Meet conductor Harry Ogg

Recent signing Harry Ogg – who has just been appointed WNO Associate Conductor in collaboration with the Donatella Flick- LSO Conducting Competition – takes our Q&A, revealing musical memories and favourite things.

Where did your love of music begin?

I learned the piano from about the age of eight (my father was an amateur pianist) but it was later playing in an orchestra (as a tuba and double bass player) that I really realised that I wanted to be a musician. It’s hard to describe how wonderful making music with others/ breathing as one is…

Was there a ‘lightbulb’ moment?A summer youth orchestra tour playing extracts from Götterdämmerung… that music and seeing how the conductor shapes it all… Not really looked back since!

Best musical advice you’ve received?

Conducting is listening – you will spend your whole career developing your ability to listen and hear.

Most memorable live music experience as a performer?

Conducting Mahler Symphony No. 1 with Sinfonia d’Amici (which was, quite literally, an orchestra of my friends) when I was 21. There was something extraordinary in the air that night…

Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party, living or dead?

Shakespeare – he had such an unbelievable understanding of human nature, an evening with him would surely be hilarious, fascinating and moving.

Favourite venue?

The Royal Albert Hall during the Proms. As one orchestral player once said to me, “when you play there you feel like you’re a rock star!”

Which non-classical musician would you most like to work with?

Laura Marling or Mark Ronson; I just really like their music.

If you were given a time machine, what period or musical event would you travel to?

The 1910s, in order to experience the atmosphere around and reaction to premieres of works by Stravinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg, Janáček etc. An extraordinary time for music.

Career plan B?

My answer would have been very different 10 years ago, but now I think I would be a psychotherapist. There’s little more fascinating than the inner workings of the human mind and spirit.

And finally, how do you relax when not working?

Swimming (preferably outdoors), reading books and watching films. Most importantly: spending time with friends.

This is a shortened version of a Q&A that first appeared online. Read the full Q&A at askonasholt.com/harry-ogg