«Composer in Residence» – Francisco Coll (*1985)

 
Could Coll be the composer Spain has long been waiting for? BBC Music Magazine (Helen Wallace), 20 March 2014
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, where he won the Ian Horsburgh Memorial Prize for the best postgraduate composition.
Coll’s music has received the advocacy of some of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Ensemble intercontemporain, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. 2014 saw his chamber opera Café Kafka premiered to great acclaim. Coll’s short concert-opener Hidd’n Blue – originally written for the London Symphony Orchestra – has since been performed by orchestras including the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Munich Philharmonic and the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra.
Highlights of 2016 included Coll making his BBC Proms debut with a performance of the Four Iberian Miniatures for violin and chamber orchestra by Augustin Hadelich and the Britten Sinfonia under Thomas Adès, the premiere of Mural by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Gustavo Gimeno, and a new Harpsichord Concerto for Mahan Esfahani and Britten Sinfonia.
In March 2017 Cuarteto Casals premiered Coll’s Concerto Grosso in Madrid with the Orquesta Nacional de España under David Afkham.