Chief Conductor & Artistic Director
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Dr Nicholas Milton has established a reputation as one of the leading Australian conductors of his generation. Following his successful debut with the London Philharmonic in February 2009, he was immediately reinvited back to the orchestra for further engagements in the 2010 season, during which he will also give his debut at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. Other forthcoming European highlights include his debuts with the Berlin Konzerthausorchester, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR-Stuttgart), and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano) as well as performances with the North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (NDR-Hannover) and the orchestras of Dortmund, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Mannheim, Odense, Nice, and at the Philharmonie in Cologne. He is receiving particular acclaim for his interpretations of the symphonies of Mahler and in the current season his survey of the entire cycle continues with performances of the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde in Germany and France.
Milton served as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2004, made his United States debut in 2005 with the Phoenix Symphony, and regularly conducts in Finland and France. He has appeared as a guest conductor with all of Australia’s major orchestras: in 2009 he toured with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, directs the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras and records a CD for ABC Classics with the TSO. Nicholas is also currently General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany, and Chief Conductor of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra in Sydney.
Nicholas Milton is a devoted interpreter of opera. In recent seasons he has conducted new productions in Germany of Marriage of Figaro, Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck), and Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss). Other opera credits include Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, and Franz Schmidt’s masterpiece, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (The Book with Seven Seals) at the German National Theater in Weimar. In 2009 he conducted new productions of Undine (Hans Werner Henze), Cosi van Tutti (Mozart), and The Bartered Bride (Smetana). Also an international advocate for contemporary Australian orchestral music, Milton has conducted world and European premieres of works by Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Meale, Ross Edwards, Graeme Koehne, Carl Vine, Elena Kats-Chernin, and Matthew Hindson.
Originally a violinist, Nicholas Milton was Concertmaster of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 1996-2002 and Violinist with Macquarie Trio Australia from 1998-2005. He studied at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Michigan State University, Boston University, the Mannes College of Music, and the Juilliard School, and holds Master’s degrees in Violin, Conducting, Music Theory, and Philosophy, as well as a Doctoral degree in Music from the City University of New York. He won the 1999 Symphony Australia Young Conductor of the Year Competition and was a prizewinner in the 1999 Lovro von Matacic International Conductors’ Competition. In 2003, Dr. Milton was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal, for Service to Australian Society and the Advancement of Music.
