Leading International Composers: Francisco Coll

Composer-conductor Francisco Coll has found advocates in the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, LA Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble Modern. His music has been heard at festivals from Aldeburgh, Aix and Aspen to the BBC Proms, Verbier and Tanglewood; his work is performed by leading instrumentalists, including Kirill Gerstein, Javier Perianes, Pekka Kuusisto, Sol Gabetta, Augustin Hadelich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sean Shibe, and Cuarteto Casals.

Born in Valencia in 1985, Coll studied at the Valencia and Madrid Conservatoires before moving to London to work privately with Thomas Adès (as his only pupil to-date) and with Richard Baker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Coll’s concert opener Hidd’n Blue was premiered in 2012 by the London Symphony Orchestra and has since been taken up by the SWR Sinfonieorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker, and the Cincinnati Symphony. His 2014 chamber opera Café Kafka, to a text by Meredith Oakes, was premiered to great acclaim by Aldeburgh Music, Opera North and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and has since been produced at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts; it receives its Czech premiere in a concert staging from NeoKlasik Orchestra in September 2024 at Prague's Café Louvre. 

In 2016 Coll made his BBC Proms debut with the Four Iberian Miniatures for violin and chamber orchestra, conducted by Thomas Adès. The same year Mural was premiered by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, who has become one of Coll’s strongest supporters. Turia, a concerto for guitar and seven players was premiered in 2017 by Jacob Kellerman and Norrbotten NEO conducted by Christian Karlsen; a version for guitar and chamber orchestra received its first performance in 2021 at the Uppsala International Guitar Festival.

In 2018-19 Coll was Composer-in-Residence with Camerata Bern, a position that culminated in the premiere of the Double Concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta as soloists and the composer himself conducting. A Violin Concerto for Kopatchinskaja, commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, London Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the NTR ZaterdagMatinee and Bamberger Symphoniker, was premiered in February 2020. His Cello Concerto premiered with Sol Gabetta in 2022 with the Philharmonie de Paris, conducted by the composer, and recieved its UK premiere at the 2024 BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tianyi Lu. 

Plaisirs Illuminés, released on Alpha in 2021, features his double concerto for Kopatchinskaja and Gabetta, with Coll conducting Camerata Bern – in 2022 it won the BBC Music Magazine concerto prize. A portrait disc of his orchestral works, with Gustavo Gimeno conducting, was released on Pentatone in 2021.

In 2019 he became the first composer to receive an International Classical Music Award (ICMA). In 2022 he was awarded two more: the Orchestra award and the Contemporary Music prize for the orchestral portrait disc. Coll conducted his own music at the ICMA awards ceremony that year.

From 2018-2020 Coll was Composer-in-Residence with the Orquesta de València. In 2022 he conducted them in his new 11-minute orchestral work Lilith; 2022 also saw the Toronto Symphony Orchestra give the premiere of his latest orchestral work Elysian, and the premiere of Coll’s Piano Trio for Trio Isimsiz. Coll’s Cello Concerto for Sol Gabetta premiered with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in November 2022, conducted by the composer. In 2024 the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno  premiered Ciudad sin sueño¸ a new work for piano and orchestra for Javier Perianes, which made its North American debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 

2024 sees Coll continue his multi-season role as Artistic Partner to the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, as both composer and conductor, which began in autumn 2022. The 24/25 season also sees Kirill Gerstein premiere and tour Coll's Two Waltzes Towards Civilization, as well as the Spanish premiere of Ciudad sin sueño. Coll's next stage work is based on Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. 

Formed in 2009 at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, in 2015 the Trio Isimsiz won 1st Prize and the Audience Prize at the Trondheim Competition, and in 2017 2nd Prize at the Haydn International Competition in Vienna.   They were selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2013 and were awarded a fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) in 2018.

The Trio has performed widely in Europe, highlights including recitals at the Stavanger, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Peasmarsh and Gower Festivals (broadcast by Radio 3), the Tivoli Concert Hall, Snape Maltings, Fundacion Juan March in Madrid and Marianischer-Saal in Lucerne.  Further afield the they have undertaken tours in China and Argentina.

In 2017 the Trio returned to the Aldeburgh Festival and completed their first CD due for release on the Rubicon label in November.   Future engagements include an all Beethoven programme at the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris, concerts at the Köln Philharmonie, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival and recitals at Wigmore Hall, Brighton Dome  and  Saffron Hall.    

The Trio Isimsiz are currently Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.   They have collaborated with Anthony Marwood, Krysztof Chorzelski, Richard Lester and Aleksander Madzar and attended IMS Prussia Cove working with Ferenc Rados.

