Gavin Sutherland
Gavin Sutherland is an Olivier Award-nominated conductor and arranger/orchestrator.
Born in Durham, UK, he studied conducting, piano and orchestration at Huddersfield University and graduated with first-class honours, gaining the Kruczynski Prize for Piano and the Davidson Prize for Distinction Brought to the Institution. In July 2019 Sutherland was conferred with a Doctorate of Huddersfield University honoris causa for distinguished services to music.
Sutherland was appointed as pianist and staff conductor for Northern Ballet Theatre from 1992 to 1998. On the basis of his first CD, he began working with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia on the concert platform and as the orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet (involving both national and international tours). In a career of over thirty years, he has conducted many of the major international ballet companies.
From 2008 to 2022 he was Music Director and Principal Conductor of English National Ballet and conducted the company on both national and international tours. He also contributed orchestrations to the company including Tamara Rojo’s Raymonda (Glazunov), Akram Khan’s Olivier Award-winning Giselle (Vincenzo Lamagna after Adam), Le Corsaire (Adam et al), Men Y Men (Rachmaninoff), No Man’s Land (Liszt), and many galas. He stepped down as MD in 2022 and was appointed Principal Guest Conductor.
Gavin Sutherland has made over a hundred recordings in the UK and abroad, predominantly with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the City of Prague Philharmonic, and has also conducted numerous film and television scores.
He appears regularly in concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2016 conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra and has conducted and arranged for several Last Nights.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Sutherland works frequently as a composer/arranger, and supplies arrangements and orchestrations performed worldwide.
His work also features the reconstructions of works whose materials have been lost or destroyed, encompassing TV and film scores to classical ballet and symphonic orchestral works. As a speaker and broadcaster, he has frequently spoken on BBC Radio and Television, and is renowned as an expert on ballet music, British Light Music and the music of British Television.
In 2019 he was nominated for the first Criticsʼ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution, winning the award the following year. 2024 saw a collaboration with composer Asaf Zohar to conduct, orchestrate and provide dance arrangements for the Royal National Theatreʼs production of Ballet Shoes – work that saw him receive an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Musical Contribution.
In December 2024 Gavin Sutherland was appointed a Freeman of the City of London.
He makes his debut at the Vienna State Ballet with the musical direction of the ballet evening Visionary Dances in March 2026.