Under his leadership the Finnish Radio Symphony has toured to the BBC Proms, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and across Germany, and has been nominated for Orchestra of the Year 2025 by Gramophone. Their expanding discography together for Ondine includes Wennäkoski (Gramophone’s Best Contemporary Recording Award 2023) and Sibelius (Record of the Month in August 2025 for the 5th Symphony). Their 2025/6 season features works by Lili Boulanger, Hans Abrahamsen and Hector Berlioz, with releases this season to include Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie and Holst's The Planets.
Collon leads the Aurora Orchestra at the BBC Proms every year in their hugely popular memorised performances; in 2025, they performed Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, a production which was televised. Aurora are Resident at Kings Place and at the Southbank Centre where they continue to reinvent the traditional concert format. They tour to major European venues and festivals every season, reviving their ground-breaking Sacre du Printemps production in Spring 2026, heading to Berlin, Munich, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Essen, Zurich, Bern and Geneva. They have recorded for Warner, winning the Echo Klassik Award for ‘Klassik Ohne Grenzen’ in 2015, and latterly for Deutsche Grammophon.
In 2025/26, Collon returns to conduct the Dresden Staatskapelle (televised live on ZDF), takes the Danish National to the Enescu Festival, and conducts the Atlanta Symphony, Swedish Radio, Gothenburg and City of Birmingham symphonies; he also regularly conducts the Orchestre National de France, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Dresden Philharmonic, and last season debuted with the Munich Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony orchestras.
Collon has conducted over 250 new works, including many world premieres. He is also an accomplished opera conductor, having conducted productions across the UK (including at Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Aldeburgh Festival) and at Oper Koeln, in repertoire from Mozart to Britten. Born in London, Nicholas is a violist, pianist and organist by training, and studied as Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge.
Not to be altered without the permission of Intermusica. 5 September 2025, 386 words.