Gavin was pianist and staff conductor for Northern Ballet from 1992 to 1998. He has since worked with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Birmingham Royal Ballet. He has featured as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and has also guest conducted frequently for English National Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, New Adventures and South African Ballet Theatre. In June 2008 he was appointed Music Director of English National Ballet, becoming Principal Conductor in 2010. In August 2009 he was appointed Chairman of the Light Music Society.
He has made over eighty recordings predominantly with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In May 2001, Gavin became Principal Conductor of the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, for whom he now conducts regularly both in Melbourne and Sydney Opera House. He has also guest conducted numerous orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Scottish Opera.
Gavin regularly supplies arrangements performed by all of the major BBC orchestras and numerous other national and international orchestras. For English National Ballet he orchestrated the piano music of Rachmaninoff for Wayne Eagling’s award-winning Men Y Men and has arranged and adapted the music of Tchaikovsky for My First... Sleeping Beauty, Angelina Ballerina’s Big Audition and Angelina’s Star Performance.
Most recently Gavin provided the arrangements and conducted the sell-out UK tours of Anton and Erin Cheek to Cheek, Steppin’ Out with Anton and Erin, Simply Gershwin, We’ll Meet Again – A Tribute to the War Years and Happy and Glorious – Sixty Sixty Glorious Years for Raymond Gubbay.