Nicolette Fraillon

Fraillon grew up in Melbourne, a child of immigrant parents of French Huguenot, Sicilian and Austrian Jewish descent. Her family is musical: both grandfathers were cellists, and her great-uncle Guillaume was principal double bass player with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.^[1]

She started violin and piano studies as a child; her teachers included Brian Buggy (violin) and Ada Corder (piano).^[1][2] She played with the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Youth Orchestra for some time.^[3]

As an adult she studied viola under Chris Martin at the University of Melbourne. She studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, from 1984, and later in Hanover, Germany.^[4] Her professional conducting debut was with the Nederlands Dans Theater, when she deputised for another conductor who had fallen ill.^[2] In the Netherlands, she also worked on a production of Les Misérables, both playing viola in the orchestra and working as second conductor.^[2][3] Later she was appointed music director and chief conductor of the Dutch National Ballet.^[5]

In 1995 she was engaged by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first Australian woman to conduct an Australian symphony orchestra. She later conducted the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.^[4]

In October 1997 Fraillon was appointed director of the Canberra School of Music, effective from June 1998.^[3] In 1998 she commenced at the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2003 she was appointed chief conductor of The Australian Ballet.^[4][5] She was their first woman conductor, and, in 2016, the world's only woman music director of a ballet company.^[6] In November 2021, Fraillon announced that she would leave that position in 2022.^[7] In 2023, she was awarded the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award.^[8]

Fraillon has been married three times,^[3][9] and has two sons.^[1] She has been married to soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon since January 2023.^[10]