THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2018-2019 7
MICHAEL FRANCIS
Music Director
Conductor Michael Francis has quickly established
himself internationally. Known for maintaining a
diverse repertoire while paying particular homage
to the composers of his native Britain, Francis
enjoys great reception throughout North America,
Europe and Asia.
Highlights of Francis’ 2018/19 season include
return appearances with the MDR Leipzig Radio
Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra,
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and debuts with
the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as well as the
Phoenix and San Diego symphonies. He returns
with Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
as artist-in-residence for the season.
Other guest and return appearances in North
America have included The Cleveland Orchestra and
the symphonies of New York, Cincinnati, Houston,
Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.
His European engagements have included Bavarian
Radio, Berlin Radio, Dresden Philharmonic, Helsinki
Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE Madrid
and Mariinsky Orchestra. In the United Kingdom,
he has worked with the London Symphony, Royal
Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic,
BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Scottish
Symphony. In Asia, Francis has conducted the
NHK Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of
Taiwan as well as the Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia
and Seoul philharmonics.
Working with young musicians has always been a
priority for Francis. He will return to the National
Youth Orchestra of Canada during the summer of
2019. Francis has made frequent visits to Miami’s
New World Symphony and recently returned to
the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. He also
works regularly with young musicians in Florida
as part of the orchestra’s community engagement
initiative.
After several years as a tenured double-bass player
in the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), he came
to prominence as 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.
He is in his fourth year as music director of The
Florida Orchestra, where he has led an extensive
community engagement initiative that includes
statewide residencies, programmatic collaborations
with local museums, and a hugely expanded lecture
series. In 2018, Francis was appointed the new
chief conductor of Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie
Rheinland-Pfalz. He is also music director of the
Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, where he has
launched an ambitious multi-year exploration of
Mozart’s life. He was previously chief conductor
and artistic advisor of the Norrköping Symphony
Orchestra from 2012 to 2016.