Audiences and critics react the same way about
Jean-François Rivest: he is a spectacular conductor
endowed with enormous energy, precision and emotion, who in
addition is capable of forging important artistic development in
the orchestras he leads. His interpretations are characterized by
great depths of feeling as well as by an acute sense of structure.
His discography grows with each passing year, and it ranges through Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorák and Sibelius, to contemporary works. He has won was many awards and distinctions in his career, including, as a performer, First Prize at the 1976 OSM Competition, and, as a conductor, the Prix Félix from the ADISQ for best orchestral recording of the year in 2001. In addition to his guest conducting appearances across Canada, Rivest has led orchestras in Europe, in Mexico, in South America and in Russia. He is currently Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de l'Université de Montréal and of the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in Ottawa. and the Orchestre symphonique de Laval. On June 1, 2006, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal named Jean-François Rivest its conductor in residence.
Trained at the Conservatoire de Montréal, in Meadowmount (New York), in Aspen (Colorado), and at the Juilliard School (New York) with teachers such as Sonia Jelinkova, Sally Thomas, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, Jean-François Rivest was quick to be noticed as one of the foremost Québec violinists of his generation. By the age of twenty he was enjoying an active career as an orchestra musician, as a chamber player and as a soloist, in which capacities he has performed in the major centres of Canada and the U.S. A teacher of considerable reputation, Rivest has taught at various music camps, at McGill University, at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and, since 1992, has been responsible for the remarkable development of the string department at the Université de Montréal. In 1998, he received a rare "Excellence in Teaching Award." He now teaches conducting and holds the university's highest rank, Professeur titulaire. He is also interested in composition.
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