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"British conductor Michael Francis made his Cleveland Orchestra debut Saturday night with a mostly English program…and concluded with a stunning realization of Vaughan Williams’ epic Symphony No. 2, a portrait of the city the composer lived in and loved for significant periods…Francis led a brilliant and committed performance of this large and colorful canvas of a symphony, keeping close rein on the sprawling structure of the huge first movement while eliciting countless lovely details from the orchestration. His grasp of the work’s drama was sure, and his ear for Vaughan Williams’ textures in the Lento and the Whistler-esque Scherzo — the former an essay in grays, mauves and muted blues, the latter a fantasia of pulsing darkness and flaring light — was all that could be hoped for."
“Beethoven. Fifth. Heard so many times before. But not like this. Great is too small a word, because what Michael Francis gets his orchestra to do when it comes to Beethoven is nothing short of incredible. Beethoven’s famous 5th has not sounded like this in a very, very long time. Definitely not when played by the State Philharmonic. That’s something only giants can do.”
Michael Francis has developed an international reputation for sharing the power of music through his conducting and engaging speaking.
Appointed Music Director of the FloridaOrchestra in the fall of 2014, he is now entering his tenth season with a contract extension through the 2029–2030 season. His role in building transformative Community-Engagement initiatives has helped to grow the organization significantly. As Music Director of the Mainly Mozart Festival inSan Diego since 2014 (with a contract renewal through the summer of 2028),Francis and Mainly Mozart have recently completed an ambitious multi year exploration of Mozart’s life.
Entering his sixth season with Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Francis continues as Chief Conductor with a contract extension through 2029. Previously, he was Chief Conductor andArtistic Advisor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from 2012–2016.
Highlights include North American performances with the Cleveland Orchestra; the symphony orchestras of St.Louis, San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Montreal; and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. In Europe, he has conducted theSymphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra,Dresden Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE Madrid, and the Mariinsky Orchestra, among others. In his home country, he has worked with the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, BBCNational Orchestra of Wales and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. InAsia, Francis has worked with the NHK Symphony and the philharmonic orchestras of Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Seoul.
Francis has collaborated with notable soloists such as Lang Lang, Arcadi Volodos, Itzhak Perlman, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Gluzman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Javier Perianes, Jamie Barton, Truls Mørk, Håkan Hardenberger, Maximilian Hornung, Miloš, Benjamin Grosvenor, Emanuel Ax,Ian Bostridge, James Ehnes, Sting, and many others.
Alongside his extensive educational work with young musicians, Francis is passionate about sharing the hidden truths in music with audiences worldwide through his acclaimed podium talks.His “Inside the Music” series and pre-concert talks in Florida have greatly helped develop new audiences. An exciting new series of Keynote presentations(explaining the music alongside performances) with Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz was recently released on Naxos.
Francis’s discography includes a recently released cycle of Mahler’s re orchestrations of Beethoven’s symphonies and overtures with Staatsphilharmonie on Capriccio and the Symphonic Poems ofAugusta Holmés on CPO. Francis also conducted the Rachmaninov piano concertos with Valentina Lisitsa and the London Symphony Orchestra on Decca and Rihm’s Lichtes Spiel with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the New York Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon.
A former double-bass player in the London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Francis came to prominence as a conductor inJanuary of 2007, stepping in for Valery Gergiev and John Adams with the London Symphony Orchestra.
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