Born in Jamaica, with Russian ancestry, the British conductor Andrew Gourlay grew up in the Bahamas, Philippines, Japan and the UK. He studied conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he prepared Bruckner symphonies for Bernard Haitink and Mozart symphonies for Sir Roger Norrington. A professional trombonist until his mid twenties, he performed with the major UK orchestras and toured South America and Europe as a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under Claudio Abbado. Andrew Gourlay won First Prize at the 2010 Cadaques International Conducting Competition. In the same year he was appointed Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra. In 2015 Gourlay took up the position of Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (OSCyL), having been their Principal Guest Conductor since 2014. Andrew Gourlay's guest engagements include the major UK orchestras and orchestras across Europe, North and South America and Australasia. He has made multiple appearance at the BBC Proms. Operatic engagements have included UK premieres for the Royal Opera House and Aldeburgh Festival. In 2015 he conducted Tippett’s The Ice Break to great critical acclaim in a new production by Sir Graham Vick for Birmingham Opera Company and the CBSO. In 2019 Schott Music published "Parsifal Suite", a 45-minute suite of orchestral music constructed by Gourlay from Wagner's Parsifal.