Franck Ollu

Franck Ollu is a versatile conductor, widely acknowledged as an expert in the field of both 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 Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at Musica Viva in Munich, Budapest Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Opera, Polish National Radio Symphony and Kammerorchester Basel. 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. Other recent operatic engagements include a new production of Dallapiccola’s ‘Il Prigioniero’ and Rihm’s ‘Das Gehege’ at La Monnaie and revivals of Debussy’s ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ at Strasbourg Opera and Zemlinsky’s ‘Der Zwerg’ in Lille. In 2019 he returned to the Salzburg Festival for a performance of ‘Medeamaterial’ by Dusapin. 

Franck has been invited to conduct the world premiere performances of many important opera titles, including Bianchi’s ‘Thanks to My Eyes’ (Festival Aix-en-Provence), Dusapin’s ‘Penthésiléa’ (La Monnaie) and ‘Passion’ (Festival Aix-en-Provence). He conducted the premiere of Benjamin’s first opera ‘Into the Little Hill’ at Opéra Bastille in 2006 with many subsequent performances with the London Sinfonietta and Ensemble Modern in London, New York and major festivals throughout Europe. Other productions have included performances at the Netherlands Opera, Bolshoi Opera, Warsaw Opera, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris.

His particularly close relationship with Ensemble Modern has led to numerous opera performances, including at the Salzburg Festival and of Heiner Goebbels’ ‘Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten’ at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt and Saed Haddad’s ‘A Wintery Spring’ at Frankfurt Opera. They have also collaborated in orchestral repertoire, and recently he conducted concerts in Cologne and Frankfurt to celebrate their 40th anniversary year. World premiere performances of works for orchestra or ensemble have included compositions by Brian Ferneyhough, Peter Eötvös and Wolfgang Rihm.

Franck is a committed teacher and mentor and has an established relationship with the Conservatoire National Supérieur of Music and Dance in Paris.