Nicholas Collon has been announced as Principal Guest Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (Music Director Francois Xavier Roth) for an initial three years, from 2017/18. He will conduct two programmes each season at the Cologne Philharmonie and also appear with the orchestra at Cologne Opera.
Nicholas first conducted the orchestra a year ago, in a programme of Britten, Ravel and Vaughan Williams, when he struck up an instant and electrifying rapport with the musicians. Their next concerts together are in February 2018, when he brings an eclectic programme of Debussy, Bartók, Wagner, Ligeti and Ravel, and conducts Don Giovanni at Cologne Opera. Then at Easter he returns to conduct movements from Haydn’s Seven Last Words paired with James Macmillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, both interleaved with J.S. Bach cantatas sung by countertenor Bejun Mehta.
He will also bring his Aurora Orchestra to the Cologne Philharmonie in October 2017, when the orchestra will play Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 from memory.
Read an interview with Nicholas and find out more about the orchestra’s season here.