Francine Merry studied music at Durham University and at the Guildhall School of Music, London where she was awarded the Ricordi Conducting Prize for opera, and the Guildhall Conducting Prize. She studied with Vilem Tausky and was selected to study with Rafael Kubelik on a mastercourse for conductors at the Lucerne International Festival. She has conducted many of the leading orchestras in Britain and abroad including the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.​



As conductor of opera, Francine Merry has worked with many of the leading opera companies including Wexford Festival Opera, Marseille Opera, New Israeli Opera, English National Opera, Opera Factory, London, and Opera North. From 1989 to 1991 she was staff conductor at the Opera ​House in Aachen, Germany, where she conducted many operas.

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She was subsequently on the music staff at English National Opera where she made her debut in 1992 conducting Rossini's Barber of Seville. In 1991 and 1992 she was conductor of the international award-winning production of Carmen Jones at The Old Vic, London.​



She regularly conducted Opera Gala Evenings throughout Great Britain for Opera-in-Concert Ltd. and with the National Symphony Orchestra in the London Barbican Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.  Francine Merry conducted the new production of Puccini'sTosca for Dublin Grand Opera.        



Francine Merry conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and also Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia Chorus, and the City of Glasgow Chorus.