François Girard-Garcia is a laureate of the London Classical Soloists (2nd Prize) and Pärnu City Orchestra Estonia (Favorite conductor of the orchestra). After training as a violinist, he played with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Les Dissonances, Ensemble Contrechamps, Collegium Novum Zürich and at festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Enescu Festival, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Festival Les Athénéennes. He then devoted himself fully to conducting, for which he obtained his Master’s degree, as well as to choral conducting at the Lucerne University of Music and Performing Arts, where he conducted the Lucerne Festival Strings.

As a permanent conductor of the Kammerorchester Kloten and the Jugendorchester Köniz, he was invited in October 2021 to conduct the MusicaEterna Orchestra in Mahler’s 5th Symphony at the KKL Lucerne as part of a Masterclass with Theodor Currentzis.

In response to the war in Ukraine, he has mobilized to perform Brahms’ Requiem in the
Lukaskirche of Lucerne on March 27, 2022 as part of a benefit concert for the Ukraine. From this concert, it became clear that the efforts for the Ukrainians should be continued and he created with the Ukrainian pianist Raissa Zhunke the Swiss Orchestra for Ukraine, an orchestra whose aim is to gather Ukrainian musicians who have fled to Switzerland, to give them the possibility to pursue their profession by organizing concerts, to integrate into Swiss society by having them meet musicians living in Switzerland, and collectively to maintain the visibility of the situation of Ukraine and to promote Ukrainian culture.

The next concert, “Ukrainian poem” will take place on December 3, 2022 at the MKZ Zürich, Florhof Grosser Saal, with Ukrainian composers as well as the violin concerto of the Swiss composer Stefan Wirth “through the looking glass” with the exceptional participation of Ilya Gringolts.