Oliver Gooch is one of an exciting generation of young conductor. In 2004 he was appointed Assistant Conductor on the Royal Opera House Young Artists Programme in a post specially created for him. 

He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He studied conducting at the Tanglewood Festival under Robert Spano and Seiji Ozawa, and was subsequently nominated for the prestigious Rolex/Mentor Protégé Arts Initiative in Geneva, under Sir Colin Davis. In 2006 he was awarded the Clore Fellowship for the East of England, a special one year progamme designed to nurture a new generation of cultural leaders.

In 1999, he founded Opera East Productions as its Artistic Director, a company described in the press as, ‘deserving to be an opera company of national significance.’ With the company he has toured the East of England and beyond on much of the canon, including Britten’s chamber operas, Mozart’s da Ponte operas and others including The Rake's Progress for which he received a top rating in The Guardian.

He made his USA debut in 2004 with Dicapo Opera in the New York première of Conrad Susa's Dangerous Liaisons. He was immediately re-engaged to direct the US première of Janacek's Sarka. He also enjoys regular collaborations with American Opera Projects, New York. He works regularly in the UK with the leading opera companies, including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival, Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Opera North, as well as the Royal Ballet. He has also conducted at Buxton Festival, Iford Festival and at Stanley Hall Opera.

His forthcoming engagements include Don Giovanni (Teatro Sociale di Como), Rigoletto (Iford Arts), Madama Butterfly (Raymond Gubbay/RAH), Heart of Darkness (ROH2/Linbury Theatre with Britten Sinfonia). Concert engagements include Mahler's Fourth Symphony (Philharmonia Orchestra), the Southbank Sinfonia and Elgar's Enigma Variations and Sea Pictures with Christine Rice and the RPO at Cadogan Hall.