It's always funny when I hear what's going on at the LPO before the Tomcat does, but this news is very nice: the London Philharmonic has just snaffled Nicholas Collon to be its new assistant conductor. From the autumn season, Nicholas will be the lucky lad who gets to shadow Vlad 'the Impaler' Jurowski, and he will conduct a number of LPO concerts and pre-concert events himself. Twitter addicts have probably found him already, but in case not, follow him at @nicholascollon. Maybe he can persuade Vladimir to tweet too.
Currently in charge of the brilliant Aurora Orchestra, which won the RPS Award for Best Ensemble the other week, Nicholas has already made an impressive mark on the musical scene here. He's dynamic, creative, articulate and has one absolute prerequisite for a gifted young 21st-century conductor: seriously curly hair.
See also the similarly hirsute Ilyich Rivas:
and Robin Ticciati:
