Holly Mathieson (28 May 1981) is a New Zealand conductor and academic. In 2015 she lives in Glasgow, Scotland. 　　Education and early life 　　Mathieson was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. She completed her BMus (hons) in composition and analysis from the University of Otago in 2001. She earned an MMus in orchestral conducting from the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. She received a PhD in Music in the subject of Iconography "Embodying Music: The Visuality of Three Iconic Conductors in London, 1840-1940" in 2010. In 2014-15, she was a Leverhulme Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, mentored by Garry Walker and assisting Donald Runnicles at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. 　　She is a graduate of the St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic masterclass (Alexander Polishchuk and Mark Stringer), London Conducting Workshop (Neil Thomson and John Farrer), Dartington International Summer School (John Carewe and Pierre-André Valade), and the Pärnu Music Festival Järvi Academy (Leonid Grin, Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi). 　　Career 　　In 2018, Holly was named Co-Artistic Director of the Nevis Ensemble, alongside Jon Hargreaves, and regularly works as a guest conductor with organisations including Scottish Ballet, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and New Zealand Opera. 　　In August 2016, Holly was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for two years, following a recruitment process which attracted over three-hundred applicants worldwide. 　　In 2015, Holly became Resident Conductor of the National Youth orchestra of Scotland Junior Orchestra. 　　In 2014-15, she accepted a Leverhulme Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, mentored by Garry Walker and assisting Donald Runnicles at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She also conducted the Red Note Ensemble at Scotland's PLUG Festival. Since 2013, Mathieson is Artistic Director of the Horizont Musik-Kollektiv (Berlin). 　　In 2010, Mathieson started working as orchestral librarian at the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, while she continued to study conducting privately. She went on to assist Christoph Von Dohnányi and Esa-Pekka Salonen with that orchestra. She also assisted Marin Alsop in projects with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Paris and Berlin, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms; she was a finalist in the 2015 competition for assistant conductor of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France; and was selected for the Interaktion Dirigentenwerkstatt des Kritischen Orchesters with players from the Berlin Philharmonic and other German orchestras in 2013. 　　Opera work includes Associate Conductor at Opera Holland Park for the 2015 Christine Collins Young Artist Performance Of Léo Delibes' Lakmé; Assistant Conductor for Garsington Opera's award-winning 2014 production of Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen; conducting the world premiere of Anthony Ritchie's The God Boy (New Zealand, 2004); and Opera Otago's Così fan tutte at the 2008 Otago Festival of the Arts. 　　Between 2015 and 2017, Mathieson was Vocal Director and Lecturer in Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London.