Francisco Coll

Francisco Coll (b. Valencia, 1985) studied at the Valencia and Madrid Conservatoires before moving to London as a private pupil of Thomas Adès (his only pupil to date), and a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His music has received the advocacy of some of the world’s leading ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble intercontemporain, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the London Sinfonietta. In 2019 he became the first composer to receive an International Classical Music Award (ICMA). Coll’s chamber opera Café Kafka, to a libretto by Meredith Oakes, premiered to great acclaim in 2014, and has since been staged at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia. Hidd’n Blue – composed for the London Symphony Orchestra – has since been performed by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Munich Philharmonic and the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. In 2016 Coll made his BBC Proms debut with the Four Iberian Miniatures for violin and chamber orchestra performed by Augustin Hadelich and the Britten Sinfonia under Thomas Adès. 2016 also saw the premiere of Mural by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (later performed at the 2017 BBC Proms by Adès and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain). A recording by La Joven Orquesta Nacional de España under Cristóbal Soler is in production. Festivals that have featured Coll’s work include Aldeburgh, Aspen, Cheltenham, Huddersfield, Verbier and Tanglewood. Coll has written two works for Cuarteto Casals: a short quartet movement entitled Cantos, and a Concerto Grosso for the Orquesta Nacional de España and David Afkham, both of which premiered in 2017. He is currently Composer in Residence to the Orquesta de Valencia, the SMR de Cuenca, and Camerata Bern. Future projects include a second chamber opera and two commissions involving violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja: a double concerto with Sol Gabetta, entitled Les Plaisirs Illuminés, and a Violin Concerto co-commissioned by orchestras in the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland and the USA.