Michael Francis
Conductor
“The evening was made memorable by the debut of conductor Michael Francis, who led Milhaud’s ‘La création du monde’ and Weill’s Symphony No 2 with crisp technique and uncommon empathy for these disparate works.” San Francisco Times
In spring 2011 Michael Francis was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, starting in the 2012/13 season. This followed his impressive debut in October 2010, which was also his Scandinavian debut.
The 2011/12 season sees Michael Francis making his debuts with Essener Philharmoniker, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Copenhagen Philharmonic/Sjællands Symfoniorkester, the Orquesta y Coro de RTVE Madrid, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Philharmonisches Orchester Kiel. He returns to St Petersburg with Soloists, Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and is twice on tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter: First, in January with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and then in June with the Kammerorchester Wien-Berlin. In April, he will make his debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and also with the Orquesta de Cámara Andrés Segovia in Madrid with Lang Lang as soloist. He has worked with artists such as Valentina Lisitsa, Alain Lefevre, Daniel Müller-Schott, Roberto Morales, Roberto Alagna, Ian Parker, and Leila Josefowicz.
The previous season catapulted Michael Francis onto the American concert scene. Highlights included his debut with the New York Philharmonic performing the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s "Lichtes Spiel" for violin and orchestra with Anne-Sophie Mutter. He made strong impressions in his debuts with the Indianapolis, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle and Oregon Symphonies. He will return to many of these orchestras in future seasons. After the success of conducting San Francisco Symphony in ten concerts of their major “Summer & the Symphony Festival” in July 2011, he has been invited to conduct the New Year’s concert and the 2012 “Summer Festival”. The 2012/13 season will also see Mr. Francis making his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Over the last years Michael Francis has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (at the Luxemburg Philharmonie and for the BBC Gubaidulina Festival at the Barbican Centre in London), Münchner Symphoniker, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Radio Sinfonierorchester Stuttgart, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Orchestra. In Asia he has worked with the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the Seoul Philharmonic.
On CD Francis can be heard with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the New York Philharmonic (Rihm “Lichtes Spiel”/ Deutsche Grammophon August 2011). He regularly records with the London Symphony Orchestra, where he has worked with Ian Parker, (Ravel and Gershwin piano concertos/ Atma Classique 2010), Valentina Listisa, (complete Rachmaninov piano concertos/ autumn 2011) and with Julius-Jeongwon Kim (Rachmaninov/ Warenberg piano concerto No.5, Shostakovich piano concerto No.2/ autumn 2011).
SEASON 2011/2012
