Nicolò Foron

Nicolò Umberto Foron is currently the Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In March 2023, he won first prize in the LSO “Donatella Flick” Conducting Competition, following his victory in the International Conducting Competition “Jeunesse Musicales” in Bucharest in 2021. He was chosen as a Tanglewood Conducting Fellow in 2022 and selected for Peter Eötvös’s Mentoring Programme. He was also part of the Forum Dirigieren Deutsches Musikrat.

At a young age, Nicolò began his education in conducting, composition, and piano, his first instrument. He studied piano with K. H. Kämmerling and A. Ugorski. At the age of 10, he became a pupil of Jorma Panula and was subsequently invited by Bernard Haitink to participate in his masterclasses at the Lucerne Festival. At 16, Nicolò began his formal conducting studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, followed by a master’s degree at the Royal College of Music and an Advanced Diploma in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, from which he graduated in 2021. He continues to perform as a concert pianist and chamber musician, collaborating frequently with his younger sister, violinist Mira Foron.

In recent seasons, Foron has conducted various orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn Academy/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Staatskapelle Weimar, Opéra National de Montpellier, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. He has also assisted several distinguished conductors, including Sir Antonio Pappano, Andris Nelsons, Matthias Pintscher, Sir Mark Elder, Daniele Gatti, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Martyn Brabbins, and Trevor Pinnock.

This season, Nicolò gives concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Philharmonisches Orchester des Theaters Freiburg, Opéra National de Lorraine, Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, as well as a concert at the Elbphilharmonie with Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. Future engagements include conducting the SWR Symphonieorchester, Bremen Philharmoniker, Göttinger Symphonieorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Arktisk Filharmoni, Euskadiko Orchestra, and Odense Symfonieorkester. He also makes his debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Wiener Kammerorkester. In 2025, Nicolò will embark on various tours, including one with the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra and Viktoria Mullova, one with Ensemble Intercontemporain, and another with the Arktisk Filharmoni, featuring concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Die Glocke Bremen.

Nicolò Foron has a diverse repertoire that includes many world premieres, developed through his close collaboration with Ensemble Intercontemporain. In addition to his extensive symphonic repertoire, he has conducted several opera productions, including semi-staged performances of The Marriage of Figaro (Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy), Hansel and Gretel (Staatskapelle Weimar), the operetta Jettchen Gebert by Walter Kollo (Musikalische Komödie Leipzig), and three world premiere opera productions written by Dutch composers.

During the “lockdown” period, Nicolò Foron conducted the Noord Netherlands Orchestra in a livestream and CD recording, which included the world premiere of the Cello Concerto by Jan Peter de Graaff at Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht. The CD of this concert was nominated among the five finalists for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik in January 2022. In August 2023, Deutschlandfunk named him Artist in Residence for the Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk at the Musikfest Bremen, recognizing him as the year’s outstanding young artist. As part of this award, he gave a concert and recorded a CD with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2024, which will be released by Deutsche Gammophon in spring 2025. His past concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and his recent concert with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Ensemble Intercontemporain was broadcast on ARTE and Radio France.