Nicolette Ella Fraillon (born 29 July 1960) is an Australian conductor, who was chief conductor of The Australian Ballet from 2003 until 2022.
Career 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.
She started violin and piano studies as a child; her teachers included Brian Buggy (violin) and Ada Corder (piano)."The Good Life: Lunch with Nicolette Fraillon", The Age, 2 March 2013, Life&Style, p. 3 She played with the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Youth Orchestra for some time.
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.Limelight, January 2014, Guest column: Female conductors, p. 20 Her professional conducting debut was with the Nederlands Dans Theater, when she deputised for another conductor who had fallen ill. In the Netherlands, she also worked on a production of Les Misérables, both playing viola in the orchestra and working as second conductor. Later she was appointed music director and chief conductor of the Dutch National Ballet."Meet Nicolette", The Australian Ballet. Retrieved 25 October 2016
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.
In October 1997 Fraillon was appointed director of the Canberra School of Music, effective from June 1998.Helen Musa, "From the top, please", The Canberra Times, 18 October 1997, Saturday Magazine, p. C1 In 1998 she commenced at the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2003 she was appointed chief conductor of The Australian Ballet. She was their first woman conductor, and, in 2016, the world's only woman music director of a ballet company."Australian Ballet music director calls out sexism in classical music world" by Jeremy Story Carter, ABC Radio National, 13 June 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2021 In November 2021, Fraillon announced that she would leave that position in 2022."Nicolette Fraillon will farewell The Australian Ballet in 2022" by Deborah Jones, Limelight, 19 November 2021 In 2023, she was awarded the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award.
Personal life Fraillon has been married three times, and has two sons. She has been married to soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon since January 2023.
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