Canadian conductor, trombonist and composer Alain Trudel has been named the new Interim Artistic Director for the Brott Music Festival one month after Boris Brott’s tragic passing. Trudel is a friend of the Brott family, and familiar face to the Brott Festival having previously joined the National Academy Orchestra as a performer, brass mentor and guest conductor.

“I am humbled to join Brott Music Festival and continue Boris’ extraordinary contributions to music,” Maestro Trudel said in a statement. “I know how much the Brott Music Festival, the National Academy Orchestra and Brott Opera means to Canadian musicians, emerging opera singers and the cultural identity of this City. I will strive to live up to their extraordinary reputation.”

Trudel is currently Music Director of the Toledo Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, and joins the Brott Festival with a multitude of accolades including his Emmy nomination in 2020, being a six-time Juno nominee, and having been honoured with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2012. He was also awarded a knighthood in 2020 by the province of Québec, the Chevalier de l’Ordre, which was attended by Boris and Ardyth Brott. A long-time coach and mentor, Trudel has acted as a Principal Youth and Family Conductor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and been instrumental to guiding new generations of musicians for more than 25 years.

Trudel will make his debut as Interim Artistic Director when Brott Musical Festival begins June 30, with Beethoven’s Ninth — a program dedicated to the memory of Boris Brott. Audiences can look forward to a season that includes the sounds of PopOpera, Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella), Canadian pianist Valerie Tryon playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and more. The Festival’s summer season will close with a fully staged production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music.

Tickets to the 35th Brott Musical Festival are available here.

By Angie Bell for operacanada.ca

Photo: Alain Trudel. © 2022 Maude Chauvin.