Oliver Gooch is one of an exciting generation of young conductor. For two years from 2004 he was appointed Assistant Conductor on the Royal Opera House Young Artists Programme in a post specially created for him. There he made his debut with the Opera House Orchestra on the main stage in 2006 and was involved as Assistant Conductor and member of the Music Staff on Peter Grimes, Werther, La Rondine, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, La Boheme, Macbeth, The Bartered Bride, La Traviata, Il re pastore, Tosca, Bluebeard's Castle/Ewartung and Il Trovatore. He also made his debut with the Royal Ballet on the triple bill production of Tombeaux/Enigma/Rite of Spring.

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 four star review in The Guardian.

In 2004 he became Music Director of Iford Festival Opera (Rusalka, Lucia di Lammermoor and L'elisir d'amore) and in 2007 he appeared with Stanley Hall Opera for the first time. Other recent engagements include assisting Sir Charles Mackerras on Die Zauberflőte, Le nozze di Figaro, Albert Herring (Glyndebourne and Glyndebourne Touring Opera), The Bear (Edinburgh), The Little Sweep (Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh) and Maskarade (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).

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.

This season he has conducted Le Nozze di Figaro (OEP), Riders to the Sea (Buxton Festival), The Dangerous Liaisons (Dicapo Opera, New York), Un giorno di regno (Stanley Hall, Iford) and Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness (Linbury/Opera Genesis), all of which have resulted in immediate invitations back for next season. Forthcoming engagements include I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Opera North), Turandot (ROH), Sarka (Dicapp Opera), Curlew River (Buxton Festival) and Eugene Onegin (Iford).