David Currie is a Canadian conductor who was the music director and conductor for the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra from 1992 until 2016. Currie is also an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches double bass and conducting, and conducts the university orchestra.
Currie is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Prior to joining the OSO, he was a double bass player in the National Arts Centre Orchestra from 1971 until 1991, when he retired as Principal Bass.
Currie studied conducting in Siena, Italy and at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, one of Japan's most prestigious private music institutions, where he studied with Professor Morihiro Okabe and Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama. Since 1982, Mr. Currie has also been the conductor of the University of Ottawa Orchestra. [1]
He is the founding conductor of the Tabaret Ensemble, a string ensemble of seven professors and seven music students from the University of Ottawa. He is also the founding conductor of the Pierrot Ensemble, a group that performs 20th-century music. Currie has acted as a guest conductor for Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra, and for Ottawa's opera company (Opera Lyra Ottawa).
In May 1992, Currie became Music Director of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. As music director, his duties include leading rehearsals, conducting the orchestra concerts, planning the programs, and engaging in community outreach activities. He stepped down in 2016. [1]
Currie is married to Nancy Currie, an Ottawa-based visual artist and arts teacher, and the couple have two daughters (now adults).
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
The Sibelius Academy is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities with roughly 1,400 enrolled students.
The Utah Symphony is an American orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The orchestra's principal venue is Abravanel Hall. In addition to its Salt Lake City subscription concerts, the orchestra travels around the Intermountain West serving communities throughout Utah. The orchestra accompanies the Utah Opera in four productions per year at Salt Lake's Capitol Theatre. In addition, the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera have a summer residency at the Deer Valley Music Festival, located in Park City, Utah. The orchestra receives funding from the Utah State Legislature for educational concerts. The Symphony has a division in Utah Valley that is based out of the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.
Boris Brott, was a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, La Scala,and Covent Garden. He was known for his innovative methods of introducing classical music to new audiences. Over his career, he commissioned, performed, and recorded a wide variety of Canadian works for orchestra.
The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder. Dating in its earliest form from 1883, it has a history in professional training for musical performance, musical composition, research in all fields of music, and music education. The Elder Conservatorium of Music and its forerunners have been parts of the University of Adelaide since the early 1880s.
Alain Trudel is a Canadian conductor, trombonist and composer.
Donald Palma is a prominent classical double bassist, conductor, bass instructor, and educator of ensemble performance. He is a native of New York City, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Palma studied with several noted bassists including Frederick Zimmermann, Robert Brennand, Orin O'Brien, and Homer Mensch.
The Ottawa Symphony Orchestra (OSO) is a full size orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, including professional, student and amateur musicians. With around 100 musicians, the OSO is Ottawa's largest orchestra, which allows it to perform large symphonic repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Canadian composers.
The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, Rue Sherbrooke Ouest. The faculty was named after the benefactor Seymour Schulich.
Ángel Gil-Ordóñez is a Spanish-born American conductor who co-founded the PostClassical Ensemble with music historian Joseph Horowitz and serves as its Music Director. He is also the Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble and the Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he serves as advisor for education and programming for Trinitate Philharmonia, a program in Mexico modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema, and is also a regular guest conductor at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine.
Peter Askim is an American composer of modern classical music, conductor, music educator and a double bassist.
David Porcelijn is a Dutch composer and conductor.
Alexander Gordon Shelley is an Echo Music Prize-winning English conductor. He is currently music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, as well as principal associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic and Music Director Designate of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic. Shelley was the unanimous winner of the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition. From 2009 to 2017 he was chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. He was also artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen's Echo and Deutscher Gründerpreis winning "Zukunftslabor". He is recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Leonard Tan is a trinational-based, Singaporean music director, conductor, tubist, violinist, and music educator at scholastic, collegiate, conservatory, and professional levels
Kevin Patrick Noe is an American conductor, stage director, writer, and trumpeter. He is currently the executive artistic director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and a regular guest conductor of orchestra, opera, and ballet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music
Alan Heatherington is one of the leading orchestra conductors in Illinois. He has conducted and/or played with virtually all of the major orchestras in the Chicago area. He was the Music Director of Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Master Singers, and is Music Director Emeritus of all three ensembles.
Victoria Ellen Bond is an American conductor and composer in New York City.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Rolf Arvind Gupta is a Norwegian contemporary composer and conductor.