The Florida Orchestra (Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, Fla.) has announced that Music Director MICHAEL FRANCIS has signed a contract extending his tenure through the 2020-21 season. The orchestra also announced the appointment of YUAN-YUAN WANG to its violin section.
Michael Francis, who holds the Jay B. and Marsha Starkey Chair, has led the orchestra since the start of the 2015-16 season. He also serves as music director of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego and appears frequently as a guest conductor in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. A native of the U.K., Francis began his career as a double-bass player in the London Symphony Orchestra and came to prominence as a conductor in January 2007, when he replaced an indisposed Valery Gergiev on the LSO podium at London’s Barbican Centre.
Yuan-Yuan Wang has performed with the North Carolina Symphony and with several Indiana orchestras: the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree from Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music. Wang began professional training in her native China at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music and Central Conservatory of Music.
Posted September 30, 2016