During their studies the Trio undertook residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada, Jeunnesse Musicales Chamber Music, Germany and Mozarteum, Salzburg, and participated in masterclasses with András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Menahem Pressler, Thomas Riebl, Wolfgang Reddick, the Gould Piano Trio, Belcea and Takács Quartet.

Praised for his “excellent technical skills and singing tone” (American Record Guide) and for his “exuberant and decisive interpretations” (Dagens Nyheter), Jacob Kellermann has established himself as one of Scandinavia's most visible and versatile guitarists, with a varied repertoire of concertos, solo works and chamber music. Born in Stockholm, he began his guitar studies at the age of eight.

Regularly performing in major Swedish venues, he has appeared internationally in venues including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Prinzregententheater and Gasteig Munich, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Seoul Art Center and Brucknerhaus Linz. He has partaken in festivals such as Enescu Festival (Romania), Festival Dag in de Branding (the Netherlands) and the El Jem Festival (Tunisia). As a soloist, he has worked with orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), Tallin Chamber Orchestra (Estonia), Querétaro Philharmonic Orchestra (Mexiko) and Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea). Upcoming soloist engagements for 2022-23 include BBC Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Bielefelder Philharmoniker and Orquesta de Valencia.   

In 2020 Jacob performed at the official award ceremony of the Nobel Prize, an honor bestowed to a selected few Swedish musicians.

Jacob Kellermann has recorded three Albums on the label BIS records: S. Gubaidulina “Repentance” – 2014, Schubert Sonatas – 2018 and  “Rodrigo, Harden & Coll – Guitar works 2020”. His third album, focusing on Spanish guitar concertos, was released in December  2020 and was awarded a Swedish Grammy for best classical album of the year as well as being chosen as #1 Record of the year by Swedens largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The Times (UK) called it a “distinctive release”,  and the NRC Handelsblad (the Netherlands) described “transparent, tight orchestral sound and excellent interpretation of the guitar part”. It was also listed as Diapason d’or of June 2021. 

Equally in demand as a chamber musician, he regularly performs with string players and singers all over Europe and have made critically acclaimed appearances and tours in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, China, Japan and South Korea.

With an extensive repertoire that often features his own transcriptions, he constantly searches for new expressive possibilities for the guitar. Close collaborations with numerous composers including Sofia Gubaidulina, Toshio Hosokawa, Jose M. Sanchez-Verdu, Francisco Coll, Jesper Nordin, Lisa Streich and Benjamin Staern has resulted in numerous works and concertos written directly for him. He has premiered new guitar concertos with major Scandinavian new music ensembles BIT20 Bergen and Norrbotten NEO.

He is also the co-founder of The Netherlands based group New European Ensemble, performing the 20th and 21th century repertoire in conducted and unconducted chamber settings - from Schönberg, Boulez and Henze to world premieres by composer of the next generation. 

Jacob Kellermann has studied in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. He received his "Meisterklasse Diplom" under prof. Franz Halasz at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich in 2011. He plays on an instrument by the German luthier Matthias Dammann. 

Pablo Hernán Benedí was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1991. He studied at the Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory in San Lorenzo de El Escorial with Fernando Rius and Polina Kotliarskaya, before coming to London in 2009 to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno and András Keller supported by scholarships from the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Juventudes Musicales and La Caixa. Since 2010, Pablo has been a member of the Chiaroscuro Quartet, formed by Alina Ibragimova, Emilie Hornlund and Claire Thirion. Chiaroscuro Quartet is been one of the young quartets with international projection of today. The quartet plays with gut strings and period bows, exploring the repertoire of classicism and early romanticism. They have given recitals in venues such as Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Vancouver recital series, Boulez Saal, Stockholm Konzerhuse, Edinburgh Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Grafenegg Festival, Sage Gasteshead, Auditorium du Louvre, Gulbenkian Foundation among others. They have collaborated with Kristian Bezuidenhout, Nicola Bladeyrou, Christian Poltera, Trevor Pinnok, Malcom Bilson and Critophe Coin. They have received numerous awards and reviews for their recordings. Since 2016 they embark on a project with the record company BIS, having recorded Haydn op.20 and op.76 and a Schubert CD with “Death and the Maiden” and they are recording Beethoven’s quartet integral.

Pablo is a founding member of the Trio Isimsiz, a piano trio formed at the Guildhall School, where its three members were students. The trio has been gaining a reputation after winning the YCAT auditions and beginning to be represented by them. Winners of numerous competitions such as Trondheim, MMSF Philarmonia and Haydn Vienna, they begin to establish themselves on the UK and European stages. They have played at the Mecklenburg-Vorpomen Festival and have been residents of the Aldeburgh Centre where they return to the festival for the third time this year. They have participated in residencies and masterclasses at Prussia Cove and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, having worked with Ferenc Rados, Steven Isserlis, András Keller, András Schiff, Louise Hopkins and Anothony Marwood among others. In 2018 they received the prestigious Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship award, with which they commissioned the first piano trio by the renowned Francisco Coll trio, with its premiere at the CNDM in Madrid and at the Aldeburgh Festival during the 21/22 season, with several national premieres coming up.

