Nicholas Collon knew he wanted to be a conductor from the age of 10 while playing in a youth orchestra. At Clare College, Cambridge where he was an organ scholar he regularly conducted both the Clare Chapel Choir and the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra in a wide variety of repertoire. It was there that he began explore a love of period instruments, conducting a critically acclaimed performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Cambridge University Baroque Ensemble.
On leaving Cambridge he was invited to conduct several rated amateur orchestras including the Salomon and Kensington Symphony Orchestra and in 2005 co-founded Aurora Orchestra, a professional chamber orchestra which has attracted critical acclaim for its contemporary and unusual repertoire. Passionate in taking music outside of its normal realm, Nicholas conducted the first ever stage opera in the West Bank (Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem) and in 2008 he took Aurora to perform in a festival in Beirut and Lebanon.
In 2010 Nicholas made his BBC Proms debut and conducted the world premiere of Julian Philips’ The Knight Crew for Glynebourne Opera as well as working with ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia.