Conductor Mark Wigglesworth has a substantial international reputation in both symphonic and operatic literature. He has amassed a large recording catalog, including a complete cycle of Shostakovich's symphonies. Wigglesworth was born in England's Sussex region on July 19, 1964. He attended the Bryanston School in Dorset and then Manchester University, rounding out his conducting education at the Royal Academy of Music. Making a splash with a win at the Kondrashin Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in 1989, Wigglesworth began to find guest conducting engagements. In 1991, he conducted Mozart's Così fan tutte at London's Opera Factory, and he has continued to be in demand on the operatic circuit. In the same year, he was appointed the associate conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, remaining in the post until 1993 and then, in 1996, moving to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 1996 to 2000. He also served as the principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony from 1998 to 2001. During the 2000s and 2010s, Wigglesworth appeared in high-profile guest conducting engagements with both operas and orchestra companies. He conducted for the first of many times at Covent Garden in London in 2002 and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2005 with Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Wigglesworth made frequent guest appearances with the National Symphony in Washington and the New World Symphony in Miami, as well as with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Wigglesworth was announced as the new music director of the La Monnaie opera company in Belgium for the 2008-2009 season but did not take up the position. For the 2015-2016 season, he served as the music director of the English National Opera but departed after disagreements with management over cost-cutting measures. Wigglesworth is the author of the book The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters, which was published in 2018 and has been translated into Spanish and Mandarin. Wigglesworth has recorded a complete cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic for the BIS label, beginning in 2005 with the Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65. These recordings have been successful and have been packaged by BIS in various combinations, including a complete set issued in 2021. He has also recorded music by Mahler and other composers in Australia, including with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.