FranckOllu

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  • Conductor

About Franck

Franck Ollu is a versatile conductor, widely acknowledged as an expert in the field of contemporary and French music. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pierre Boulez, during 2025 Franck Ollu will conduct Les Siècles in a series of concerts, including performances in Paris, Munich, Berlin and Bucharest.

Recent and future highlights include the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra at Musica Viva in Munich, Budapest Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Opera, Polish National Radio Symphony and Basel Chamber Orchestras. He has conducted at the Konzerthaus Stockholm in a festival focusing on the music of George Benjamin and is regularly invited to Radio France’s annual Festival Présences.

During the last couple of seasons Franck has conducted the world premiere of Thierry Escaich’s Shirine at Lyon Opera, and the French premiere of Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

He has a particularly close relationship with Ensemble Modern which has led to numerous opera performances, including at the Salzburg Festival .

Franck is based in Paris, France

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Alison Nethsingha

Alison Nethsingha

Senior Artist Manager

For contracts, logistics and press:

Ignatius Sokal

Ignatius Sokal

Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Franck

Season Highlights

Jan 2025
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris
Debussy: Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (arr. Holliger) Debussy: La Mer Boulez: Pli selon pli, Portrait de Mallarmé Les Siècles Sarah Aristidou (soprano)
Feb 2025
Alte Oper, Frankfurt
Olga Neuwirth: miramondo multiplo (for trumpet and ensemble) Sasha Blondeau: new work for ensemble (German premiere) Aquiles Lázaro: new work for ensemble (German premiere) Margareta Ferek-Petrić: new work for ensemble (German premiere) Olga Neuwirth: Eleanor for blues singer, drum-kit, e-guitar and ensemble Ensemble Modern Sava Stoianov (trumpet) Della Miles (vocal)
Jun 2025
Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden
Debussy Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (arrangement de H. Holliger) Debussy La Mer Boulez Pli selon pli, Portrait de Mallarmé Les Siècles Sarah Aristidou (soprano)

Photos

Selected Repertoire

Alexander von Zemlinsky

Der Zwerg

Claude Debussy

Pelléas et Mélisande

George Benjamin

Into the Little Hill   •   Written on Skin

Heiner Goebbels

Landschaft mit Entfernten Verwandten

Iannis Xenakis

Oresteïa

Igor Stravinsky

The Rake's Progress

Judith Weir

Blond Eckbert

Leoš Janáček

The Cunning Little Vixen

Luciano Berio

Recital I (for Cathy)

Luigi Dallapiccola

Il prigioniero

Olga Neuwirth

... ce qui arrive ...

Oscar Bianchi

Thanks To My Eyes

Pascal Dusapin

Macbeth Underworld   •   Penthesilea   •   Medeamaterial   •   Passion

Saed Haddad

A Wintery Spring

Thierry Escaich

Shirine

Wolfgang Rihm

Jakob Lenz   •   Das Gehege

Sample Programmes

  • Ravel Project

    Fanfare for L'Éventail de Jeanne (1927) (1’30) Piccolo, oboe, clarinet (A), bassoon, horn (F), trumpet (C), cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, chimes, strings Histoires naturelles (1906) (16’) Text by Jules Roland Orchestration by Manuel Rosenthal Ensemble and mezzo soprano 2.1.2.1 – 2.1.0.0 – 2perc, 1cel, 1vibra, 1hp I. Le Paon ● II. Le Grillon ● III. Le Cygne ● IV. Le Martin-pêcheur ● V. La Pintade L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (1925) (45’) Text by Colette Transcription by Franck Ollu for 29 players and 8 singers 2(2picc).2(2ca)3(2es,3Bcl,2Fgt(2 Cfgt)-2.2.2-1Pn(harmon organ) 1 Cel)1Hpe. 2 Percs. 2.2.2.2.1 NOTES L'éventail de Jeanne is a wonderful children's ballet. The performance should be in French and without interval. Both texts are easily understood by audiences of all ages and have ‘animals’ as the main theme.

News

Press

  • Opera "Macbeth Underworld" by Pascal Dusapin

    Opéra Comique, Paris
    Oct 2023 - Nov 2023

    • Dusapin crafted the new story into a nocturnal, dreamlike, disturbing, enormously colourful and sensual Opera. With science and art, Franck Ollu offered a powerful musical interpretation of the feelings of guilt and apprehension from the very first notes.

  • Opera "Shirine" by Thierry Escaich - World Premiere

    Opera De Lyon
    Apr 2022 - May 2022

    • D'un bras d'acier, Franck Ollu guide dans ces intrigants et foisonnants dédales les forces musicales de l'Opéra de Lyon, ainsi qu'une distribution de haut vol. With an arm of steel, Franck Ollu guides the musical forces of the Opéra de Lyon and a high-flying cast through these intriguing and teeming mazes. Sous la direction du champion de la modernité Franck Ollu et dans une mise en scène du directeur de la maison lyonnaise Richard Brunel, Jeanne Gérard et Julien Behr incarnent le couple auquel est promis une partition foisonnante et enluminée par un Orient de legends. Under the direction of Franck Ollu, champion of modernity, and in a production by Richard Brunel, director of the Lyon-based company, Jeanne Gérard and Julien Behr embody the couple to whom is promised an abundant score illuminated by an Orient of legends.

    • Sur scène, comme dans la fosse où Franck Ollu dirige vigoureusement l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon, le conformisme est de rigueur. On stage, as in the pit where Franck Ollu vigorously conducts the Orchester de l'Opéra de Lyon, conformity is essential.

    • La direction de Franck Ollu cherche plus le punch que la dentelle. The direction of Franck Ollu seeks more punch than lace.

  • "Penthesilea" DVD

    La Monnaie De Munt, Brussels
    Sep 2019 - Sep 2019

    • ★★★★★ The recording from the Monnaie performances is wonderfully clear and spacious. Every detail of the orchestral writing, with the electronics that Duspain uses very sparingly, registers under Franck Ollu…. this is a lingeringly powerful piece of music theatre, no doubt of it.

  • Opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" by Claude Debussy

    Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg
    Sep 2018 - Nov 2018

    • Like "the floor that breathes" (Boulez), the orchestra conducted by Franck Ollu keeps itself from any excess, scrupulously respecting Debussy's indications, never swallowing the voices. Subtle, refined, but able to underline the "expressive" indications that Debussy embellishes his score, without ever falling into an expressionist or verist bias, he sings, from the prelude, clear and profound, retained as it should be. The flexibility, the precision of the lyrical declamation animated by the conductor, the breaths he imposes deserve to be underlined. This last one from Strasbourg will be remembered in all memories.

  • "Il prigioniero & Das Gehege" by Luigi Dallapiccola, Wolfgang Rihm

    La Monnaie De Munt, Brussels
    Dec 2017 - Jan 2018

    • Nevertheless, the most beautiful link between two parts of unequal strength is none other than Franck Ollu, undoubtedly one of the best performers of the contemporary repertoire. Rihm is not conducted like Mozart, and the conductor's gestures, as attentive to the entrances of singers as to his musicians, are ballet.

Discography