Nicholas Collon

Conductor and violist Nicholas Collon has recently graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, where he was the Organ Scholar. He is currently Principal Conductor of Aurora Orchestra, and works regularly with a wide range of orchestras and choirs across London.

Whilst at Cambridge, Nicholas conducted a critically-acclaimed performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Cambridge University Baroque Ensemble, in which Anthony Rolfe Johnson sang the Evangelist rôle. He was also Assistant Conductor to the Cambridge University Musical Society and regularly conducted the Clare College Chapel Choir.

Conducting engagements in London have included concerts with the Haydn, Tallis and Kensington Chamber Orchestras, and masterclasses with the BBC Singers, with whom he was runner-up in a competition for Assistant Conductor. He has also conducted Aurora Orchestra in concerts in LSO St Luke’s with programmes including Strauss Metamorphosen and Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No. 1, and made his debut at the Aldeburgh Festival with Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto in June 2006. In May 2006 he worked as Assistant Conductor to Sir Neville Marriner with the Haydn Chamber Orchestra.

Nicholas’ first operatic experience was in October 2004, conducting Britten’s Turn of the Screw with the Cambridge University Opera Society. He was recently Musical Director for six performances of Britten’s Curlew River with Mahogany Opera in London, Norfolk and Suffolk and will conduct Walton’s The Bear with them in May 2007. He will also be Assistant Conductor for Paul Bunyan with Bregenz Opera in July 2007.

He is currently Musical Director of the Nonesuch Orchestra, the Music Makers (choir based in South-West London), and the professional close harmony group, Cappella Artois. His other great love is chamber music, and he performs regularly on the viola. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra from 1999–2001, and in 2001 co-founded the Capriccio Piano Quartet, with whom he toured Sweden in August 2003.

Future conducting engagements include concerts with the Haydn, Hertfordshire Kensington & Tallis Chamber Orchestras, Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra, Salomon Orchestra, and a season of concerts at the Royal Academy of Music with Aurora Orchestra.