Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen, 19th November 2014
“Francis conducted the NAC Orchestra just last season, and on Wednesday he returned with an eclectic program of themes and variations.
Benjamin Britten honoured a former teacher in his Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. It’s an early work for string orchestra, a slightly academic series of display […]
James Chute, U-T San Diego, 26th October 2014
In Michael Francis’ first season as Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra’s music director, his course is clear. For the just-announced 2015 season, he’s going back to Mozart.
“What we’re really looking to do in 2015 is celebrate Mozart,” said Francis, who succeeds the 26-year-old festival’s founding music director, David […]
Stephanie Hayes, Tampa Bay Times, 25th October 2014
“The concert began with an odd nugget of music in Ives’ Central Park In the Dark, an experimental piece from 1906 that imagines just what the title says. The strings were sequestered off stage, providing distant sounds of night. It all rose into a cacophony of street […]
Bay News 9, 23rd October 2014
Local Bay News team interviews Michael Francis regarding his new role as the Music Director for The Florida Orchestra.
Original footage available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFEOEzMTM50
Stephanie Hayes, Tampa Bay Times, 22nd October 2014
Michael Francis was relieved. His books had just arrived from overseas.
The British conductor was starting to plot a life here as music director of the Florida Orchestra. He had spent the weekend with his pregnant wife, shopping for furniture to fill their new Land O’Lakes home, visiting […]
Susan Giles Wantuck, WUSF Radio, 22nd October 2014
This weekend, concert goers can get better acquainted with the new Florida Orchestra Music Director Michael Francis. This will be the first time he’ll conducted the orchestra since he was named its music director this past June.
The program includes music by English Composer Edward Elgar, whom Francis […]
James McQuillen, The Oregonian, 12th October 2014
“Francis has earned a reputation as a conductor superhero, stepping in at the last minute for one orchestra after another and leading brilliant performances as though he’d been rehearsing with them for weeks. Affable and unflappable, he has a terrific rapport with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, for which […]
Stephanie Hayes, Tampa Bay Times, 2nd October 2014
Autumn has just begun, but for the Florida Orchestra, it may as well be the season of spring.
It’s a time of renewal and budding relationships for the orchestra, which has spent two seasons reeling and healing from the abrupt, early departure of music director Stefan Sanderling. When […]
Robert Egerton, Musical America, 30th September 2014
San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival has appointed British conductor Michael Francis as its new music director, succeeding festival co-founder David Atherton, who exited last year at the close of his (and the festival’s)…
Mareile Hanns, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, 29th September 2014
“…The Dresden Philharmonic had it well and truly in their grasp, together with the young English conductor Michael Francis. He delivered as an inspiring orchestral leader relying on subtlety and expressivity who knew exactly how best to convey his understanding of the timbres and structural characteristics.
Edward Elgar’s […]
