British conductor Nicholas Collon is recognised for his elegant conducting style, searching musical intellect and inspirational music-making. He is Founder and Principal Conductor of Aurora Orchestra and has been Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony since 2021 (renewed until 2028). He was Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in Den Haag (latterly also Artistic Advisor) 2016-2021, and was Principal Guest of the Gürzenich Orchester from 2017-2022.

With the Finnish Radio Symphony he has toured to the BBC Proms, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and to Germany and Estonia. Their expanding discography together for Ondine includes acclaimed albums of Sibelius, Lutosławski, Adès and Wennäkoski (winning the 2023 Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Recording), with Richard Strauss, Elgar, Holst, and more Sibelius to come. Their 2024/25 concert season includes Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie and Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps as part of a Paris theme, and works by Finnish-American composer Lara Poe. Every concert is broadcast live on Finnish National TV.

Collon leads Aurora Orchestra at the BBC Proms every year in their hugely popular memorised performances. Aurora is Resident Ensemble at Kings Place and Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre where it has reinvented the concert format with its ‘Orchestral Theatre’ Series. They have recorded for Warner, winning the Echo Klassik Award for ‘Klassik Ohne Grenzen’ in 2015, and latterly for Deutsche Grammophon.

Collon debuted with the Dresden Staatskapelle in Spring 2024, and in 24/25 makes his first appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic and WDR Symphony, and returns to the DSO Berlin. He regularly conducts orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic (appearing at the BBC Proms with them in his second televised Prom this year), City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Danish National Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Dresden Philharmonic, and has also guested with Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Minnesota Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe among many others.

Collon has conducted over 250 new works, including the UK or world premieres of works by Unsuk Chin, Brett Dean, Phillip Glass, Colin Matthews, Anna Meredith, Nico Muhly, Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Judith Weir, and Du Yun. Opera productions have included Peter Grimes and Don Giovanni for Oper Koeln, Magic Flute at English National Opera, Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream at Welsh National Opera, Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Turn of the Screw at the Aldeburgh Festival with Aurora Orchestra. Born in London, Nicholas is a violist, pianist and organist by training, and studied as Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge.