a conductor in January 2007, replacing an indisposed Valery
Gergiev for concerts with the LSO during the BBC’s Gubaidulina
festival at the Barbican Centre. Just one month later, Francis
was asked, this time with only two hours’ notice, to replace the
composer/conductor John Adams in a performance of his own
works with the LSO with the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Soon after
in January 2009, he replaced André Previn leading a German tour
of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony with Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Soloists that he works with include Lang Lang, Arcadi Volodos,
Itzhak Perlman, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Gluzman, Nicola
Benedetti, Javier Perianes, Jamie Barton, Truls Mørk, Håkan
Hardenberger, Daniel Müller-Schott, Miloš, Benjamin Grosvenor,
Emanuel Ax, Ian Bostridge, James Ehnes, and Rufus Wainwright.
Francis’ discography includes the Rachmaninoff piano
concertos with Valentina Lisitsa and the London Symphony
Orchestra, Wolfgang Rihm’s Lichtes Spiel with Anne-Sophie Mutter
and the New York Philharmonic, and the Ravel and Gershwin piano
concertos with Ian Parker.
Michael Francis now enters his fourth year as music director
of The Florida Orchestra. Since the start of his tenure, he has led
a transformative community engagement initiative, which has
included statewide residencies, programmatic collaborations with
local museums, and a hugely expanded lecture series. Michael
Francis was recently named principal conductor of Deutsche
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, a position which begins in
September 2019. He is also music director of the Mainly Mozart
Festival in San Diego, where he has launched an ambitious multiyear
exploration of Mozart’s life. He was previously chief conductor
and artistic advisor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from
2012 to 2016.
T H E M A S T E R C H O R A L E O F TA M PA B AY
Recognized as the premier choral ensemble in Tampa Bay
and praised by music critics from both the Tampa Bay Times
and The Tampa Tribune as “one of the country’s finest choirs,”
“an amazing instrument,” and a “cultural treasure,” The Master
Chorale of Tampa Bay has consistently delivered some of the
most profoundly moving music performances in the area.
The Master Chorale, under the direction of Brett Karlin, Artistic
Director, is an auditioned, highly select 150-voice volunteer chorus