The Florida Orchestra’s new Music Director Designate Michael Francis gets around.
He has just been appointed as new Music Director of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, according to an announcement by the orchestra over the weekend. Francis will succeed the founding Music Director David Atherton, who's retiring soon. A surprise announcement was made to a group of key press and supporters at a private Mainly Mozart event in Rancho Santa Fe on Saturday evening, Sept. 27.
The festival director post is the third artistic leadership role that Francis holds these days, in addition to his permanent appointment as chief conductor and artistic advisor to Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
Versatile, energetic and amazingly accomplished , Francis, 38, has worked with several major orchestras — London, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and San Francisco symphonies, the Japan, Seoul, and New York philharmonics, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as other major orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America.
“I was so thrilled to hear that Michael Francis has been tapped to become the music director of the Mainly Mozart
Festival," said Whitney Crockett, Principal Bassoon of both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra. "He was a joy to work with last season, and his energy, intensity and musical intelligence will
make for many memorable, exciting concerts.”