As a soloist, Pablo has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Budapest, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Chamber Players, Balthasar Neumann Orchestra and with the English Chamber Orchestra among others. He has also participated in festivals like “Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival” or “Lockenhaus Festival”.
Pablo also enjoys a career as a concertmaster, since November 2020 he is the concertmaster of Balthasar Neumann orchestra. He has also collaborated with orchestras as guest leader such as “Swedish Radio Orchestra”, “Concerto Budapest”, “Resonanz Ensemble”, “Royal Northern Sinfonia”, “Orquesta Sinfónica de las Baleares”, “Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia”, “Leonora Orchestra” among others, and as section leader in the “Chamber Orchestra of Europe”,“Orchestre Revolutionaire e Romantique” and “Arcangelo”.

Since joining as leader of Balthasar Neumann Orchestra, he has also become one of the professors of its academy which runs throughout the year with different seminars and projects and individual lesson with the Orchestra’s academists. In 2022 Pablo was a member of the Faculty at the prestigious intense chamber music course at the“Domaine Forget” in Canada.
Since 2016, Pablo has been a regular visiting professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and at the Royal College of Music in London, regularly giving masterclasses for both solo violin and chamber music. He has also participated in classes at the “Norwegian Academy of Music” and within the chamber music festival in West Cork, Bantry in Ireland. Since 2020 Pablo has been part of the faculty of the “Forum Musikae” school and will teach at the Gstaad, Zermatt Academy and Grafenegg festivals.

Pablo plays on a J.B Vuillaume from 1851, as well as an Andrea Amati from 1570 kindly on loan from Jumpstar Foundation.

Edvard Pogossian is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School studying with Natasha Brofsky. As the recent winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, Edvard performed the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations at David Geffen Hall in New York and at the Harris Theater in Chicago with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Itzhak Perlman. The Chicago Tribune praised Edvard’s performance for his “astonishing musical and technical maturity,” as well as his “winning lightness of touch to everything he played, combined with a velvety tone.” In the summer of 2016 he performed the Rococo Variations with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall on the annual “Armenian Night at the Pops” concert. He was also the winner of the inaugural Los Angeles Philharmonic Young Artists Competition, giving him the honor to play the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Walt Disney Hall. Edvard’s other notable performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall, Zipper Hall, and on NPR’s From the Top radio show. He has also performed as a soloist with the New Mexico Philharmonic for their Protege Series.

Edvard is a long time participant of the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in New Hampshire, and has also attended Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall, the Heifetz International Institute of Music, Pinchas Zukerman’s Young Artists’ Program, and the Meadowmount School of Music. He has studied in Los Angeles with Paul Cohen and Rick Mooney, and later spent two years studying with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Young Artists Academy. He has also worked with Frans Helmerson, Hans Jensen, Clive Greensmith, Joel Krosnick, Phoebe Carrai, and received chamber coachings from Arnold Steinhardt, Ida Kavafian, Joseph Kalichstein, Paul Coletti, Joseph Lin, and Laurie Smukler.

Dedicated to chamber music, Edvard is a founding member of the Zelda Piano Quartet, a group formerly a part of the Juilliard Honors Chamber Music Program. He represented the Juilliard School at various high profile occasions, including the recent performance for the First Lady of China, and was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship from the Juilliard School.

Since 2018, Edvard is artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel Under the guidance of Gary Hoffman.

Erdem Mısırlıoğlu started music lessons when he was six. Having completed his undergraduate studies and master’s course in performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, both with first class honours, he has recently finished his Artist’s Diploma there, studying with pianists Martin Roscoe and Ronan O'Hora.

In 2006, Erdem was a prizewinner in the International Rachmaninov Competition for Young Pianists and was also awarded both the Keyboard Instrument Prize in 2006 and the Principal's prize in 2008 at GSMD.

Erdem won the piano section of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008 and subsequently performed Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In 2011, Erdem was awarded 1st prize in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe's intercollegiate piano competition.

A passionate chamber musician, Erdem is also a member of Trio Isimsiz, a piano trio formed with friends at GSMD in 2009. The Trio was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2013 and won 1st Prize and the Audience Prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition. They have a busy concert schedule with recitals throughout Europe and further afield.

Erdem regularly performs across the UK, appearing in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Hall, Snape Maltings, Cardiff Millennium Centre and Wigmore Hall as well as numerous invitations for concerts in Europe and America. He has enjoyed playing to distinguished pianists including Lang Lang, Peter Donohoe, Paul Lewis, Aleksandar Madzar and Stephen Kovacevich.