Michael Francis
British conductor Michael Francis has been appointed principal conductor of Germany's Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, which is based in Ludwigshafen am Rhein and is the leading orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate. Francis studied at Cardiff University's School of Music, and began his career playing double bass in the London Symphony Orchestra. He quickly established himself internationally as a conductor, replacing an ill Valery Gergiev, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in 2007, then rescuing the LSO again, a month later, when John Adams was ill, at only two hours' notice. In 2009 he replaced André Previn in the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra's German tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter. Francis is music director of the Florida Orchestra and is music and artistic director of San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival, where he has launched an ambitious multi-year exploration of Mozart's life. From 2012 until 2016 he was principal conductor of Sweden's Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. He has a diverse repertoire, with a particular emphasis on British composers, and spends much time working with young musicians, particularly in the National Youth Orchestras of Canada and Scotland, with Miami's New World Symphony and with young musicians in Florida. He begins his five-year contract with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in September 2019 as the ensemble celebrates its one hundredth anniversary.
Posted: 10 December 2018
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