Performers & composers

Franck Ollu

Franck Ollu has an impressive career as a versatile and imaginative conductor, and is widely considered an expert in the field of contemporary music. He often works in conjunction with leading composers and has conducted throughout Europe, America and Australia. He appears regularly with the world’s most prestigious ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Remix Ensemble, London Sinfonietta and Elision Ensemble and is Artistic Director of the Swedish Ensemble for New Music “KammarensembleN” in Stockholm. He is also an accomplished symphonic conductor, with recent highlights including concerts with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Orchestre National de Lyon, and future appearances with orchestras such as Orquesta Nacional d’España, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional do Porto and Philharmonia Orchestra London.

He has championed works by many contemporary composers and recent premieres include works by Hans Zender, Peter Eötvös, Emmanuel Nunes, Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm and Heiner Goebbels with his opera 'Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten'. Last season he conducted the first performances of 'Ce Qui Arrive' by Olga Neuwirth with performances in Graz, Vienna, Cologne, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. He has appeared as a conductor at the Berliner Festwochen, Lincoln Center Festival in New York, Theatre Colon in Buenos-Aires, Musica Viva in Munich and Musica Nova festival in Helsinki. This November he conducts the world premiere of George Benjamin’s new opera at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, which he will tour extensively next year. In the coming seasons he will continue his operatic collaboration with Olga Neuwirth and conduct a new opera commission at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Franck Ollu was born in 1960 in La Rochelle, France and studied music in Paris. He became principal horn player of the Ensemble Modern in 1990, and first started conducting in 1999 when he was 2nd conductor to John Adams for Ives’ Symphony No. 4.