Franck Ollu is a versatile conductor, widely acknowledged as an expert in contemporary and French music.
During the 2017/18 season he conducted the world premiere of A Wintery Spring by Saed Haddad, a co-commission between the Frankfurt Opera and Ensemble Modern which was presented alongside Il serpente di bronzo by Jan Dismas Zelenka. This season he also conducted a revival of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in Lille and Rennes and a double bill of Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero and Rihm’s Das Gehege at La Monnaie and in Stuttgart.
Last season Franck Ollu made his debut at Basel Opera conducting Xenakis’s Oresteia and at the Bolshoi Opera conducting George Benjamin’s Written on Skin. He also recently returned to the Berlin State Opera for Rihm’s Jakob Lenz. Other opera engagement include the Dutch National Opera, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.
Franck Ollu has conducted various world premieres of important operas, including Bianchi’s Thanks to My Eyes at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Dusapin’s Penthesilea at La Monnaie and Passion in Aix. He also conducted the first performance of George Benjamin’s first opera Into the Little Hill at the Paris Opéra in 2006, as well as subsequent performances with the London Sinfonietta at the Aldeburgh Festival and at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and with Ensemble Modern in New York and at major festivals in Amsterdam, Vienna, Dresden and Frankfurt. Franck Ollu recently made his debut conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.
His particularly close relationship with Ensemble Modern has led to numerous opera performances, including at the Salzburg Festival and of Heiner Goebbels’s Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt. They have also performed together in concert, including at the Venice Biennale.
He is a committed teacher and mentor and has established relationships with the International Ensemble Modern Academy, the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music in London.
Current as of June 2018
