B i o g r a p h y
Maayan Franco is an Israeli-German Conductor residing in Berlin.
As part of his vast repertoire outreach, Franco divides his time between Opera, new music, and concert programming.
Franco made his BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra debut in April of 2023 in which “The BBC SSO strings gave a searingly intense account under conductor Maayan Franco, who captured the piece’s big emotions in expansive yet precise gestures” (The Scotsman). Franco is due to make his Vienna debut at the Volksoper Wien in the spring of 2025. He also participated as the Lucerne Festival conducting fellow where he conducted the LFCO and was invited to debut with Ensemble Modern at Oper Frankfurt for their series in February 2022. Franco works regularly with Ensemble Meitar and Ensemble 21 featuring exciting new programs and returns annually to the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra working on some of the greatest masterpieces from Dvorak's 'New World' To Brahms symphonies.
In the field of Opera Franco's repertoire scopes from early operatic pieces to new staged works. He is due to make his Vienna debut at the Volksoper Wien during spring 2025 as part of a four-month residency at the house. Franco worked on staged works as a cover conductor and assistant at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Staatsoper Berlin, The Israeli Opera, Konzerthaus Wien, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Barbican Center London, Stuttgart Staatsoper, and many more. During the summer of 2020, he conducted Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel as part of the Jerusalem Lyric Opera Festival 2020 and was invited again to conduct the new productions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Rusalka by Dvořák in the following seasons.
Since 2017, Franco has had the privilege of working closely with conductor Ilan Volkov. At only 20 years old, Franco jumped in to prepare the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and conducted the off-stage music at the BBC Proms 2018 festival in London’s Royal Albert Hall. Franco has also worked with Volkov on projects with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Ensemble InterContemporain, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Berlin Staatskapelle, and many more.
Franco started his musical education at age 5, beginning with percussion under Mr. Alex Nemirovsky from the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and Flute under Mrs. Ruthi Ron. Maayan studied at the “Thelma Yelin” School of the Arts in Tel Aviv.
As a flute player, Maayan has played in many highly respected venues around the world, such as the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal and San Jose Theater in California. Maayan received awards and scholarships from the Hava Stern Foundation, the Ronen Foundation, and an honorable diploma from the American Israel Cultural Foundation (AICF).