British conductor Catherine Larsen-Maguire makes her Royal Swedish Opera conducting debut in autumn 2026 with José Martinez’s Le Corsaire. Since January 2026, she has been Music Director of the Faroese Symphony Orchestra and is a sought-after guest conductor with orchestras throughout Europe as well as in Central and South America.
In recent years, Larsen-Maguire has conducted orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia. During the 2025/26 season, she made debuts with orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa.
Contemporary music plays an important role in Larsen-Maguire’s work. She collaborates regularly with living composers and has conducted numerous world and national premieres. These include the world premieres of Alexander Goehr’s The Master Said with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Cathy Milliken’s Night Shift with Ensemble Modern and Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Deep Dark Shine with the Scottish Ensemble, Ensemble Resonanz and the Trondheim Soloists. She has also worked with composers including Brett Dean, Helen Grime, Charlotte Bray and Mica Levi.
Larsen-Maguire is deeply committed to working with young musicians and was Music Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2024 and 2025. She has also worked with several other youth orchestras and given masterclasses in countries including Germany, Brazil, Israel, Spain and Mexico. From 2014 to 2016, she was a guest professor of conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Catherine Larsen-Maguire was born in Manchester and is based in Berlin. She studied music at the University of Cambridge before continuing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Karajan Academy in Berlin. Before turning her focus exclusively to conducting in 2012, she enjoyed a successful career as a bassoonist, including ten years as principal bassoon at the Komische Oper Berlin.
