Biography

After a successful career as a bassoonist, which included ten years as principal at the Komische Oper Berlin, Catherine Larsen-Maguire turned her focus to conducting in 2012, and has since then become a sought-after conductor and a regular visitor to orchestras and ensembles in many parts of the world.
In June 2023 she was named as the first Music Director of the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, a position she will hold for an initial three years.
Highlights of recent seasons include concerts with the London Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and a new production of “Don Giovanni” at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin.
The season 2025-26 sees debuts with, among others, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and the Simfònica del Vallès in Barcelona.

Catherine also has a special interest in contemporary music, and has directed the first performances of numerous works, including Alexander Goehr’s last orchestral work, “The Master Said”, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Other ensembles with which Catherine has collaborated include Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Ascolta, Klangforum Wien, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic 10:10 Ensemble and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In September 2021 she made her debut with Ensemble Modern at the Berlin Music Festival, and in April 2022 she conducted a joint project with the Scottish Ensemble, Ensemble Resonanz and the Trondheim Soloists in the Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow.

With a passion for mentoring the next generation of musicians, and placing great emphasis on working with young people both as conductor and educator, Catherine has given masterclasses in Germany, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Israel and Spain, serves regularly as a jury member for conducting competitions, and was a guest professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Youth orchestras she has worked with include the Young Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, the Underground Youth Orchestra in Athens, the Berlin Youth Orchestra and the Eduardo Mata Youth Orchestra in Mexico City.

Born in Manchester and now based in Berlin, Catherine read music at Cambridge University and studied the bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with Klaus Thunemann in Hanover, and at the Karajan Academy in Berlin, playing regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic during this time. Important influences on the development of her conducting career were John Carewe, George Hurst and Vladimir Jurowski, whom she assisted on several occasions early in her career.