Andrew Gourlay conductor

Born in Jamaica, with Russian ancestry, Andrew Gourlay grew up in the Bahamas, Philippines, Japan, and England. A trombonist and pianist by training, he studied conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he prepared Bruckner symphonies for Bernard Haitink and Mozart symphonies for Sir Roger Norrington. He was selected by Gramophone magazine as their “One to Watch,” and by BBC Music Magazine as their “Rising Star: great artists of tomorrow.”

Andrew Gourlay won first prize at the 2010 Cadaqués International Conducting Competition, securing concerts with 29 orchestras around the world. For the next two years, he was Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra. In 2015, Gourlay took up the position of Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (OSCyL), having been their Principal Guest Conductor since the 2014-15 season, and celebrated the orchestra’s 25th anniversary in 2016-17.

Guest engagements include conducting the Philharmonia, the BBC orchestras, London Philharmonic, RLPO, Hallé, CBSO, Opera North, RTÉ Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, among many others. He made his US debut in 2016-17 with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and returned to the USA in 2018 to conduct the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Guest engagements since 2020 include a visit to the Enescu Festival with the Britten Sinfonia, and concerts with BBC NOW, BBC Scottish Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, and Britten Sinfonia.

Operatic engagements have included the UK premiere of Luca Francesconi’s Quartett for the Royal Opera House. He has conducted Rusalka and La Tragédie de Carmen for the English Touring Opera, and The Marriage of Figaro at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School. In 2015, he conducted Tippett’s The Ice Break to great critical acclaim in a new production by Graham Vick for Birmingham Opera Company and the CBSO. He conducted Huw Watkins’ In the Locked Room with Britten Sinfonia in Wigmore Hall in November 2021 and returned to the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2022 to conduct the world premiere of Tom Coult’s opera Violet. In spring 2023, he conducted The Cunning Little Vixen for Opera North.

Andrew Gourlay has conducted recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Symphony, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The first own-label OSCyL disc of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 and The Isle of the Dead was released in spring 2019 to critical acclaim, and was followed by Shostakovich 10 in 2021. His orchestral suite from Parsifal was released in November 2022 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on Orchid Classics.

Ji Su Jung marimba

The first percussionist ever to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ji Su Jung has a distinctive musical voice that is instantly recognizable for its depth and lyricism. She has performed concertos with such leading orchestras and conductors as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop, the Houston Symphony with Daniel Hege, the Aspen Festival Orchestra with Michael Stern, the Colorado Symphony, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with Peter Oundjian.

“Ji Su Jung’s performance of the Kevin Puts Marimba Concerto was dazzling—filled with breathtaking virtuosity but also beautifully shaped with extraordinary color and nuance,” remarked conductor JoAnn Falletta about Jung’s performance with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Jung’s recording of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts’s Marimba Concerto, performed with the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop, was released on the Naxos label in February 2023. Pizzicato said of the recording that “Jung elicits wide spectrums from the work with superior technical execution.”

Jung has performed solo recitals in such venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She frequently performs with The Percussion Collective, an all-star collection of young percussionists, of which she is a core member.

Recognized internationally as a pedagogue, Jung serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Jung holds a bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Institute, and a master’s degree and an artist diploma from the Yale School of Music.