L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

NATHAN BROCK

Winner of the Canada Council for the Arts’ 2011 Jean-Marie Beaudet conducting prize, Nathan Brock has been Assistant Conductor of l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since July 2009. He works closely with Music Director Kent Nagano and many invited artists for performances in Montreal at the Place des Arts and now the Maison symphonique , and at the Orford and Lanaudière festivals in Canada, and abroad on tour with the orchestra at the Cervantino, Spring for Music (Carnegie) and Edinburgh Festivals. He regularly leads the orchestra on every concert series that the orchestra presents, including educational, family, special events, summer parks and subscription concerts. Highlights of the past season include a live to air concert broadcast on CBC Radio, the debut of a series he initiated for youth performed as part of Montreal’s Nuit Blanche festival and several open-air performances attended by more than 35,000 listeners.

In two seasons with the orchestra, his role rapidly expanded to include responsibilities well beyond the scope of his initial contract. He is back-up conductor for all major symphonic concert series and also assistant conductor for operatic performances – including La Sonnambula and Eugene Onegin, staged at the Knowlton Festival; the Opéra de Montréal/OSM collaboration, Gianni Schicchi/I Pagliacci; and the orchestra’s own concert version of Das Rheingold. He regularly prepares the OSM for the music director and has rehearsed the OSM choir and guest soloists. Brock plays an integral part in OSM productions for CBC Television and Radio (Handel’s Messiah, 2010 DVD, Scriabin/Rachmaninoff piano works CD), as well as CDs on the Analekta/SONY label (Beethoven Symphonies 3, 6, 8, 9 and the ballet music for Creatures of Prometheus) as an associate producer. In August 2011, he was the first conductor to lead the OSM in its new home, La Maison Symphonique. He is also deeply involved in the “tuning” of the new hall as the orchestra’s liaison to the acousticians of ARTEC.

Upcoming are debuts with the Toronto Symphony and National Ballet of Canada, and at the Festival de Musique de Menton in France.

In 2003, Brock began the Northern Lights Music Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he remained artistic director and conductor until 2008. He also created the Aaron Brock Foundation in memory of his brother, accomplished classical guitarist Aaron Brock.

Winning a number of Canada Council for the Arts grants and prizes, Brock had the opportunity to participate in master classes worldwide with Jorma Panula, Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, James Conlon and Michael Tilson Thomas. He has twice been a fellow of the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music festival, working with David Zinman. He received his first formal training in conducting at the Pierre Monteux School. Brock completed his studies in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule der Künste in Zürich, Switzerland, where halfway through his studies, he was also made a member of the conducting faculty. He also holds both an Advanced Certificate in Performance from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and an Honours B.A from the University of Toronto in History/International Relations and Music.