Nicholas Collon is the founder and principal conductor of Aurora Orchestra and has been chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony since 2021. He was chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest The Hague from 2016–21, and was principal guest of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne from 2017–22. With the Finnish Radio Symphony, he has toured to the BBC Proms, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and to Germany and Estonia. Their expanding discography together for Ondine includes discs of Sibelius, Lutosławski, Adès, and Wennäkoski, which won the 2023 Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Recording. Aurora Orchestra is in residence at Kings Place and the Southbank Centre, and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and Warner, winning the Echo Klassik Award for Classical Without Borders in 2015.

Collon debuted with the Dresden Staatskapelle last spring, and this season appears with the Munich Philharmonic, WDR Symphony, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He regularly conducts the BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Danish National Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Dresden Philharmonic, and has also guested with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among many others. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this program.

In opera, he has led Peter Grimes and Don Giovanni for Oper Köln, Magic Flute at English National Opera, Wagner Dream at Welsh National Opera, Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Turn of the Screw at the Aldeburgh Festival with Aurora Orchestra. Born in London, Collon is a violist, pianist, and organist by training, and studied at Clare College, Cambridge.

Conrad Tao’s 2024–25 season includes a return to Carnegie Hall performing Debussy’s 12 Études alongside Keyed In, a work arranged and improvised by Tao on the Lumatone keyboard. He also returns to the Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony. Further appearances include the Indianapolis Symphony’s opening gala, as well as performances with the Seoul Philharmonic and NDR Radiophilharmonie. He also continues his collaboration with dancer Caleb Teicher in a nationwide US tour.

Last season, Tao made his subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony and returned to the New York Philharmonic. He also celebrated Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary with recitals presented by the Cleveland Orchestra and Klavierfestival Ruhr. The season also saw concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, as well as performances celebrating the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue at the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Kansas City Symphony. His companion piece to Gershwin’s Rhapsody, Flung Out, was commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, and Omaha Symphony.

Tao was the recipient of a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition. He is also the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2008 and became a Shenson Young Artist in 2023.