Nigel Gaynor is a highly acclaimed conductor of ballet, and has conducted over 100 ballets during a career spanning 35 years. Born in Sydney, he worked with The Australian Ballet for 16 years, before relocating to the United Kingdom in 1998. While living in England he worked with The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, and Northern Ballet. Some of his career highlights include working with Rudolf Nureyev, Sir Robert Helpmann and Jiří Kylián; conducting The Australian Ballet’s Red Earth on live television, and collaborating on new ballets with choreographers Graeme Murphy, Wayne McGregor, Greg Horsman and Liam Scarlett.

 
In 2004 Nigel conducted Derek Deane’s Swan Lake with English National Ballet in the Royal Albert Hall. Orchestras he has conducted include The Royal Sinfonia, Tokyo Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonia, New Zealand Symphony, The Tasmanian Symphony, Queensland Symphony, West Australian Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Orchestra Victoria and The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2011, Nigel was engaged by Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) to arrange and conduct Greg Horsman’s The Sleeping Beauty. In 2013, Ethan Stiefel appointed Nigel Music Director of RNZB. For A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he created a new score and arrangements to weave together the vision of choreographer Liam Scarlett with Mendelssohn’s dazzling overture, incidental music, symphonies and piano music. In 2014, Li Cunxin invited Nigel to guest in Queensland Ballet’s season of Romeo & Juliet, in which he conducted the performances of Carlos Acosta. More recently he re-orchestrated La Bayadère for Greg Horsman’s new production at Queensland Ballet. Nigel joined Queensland Ballet as Music Director and Principal Conductor in 2016.