Nicolette Fraillon

Nicolette Ella Fraillon AM (born 29 July 1960) is an Australian conductor, who has been Chief Conductor of The Australian Ballet since 2003. She is the world's only woman music director of a ballet company.

Career

Fraillon grew up in Melbourne, a child of immigrant parents of Huguenot-Sicilian and Austrian Jewish origins. Her family is musical: both grandfathers were cellists, and her brother Guillaume was principal 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).[2][1] 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 the Netherlands she also met her fourth husband, Aernoot Kervert, an employee of the Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.[3] Her three earlier marriages ended in divorce.[6] She has two sons.[1]

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 is currently the world's only woman music director of a ballet company.[7]

References
  1. Sharon Vergis, "Australian Ballet's lightning conductor, Nicolette Fraillon", The Australian, 9 March 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2016
  2. The Good Life: Lunch with Nicolette Fraillon, The Age, 2 March 2013, Life&Style, p. 3
  3. Helen Musa, "From the top, please", The Canberra Times, 18 October 1997, Saturday Magazine, p. C1
  4. Limelight, January 2014, Guest column: Female conductors, p. 20
  5. The Australian Ballet. Retrieved 25 October 2016
  6. Engaging Women. Retrieved 25 October 2016
  7. Jeremy Story Carter, " Australian Ballet music director calls out sexism in classical music world", ABC Radio National, 13 June 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016
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