Askonas Holt has welcomed Francisco Coll to its roster for worldwide management. The Spanish composer-conductor is currently Artistic Partner with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias across three seasons, which sees him conducting repertoire that will include Berio, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky and de Falla, alongside his own music. He will be managed at Askonas Holt by Olivia Lyndon-Jones and Philip Keegan.
Coll has recently enjoyed successful debuts with Basel Kammerorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, conducting the latter at the ICMA awards ceremony in April last year, and the former two ensembles in the world and Swiss premieres of his Cello Concerto, written for Sol Gabetta. Coll conducted the Finnish premiere of his orchestral work Hímnica at the Fiskars Summer Festival last summer.
Coll’s works have been performed by the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony and the Münchner Philharmoniker. He has been Composer in Residence with both Orquestra de Valencia and Camerata Bern, with his time at the latter culminating in winning a 2022 BBC Music Magazine Award for the recording of his Double Concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés on Alpha Classics. In 2019, he became the first composer to receive an International Classical Music Award, and in 2022 subsequently received the ICMA Orchestra Award and the award for Best Contemporary Recording.
Coll studied at the conservatoires in Valencia and Madrid before moving to London to work privately with Thomas Adès (his only pupil to-date) and with Richard Baker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The coming weeks sees performances of Coll’s music in Finland and Canada, where Aqua Cinerea receives its national premiere at Musica Nova Helsinki and from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Gimeno. Turia for guitar and ensemble receives its US premiere from Michael Kudirka and Jacaranda Music. On 21 April Alexander Liebreich conducts the Orquesta de Valencia in the Spanish premiere of Elysian (2021-22). On 11 June at the Aldeburgh Festival the BBC Philharmonic and John Storgårds give the world premiere of Coll’s orchestration of Manuel de Falla’s Fantasia Baetica, an earthy, flamenco-influenced 1919 work for piano.