Alun Francis was born on 29 September 1943 in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, to Welsh parents, Emlyn Francis and Eluned (Peters) Francis. Although his own birth took place across the border, he was raised in Troedyrhiw, a village near Merthyr Tydfil in the South Wales valleys, and later made his home there — a genuine Welsh upbringing even though the legacy claim that he was "born in Troedyrhiw" does not hold up. He trained as a horn player, studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1960 to 1963, and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales in the early 1960s, where he was a contemporary of fellow Welshman John Cale, later of the Velvet Underground.
Francis went on to play horn professionally, including with the Halle Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Constantin Silvestri, before turning to conducting. He became principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in 1966, a post he held for a decade, and went on to build one of the more well-travelled conducting careers of his generation, taking in the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle (1979-1985), the ensembles of Opera Forum in Enschede, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie as Generalmusikdirektor (1987-1990), the Thuringen Philharmonie Gotha (2003-2008), and the Orquesta Filarmonica de la UNAM in Mexico City.
Over more than five decades Francis has conducted upwards of 200 orchestras and opera companies in more than 30 countries, with a particular reputation as a specialist in 20th-century music and in bel canto opera, including conducting the premiere of Donizetti's Gabriella di Vergy at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1978. His career stands as a genuinely Welsh one in upbringing and family, even if his actual place of birth was just across the border in England.