Nicolette Ella Fraillon AM (born 29 July 1960) is an Australian conductor, who was chief conductor of The Australian Ballet from 2003 until 2022.

Career

Fraillon grew up in Melbourne, a child of immigrant parents of French Huguenot, Sicilian and Austrian Jewish descent. Her family is musical: both grandfathers were cellists, and her great-uncle Guillaume was principal double bass player with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.[1]

She started violin and piano studies as a child; her teachers included Brian Buggy (violin) and Ada Corder (piano).[1][2] She played with the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Youth Orchestra for some time.[3]

As an adult she studied viola under Chris Martin at the University of Melbourne. She studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, from 1984, and later in Hanover, Germany.[4] Her professional conducting debut was with the Nederlands Dans Theater, when she deputised for another conductor who had fallen ill.[2] In the Netherlands, she also worked on a production of Les Misérables, both playing viola in the orchestra and working as second conductor.[2][3] Later she was appointed music director and chief conductor of the Dutch National Ballet.[5]

In 1995 she was engaged by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first Australian woman to conduct an Australian symphony orchestra. She later conducted the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.[4]

In October 1997 Fraillon was appointed director of the Canberra School of Music, effective from June 1998.[3] In 1998 she commenced at the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2003 she was appointed chief conductor of The Australian Ballet.[4][5] She was their first woman conductor, and, in 2016, the world's only woman music director of a ballet company.[6] In November 2021, Fraillon announced that she would leave that position in 2022.[7] In 2023, she was awarded the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award.[8]

Personal life

Fraillon has been married three times,[3][9] and has two sons.[1] She is married to soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon since January 2023.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sharon Vergis (8 March 2013). "Australian Ballet's lightning conductor, Nicolette Fraillon". The Australian. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Good Life: Lunch with Nicolette Fraillon", The Age, 2 March 2013, Life&Style, p. 3
  3. 1 2 3 4 Helen Musa, "From the top, please", The Canberra Times, 18 October 1997, Saturday Magazine, p. C1
  4. 1 2 3 Limelight, January 2014, Guest column: Female conductors, p. 20
  5. 1 2 "Meet Nicolette", The Australian Ballet. Retrieved 25 October 2016
  6. ↑ "Australian Ballet music director calls out sexism in classical music world" by Jeremy Story Carter, ABC Radio National, 13 June 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2021
  7. ↑ "Nicolette Fraillon will farewell The Australian Ballet in 2022" by Deborah Jones, Limelight, 19 November 2021
  8. ↑ "Conductor Nicolette Fraillon AM awarded 2023 Bernard Heinze Memorial Award". Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  9. ↑ "Chief Conductor Australian Ballet". engagingwomen.com.au (interview by Martine Harte). August 2013. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  10. ↑ Cheetham Fraillon, Deborah (10 January 2023). "Our children all together celebrating our wedding day..." Facebook. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
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