Mikko Franck

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Mikko Franck (born January 2, 1979) is a Finnish conductor. He was born in Helsinki in a Holocaust survivor family. His first domestic language was Swedish.

Mikko Franck is a gifted young conductor with talent that critics have compared to that of Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen in the generation before him.

Franck began to play the violin at the age of 5 and by age 7 he reportedly preferred orchestral scores to all other reading matter. His first favorite score was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (the Pathétique) which he used to conduct while listening to a recording on earphones. Franck’s violin studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki progressed satisfactorily but everything changed in 1995, when the Junior Department at the Sibelius Academy, celebrating its anniversary, offered the chance to conduct an orchestra to anyone who wished to do so.

Franck, age 16 at the time, took the baton, and Jorma Panula immediately enlisted him as a private student. Franck said: "He gave me everything that can be taught about this profession. For instance, we used video as an aid in losing my unnecessary mannerisms." Franck entered the conducting class at the Sibelius Academy in the fall of 1996. He received his diploma in 1998.

Before turning 23, he had made his conducting début with all of the leading Scandinavian orchestras as well as with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatsoper (Berlin State Opera) and the Israel Philharmonic. He received a Grammy nomination for "Best Orchestral Performance" for his first recording, which was of music by Jean Sibelius.

Franck was appointed artistic director of the National Orchestra of Belgium and then in 2004 at the age of 25 he was named general music director of the Finnish National Opera. On the 14th of February, 2007 he suddenly announced his resignation from this position.

He is a very close friend to the Finnish compositor Einojuhani Rautavaara and thanks to his conductions, Rautavaara's works are spreading all over the world. Since summer 2006 he is decently married to the german opera director Martina Pickert.

[edit] Discography

Mikko Franck's recordings to date (2006) include:

Jean Sibelius - the suite Lemminkäinen and the tone poem En Saga recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Ondine 953; issued in 2000)
Jean Sibelius - the tone poem En Saga recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra on a disc with five other pieces by Sibelius interpreted by other conductors (Ondine 992; released in 2001)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique" paired with
Einojuhani Rautavaara - Apotheosis , both recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Ondine 1002; released in 2003)
Einojuhani Rautavaara - the "tragedia buffa" opera The House of the Sun with the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and Jukka Romu (Bass), Raija Regnell (Mezzo Soprano), Ulla Raiskio (Alto), Tuomas Katajala (Tenor), Petri Backstrom (Tenor), Tommi Hakala (Baritone), Markus Nieminen (Baritone), Helena Juntunen (Soprano), Mia Huhta (Soprano), and Anne-Kristiina Kaappola (Soprano) (Ondine 1032; released in 2004)
Einojuhani Rautavaara - the opera Rasputin recorded with Finnish National Opera Orchestra and Finnish National Opera Chorus together with Lilli Paasikivi (Mezzo Soprano), Jorma Hynninen (Baritone), Jyrki Anttila (Tenor), Riikka Rantanen (Mezzo Soprano), Ritva-Liisa Korhonen (Soprano), Jyrki Korhonen (Bass), Gabriel Suovanen (Baritone), Matti Salminen (Bass), and Lassi Virtanen (Tenor) (Ondine 1002; released in 2005)
Einojuhani Rautavaara - Symphony No. 1, Adagio Celeste, and Book of Visions recorded with the Belgian National Orchestra (Ondine 1064; released in 2006)