relief.
Postcards from the Road
Summer took McGegan to the Rocky Mountains and the Aspen Music Festival, where on July 10 he led the Klein Music Tent through Beethoven's Overture to King Stephen, Mozart's Fourth Violin Concerto, Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks — a single evening spanning nearly a century and a half of music. In a review, The Aspen Times calls him “…irrepressible...”
It capped a season of remarkable range: four weeks of Messiah criss-crossing the country, Elgar's First Symphony in Indianapolis as the snow came down, a first-ever Brahms Requiem in Amarillo, and long residencies with students at Yale, Juilliard, and Indiana University. For a conductor who could easily spend his life in airports, McGegan measures the road by its friendships — the orchestras he has returned to for decades, the cities where he still knows people at the next restaurant table. "There is no place like home," he says. "I know that sounds like an old song. But home sweet home — it's very nice."
McGegan on stage with violinist Leonidas Kavakos at Aspen Music Festival’s Chamber Symphony performance.
Photo credit: Diego Redel - Fotojornalismo and Blake Charles Photography
McGegan's autumn carries him across Europe and back — from Frankfurt to Warsaw to Berkeley — with a Bach- and Handel-rich season ahead. If one of these programs is near you, come and hear a familiar score made new. Stay tuned for his season announcement next month.
Upcoming Appearances
August 24, 2026
Bach's St. Matthew Passion — An Immersive Listening Experience
A 3D-audio playback from the Gold Medal–winning Cantata Collective recording, with David v.R. Bowles and conductor Nicholas McGegan — presented by AES San Francisco at Dolby Laboratories. AES member David v.R. Bowles produced and engineered this recording, drawing on his research in 3D audio recording, developed in conjunction with NYU Steinhardt faculty. Details & Tickets →
September 27, 2026
Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt — Beethoven, Hoffmeister Viola Concerto, Haydn Symphony No. 100
October 23, 2026
Calgary Philharmonic — Handel Royal Fireworks Music, Rameau Naïs, Bach Cantata No. 99
November 13-14, 2026
Warsaw Philharmonic — Handel L'Allegro
December 2-4, 2026
Trinity Wall Street — Handel Messiah
December 10, 2026
Aalborg Symphony — Bach Christmas Oratorio
December 19–20, 2026
Cantata Collective — Bach Christmas Oratorio