MEET THE CONDUCTOR: Bramwell Tovey, Handel's Messiah

Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Handel's Messiah
December 12, 2021 at 3PM

Background: As Artistic Advisor and Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, Bramwell Tovey embarks on his third season leading the Orchestra. Since his appointment in September 2018, Maestro Tovey has collaborated closely with staff and musicians to plan for this and future seasons.

GRAMMY and JUNO award-winning conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey is the newly appointed Music Director Designate of the Sarasota Orchestra. He will continue in his roles as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Artistic Advisor to the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec.


Following an exceptional 18-year tenure as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony, which concluded in summer 2018, he now returns as the orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus. Under his leadership, the VSO toured China, Korea, Canada and the United States. His VSO innovations included the establishment of the VSO School of Music, the VSO’s annual festival of contemporary music and the VSO Orchestral Institute at Whistler, a comprehensive summer orchestral training program for young musicians held in the scenic mountain resort of Whistler in British Columbia.

With the resumption of concerts in summer 2021, Mr. Tovey has conducted the New York Philharmonic at Bravo Vail, Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and will lead the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms before embarking on a full schedule including a special concert in Sarasota to mark the beginning of his tenure followed by guest appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Helsingborg Symphony, Sweden.

In 2003, Mr. Tovey won the JUNO Award for Best Classical Composition for his choral and brass work Requiem for a Charred Skull. His song cycle, Ancestral Voices, which addresses the issue of Reconciliation, was written for acclaimed Kwagiulth mezzo-soprano Marion Newman and premiered in June 2017. His trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise Saloon, was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony for principal trumpet Andrew McCandless, and performed in 2014 by Alison Balsom with the Los Angeles, Philadelphia and London philharmonic orchestras. A recording of his opera, The Inventor, commissioned by Calgary Opera, features the original cast, members of UBC Opera and the VSO.

Mr. Tovey was the recipient of the Oskar Morawetz 2015 Prize for Excellence in Music Performance. He was previously Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg where he led the world premiere of Penderecki’s Eighth Symphony on the opening of the principality’s new concert hall, the Philharmonie. He won the Prix d’or of the Academie Lyrique Française for his recording of Jean Cras’ 1922 opera Polyphème with OPL and toured with the orchestra to China, Korea, the United States and throughout Europe.