Born and raised in London, from an early age Francis Gallagher had an intense curiosity for music and played several instruments during his school years including the violin, viola, trumpet, guitar and piano. Later he took his Bachelor Studies at the Royal College of Music, studying viola and violin performance, where he was guided by Jonathon Barritt, Yuri Zhislin and Suzie Meszaros. He then completed his Master of Performance in viola performance at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with distinction and there he benefited from the guidance of Matthew Jones and Krzysztof Chorzelski. He won First Prizes at the Viola Competitions at both Bachelor and Masters Institutions, 2013 and 2015 respectively.

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      Throughout these educational years Francis participated in masterclasses with celebrated musicians Maxim Vengerov, Alina Ibragimova, Carol Rodland, Jennifer Stumm, and Máté Szücs (ex-principal viola of the Berlin Philharmonic) and during the time performing and rehearsing with young chamber groups he gained valuable guidance from members of the Endellion, Belcea, Fine Arts, Talich, Ysaye and Chilingirian Quartets. Since 2018 he has been pursuing performance in Arabic and Middle-Eastern Music with renowned Kurdish violinist Salar Asid.

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          Francis has been part of in a number of exciting projects most of which are classical although some focus on or incorporate different genres. One such ensemble, Four Plus Three, involves a collaboration between jazz pianist Kate Williams, celebrated guitarist John Williams, and the Guastalla String Quartet; of which Francis is an active member. The project, which performs original Jazz music composed by the pianist, released an album in 2018 with singer Georgia Mancio entitled Finding Home which in 2020 won an award for ‘Best Album’ in the UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Francis also has collaborated with Rarescale which has performed new works by renowned composers such as Michael Oliva and Claes Biehl.

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      Francis is a founding member of ensemble Aindama which focuses on using elements of traditional music from the Middle-East to perform original compositions incorporating both Western and Eastern instruments. In August 2019 they performed at Willowbrook Festival, Oxfordshire and recently in August 2020 during the pandemic put together a series of online performances entitled Back to the Roots.

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       Francis has been a regular collaborator with many different UK Orchestras. He has spent time as a guest player for the BBC Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, Britten Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra and the English National Opera Orchestra. More recently he has been employed with the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic in Romania and in February 2021 featured as a soloist with the orchestra under the baton of András Vass.