- Biography
Nathaniel GRIFFITHS
Candidate of the 2027 Competition
Nathaniel Griffiths is an Australian-born conductor, enjoying a flourishing freelance career in Australasia. A versatile musician, Griffiths is equally at home in ballet, opera, contemporary, and symphonic repertoire, with credits ranging from ballet premieres to movie soundtrack recording. His engagements in 2026 include returning to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, as well as his debut with the Australian Youth Orchestra. In December 2026, he will lead Queensland Ballet’s new production of The Nutcracker.
As The Australian Ballet’s 2025 Robert and Elizabeth Albert Conducting Fellow, Griffiths made his debut with the company in performances of Johann Inger’s Carmen, and his Sydney Opera House debut conducting Kenneth Macmillan’s Manon. He conducted performances of The Sleeping Beauty in Brisbane and Sydney to great acclaim.
In 2024, Griffiths debuted with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Queensland Ballet. He also made further appearances with the Auckland Philharmonia, following the success of his assistantship as the 2023 New Zealand Assistant-Conductor-in-Residence.
Passionate about opera, Griffiths premiered the full orchestration of Lucy Mulgan’s Red! with the Auckland Philharmonia as part of their Summer School in 2024. He has assisted on numerous opera productions at the Queensland Conservatorium, and made his opera debut in 2021 in a performance of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. Most recently, he was a semi-finalist in the 2026 Plovdiv Opera International Conducting Competition.
Griffiths was a participant in the 2023/24 Australian Conducting Academy, affording him the opportunity to work with Australia’s leading symphony orchestras and conductors. He is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium, where he studied with Johannes Fritzsch.