Nicholas Collon is the Principal Conductor of Aurora Orchestra, and works regularly with a wide range of orchestras and choirs across London.

A violist, pianist and organist by training, Nicholas studied music as an organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 2004. Conducting engagements in London have included concerts with the Haydn, Hertfordshire, Tallis and Kensington Chamber Orchestras, the Salomon Orchestra, Kensington Symphony Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra and masterclasses with the BBC Singers.

As Principal Conductor of Aurora Orchestra he has explored a wide variety of repertoire, including the Chamber Symphonies of John Adams, Schoenberg and Schreker, Birtwistle’s ‘Secret Theatre,’ Strauss’s ‘Metamorphosen’, and Ligeti's Chamber Concerto with which he made his debut at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2006.

Equally at home in the world of opera, Nicholas has conducted Britten's ‘The Turn of the Screw’ with the Cambridge University Opera Society, and was recently Musical Director for six performances of Britten's ‘Curlew River’ with Mahogany Opera in a UK tour. In April 2007, he conducted the first ever staged opera (‘The Magic Flute’, directed by Sam West) in the West Bank, appearing in Ramallah and Bethlehem. In July 2007 he was Assistant Conductor for ‘Paul Bunyan’ with the Bregenz Festspiele, and in August 2007 he conducted an opera gala with the Amman Symphony Orchestra, Jordan. Future operatic engagements include Walton’s ‘The Bear’ and Stravinsky’s ‘Renard’ with Mahogany Opera in April 2008, Krenek’s ‘Karl V’ in the Bregenzer Festspiele with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2008) and Szymanowski’s ‘King Roger,’ (assisting Mark Elder in 2009), also in the Bregenzer Festspiele.

Future engagements with Aurora Orchestra include Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ in the closing concert of the Aldeburgh Easter Fesitval, the BBC Proms Young Composers’ Competition, Ligeti’s Piano Concerto with Rolf Hind in the Wyastone Summer Music Series, and the Aberystwyth Festival. Other work for the 2008/9 season includes concerts with the Hertfordshire Chamber Orchestra, the Kensington Chamber Orchestra, the ‘Rite of Spring’ with the Salomon Orchestra, and a concert with the Symphonieorchestrer Vorarlberg.

He has also recently been awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship 2008 for conducting. This was judged by a distinguished panel of conductors, chaired by Sir Roger Norrington, and was awarded to Nicholas from a list of twenty nominated British conductors.

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