NicolasEllis

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  • Conductor

About Nicolas

Music Director: Orchestre National de Bretagne Artistic Director: Orchestre de l'Agora Principal Guest Conductor: Les Violons du Roy

Nicolas Ellis debuts this season with the Polish National Radio Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Hamburger Symphoniker, the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Baltimore and Seattle Symphony Orchestras. He returns for subscription concerts with the Vancouver and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. Recent highlights include performances with the Tampere Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and in his home city of Montreal with the Orchestre Métropolitain, where he is a regular favourite.

Now in his second season as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, they’ll perform works together by Mozart, Brahms and Schumann, to Stravinsky, Bartok and Shostakovich; a programme centered around Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, collaborating with a local Youth Theatre; and an evening of folk music, featuring traditional folk musicians from Québec.

At the Opéra de Montréal, he has led productions of Le nozze di Figaro, The Turn of the Screw, Poppea and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Elsewhere, he conducted Die Fledermaus at Opéra de Québec, Britten’s War Requiem at Graz Opera, and last season a new production of Die Zauberflöte at Opéra de Rennes, where he will return in future seasons.

Nicolas is based in Montreal

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Henry Lindsay

Henry Lindsay

Associate Director

For contracts, logistics and press:

Jemima Pickersgill

Jemima Pickersgill

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

General Management with Askonas Holt Partner manager: North America: Dispeker Artists

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Season Highlights

Aug 2025
Baltimore Symphony
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 Mozart: Prague Symphony Geneva Lewis (violin) 8 August 2025 |The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda 9 August 2025 | Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore
Aug 2025
Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Wagner: Forest murmurs from Siegfried (Arr. Zumpe) Fauré: Pelleas et Melisande Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Johan Dalene (violin) 27 August 2025 | University Aula, Oslo
Sep 2025
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 Kowalski: Violin Concerto No. 1 Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 Ava Bahari (violin) 3 September 2025 | Örebro Konserthus, Örebro 4 September 2025 | Örebro Konserthus, Örebro
Nov 2025
Hamburg Symphony
Shostakovich: Scherzo in F-sharp Minor, Op. 1 Britten: Cello Symphony, Op. 68 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10 Benjamin Kruithof (cello) 16 November 2025 | Laeiszhalle, Hamburg
Dec 2025
Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Handel: Messiah Myriam Leblanc (soprano) Andrew Haji (tenor) Seattle Symphony Chorale (chorus) 18, 20 & 21 December 2025 | Benaroya Hall, Seattle
Mar 2026
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Wagner: Forest Murmurs from Siegfried Vaugh Williams: The Lark Ascending Poulenc: Suite from the ballet Les Animaux modèles, Op 111 Piotr Tarcholik (violin) 8 March 2026 | NOSPR Concert Hall, Katowice
Mar 2026
Orchestra of Opera National de Lorraine
Programme to include Shostakovich Symphony No. 5

Photos

News

Press

  • Strauss Alpine Symphony

    Orchestre de l'Agora
    Jun 2024
    • Ce chef est d’un talent (à cet âge) vraiment hors du commun. This conductor's talent (at this age) is truly extraordinary.

  • Mozart Marriage of Figaro

    Montreal Opera
    Sep 2023
    • Le spectacle est drôle et fonctionne à merveille…, s’adaptant au flot continu généré par Nicolas Ellis... Le chef québécois fait des prouesses, dans les nuances et surtout la respiration dramatique, sur des détails parfois saisissants, comme la manière dont le premier air de Cherubino s’insinue dans un même souffle dans le dialogue. The show is funny and works perfectly…, adapting to the constant flow generated by Nicolas Ellis... The Québécois conductor demonstrates his prowess in his use of dynamic contrasts and, above all, dramatic breathing, with details that are sometimes striking, such as the way Cherubino's first aria insinuates itself into the dialogue in the same breath.

  • Haydn, Mozart and Gluck

    Les Violons du Roy
    Mar 2023
    • Après une 5e Symphonie de Chostakovitch fulgurante, Nicolas Ellis vient de nous donner une des plus belles symphonies de Mozart entendues en 20 ans à Montréal. After a dazzling Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich, Nicolas Ellis has just given us one of the most beautiful Mozart symphonies heard in Montreal in the last 20 years.

  • Mahler Symphony No. 3

    Orchestre de l’Agora
    Jun 2022
  • Les Violons du Roy with soloist Kerson Leong

    Festival de Lanaudière
    Jul 2021
    • ...ce jeune musicien caméléon est un phénomène... Souple, délicat, pulsant, le chef a montré une grande maturité dans l’art de créer une dynamique interne très élastique aux phrases musicales sans jamais les brusquer par des à-coups ou des effets. ...this young chameleon musician is a phenomenon... Supple, delicate, pulsating, the conductor showed great maturity in the art of creating a very elastic internal dynamic to the musical phrases without ever rushing them with jolts or effects.

  • Mozart, Bourget, Marsolais, Murphy & Strauss

    Orchestre Métropolitain
    May 2021
    • Nicolas Ellis dirigeait And So Be Changed to Lightning in the End, de Kelly Marie Murphy, et Don Juan, de Strauss, avec une poigne et une tenue impressionnantes. Nicolas Ellis conducted And So Be Changed to Lightning in the End, by Kelly Marie Murphy, and Don Juan, by Strauss, with an impressive grip and hold.

  • Comfort Concert

    Orchestre symphonique de Québec
    Nov 2020
    • Le chef Nicolas Ellis a dirigé le tout avec simplicité et naturel, sans excès de pathos, mais toujours avec sincérité et spontanéité. Il a simplement laissé parler la musique, ce qu’il fallait faire dans ces circonstances. Ce moment très spécial semblait également émouvoir les musiciens. Conductor Nicolas Ellis conducted the whole thing with simplicity and naturalness, without excessive pathos, but always with sincerity and spontaneity. He simply let the music speak for itself, which was the right thing to do in these circumstances. This very special moment seemed to move the musicians as well. Emmanuel Bernier, La Presse, 20 November 2020

  • Beethoven and Brown

    Orchestre Métropolitain
    May 2019
    • He has evidently earned the respect of the Métropolitain, as they were impressively responsive to his gestures.

  • Mozart Opera Night

    Orchestre de l'Agora
    Feb 2018
    • Nicolas Ellis et l’Orchestre de l’Agora ne font décidément rien comme les autres Nicolas Ellis and the Agora Orchestra do nothing like the others.