Artist Biographies (alphabetical by last name).............18-32

Biographies

Wang Jie

Part cartoon character, part virtuoso, composer WANG JIE has spent the last two decades nudging classical music and its concert audiences into spectacular frontiers. One day she spins a few notes into a large symphony, the next she conjures a malevolent singing rat onto the opera stage. For the past three years running, Jie’s Symphony No. 1 has been the most-broadcast work on the mostlistened-to classical music show in the country. During previous seasons, you might have heard about her pioneering opera “It Rained on Shakopee,” based on her mentoring experience at the Minnesota state prison. Unveiling beauty in this world, and paving new paths for greater public engagement with classical music are at the heart of her artistry. Many consider Ms. Wang’s stylistic versatility a rare trait among today’s composers, but she comes by it naturally. There is a mile-long dossier on Jie’s outside-the-box incidents. It begins with a thrilling escape from a Chinese-military-run kindergarten at the age of four. Apparently it was a rehearsal. Jie will tell you that fighting for her beliefs has gotten her into trouble after trouble. But music critic Jay Nordlinger puts it this way: “Wang Jie is a clear communicator, whose love of music is obvious.”

Today, that same refusal of constraint sparks the glorious madness of Jie’s music; the skill, theatricality and method that once facilitated her youthful escape are now the engines for her appetite to “Engage • Explore • Play”. Jie credits her mentors at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music for giving her the tools to materialize her artistic vision. Her career is made possible by trailblazing folks at New York City Opera, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, etc. And she is continuously fueled by organizations that nodded at her endeavors, such as American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the McKnight Foundation, the V. Toulmin Foundation, to name a few. These lists are extensive, proof that the whole village must show up to bear witness as an artist struggles daily for her integrity. This daily practice, as James Baldwin says, must be considered as a metaphor for the universal struggle of all human beings to get to become human beings. Since the pandemic, Jie is busy finishing her new symphony for the Colorado Music Festival, starting another for the Buffalo Philharmonic, and creating new works for the Apollo Chamber Players, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and half a dozen others. Off the composing clock, Jie is a mentor at the Curtis Institute, the City University of NY, and an unexpected student of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form in South India. Along with her husband Fred Child, Jie enjoys endless rock climbing trips and occasional mountaineering feats.

BEHIND THE MUSIC

Curious to hear the stories behind the fantastic music being performed at the Colorado Music Festival? Join us for our popular pre-concert lectures, which are now virtual so you can watch from anywhere at any time. For each week of the Festival, a different guest speaker will provide insights into that week’s repertoire and composers and discuss their own connection to the pieces. You’ll hear stories, observations, and commentary in short videos you can access online before you head to the concert.

Learn more and watch at coloradomusicfestival.org/behind-the-music

Biographies

PHOTO: LAUREN DESBERG

Tessa Lark

Violinist Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. In 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category and received one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, the special Hunt Family Award. Other recent honors include a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medalist in the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. A budding superstar in the classical realm, she is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her. Highlights of her 2021-22 season include debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall; return appearances for recital series such as Cal Performances and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and numerous concerto engagements, including the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s violin concerto, Cycles of Life, with the Knoxville Symphony in April 2022. Tessa’s debut commercial recording—SKY, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra—earned a 2020 GRAMMY nomination, and Tessa’s discography has been expanding ever since. Recordings include Fantasy, an album on the First Hand Records label that includes fantasias by Schubert, Telemann and Fritz Kreisler, Ravel’s Tzigane, and Tessa’s own Appalachian Fantasy; Invention, a debut album of the violin-bass duo Lark and Thurber that comprises arrangements of Two-Part Inventions by J.S. Bach along with non-classical original compositions by Tessa and her fiancé, Michael Thurber; and a live performance recording of Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, released in 2021 by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honor of Piazzolla’s 100-year anniversary. Her newest recording, The Stradgrass Sessions, is scheduled for release in 2022 and includes collaborations with composerperformers Jon Batiste, Edgar Meyer, Michael Cleveland, and Sierra Hull; original works by Tessa; and the premier recording of John Corigliano’s solo violin composition STOMP. In addition to Tessa’s performance schedule, she was recently named Artistic Director Designate of Musical Masterworks, a chamber music presenter in Old Lyme, CT, for the 2021-22 season, and will assume the role of Artistic Director on July 1, 2022. Tessa is also a champion of young aspiring artists and supports the next generation of musicians through her work as Co-host/Creative of NPR’s From The Top, the premier radio showcase for the nation’s most talented young musicians; and as Mentor and board member of the Irving M. Klein International Strings Competition. Her primary mentors include Cathy McGlasson, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Miriam Fried, and Lucy Chapman. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory and completed her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Ida Kavafian, and Daniel Phillips. Tessa plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

PHOTO: CHRISTOPH KOESTLIN

Jan Lisiecki

Jan Lisiecki’s interpretations and technique speak to a maturity beyond his age. At 27, the Canadian performs over a hundred yearly concerts worldwide, and has worked closely with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, and Claudio Abbado.

Biographies

Did You Know?

In 2021/2022, Lisiecki presents a new recital program featuring Chopin Nocturnes and Études in more than 30 cities all around the globe. Recent return invitations include Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for performances at Carnegie Hall and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Lisiecki recently performed a Beethoven Lieder cycle with baritone Matthias Goerne, among others at the Salzburg Festival, and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra. At the age of fifteen, Lisiecki signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The label launched its celebrations of the Beethoven Year 2020 with the release of a live recording of all five Beethoven concertos from Konzerthaus Berlin, with Lisiecki leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the piano. His Beethoven Lieder cycle with Matthias Goerne, released shortly after, was awarded the Diapason d’Or. Lisiecki’s eighth recording for the prestigious label, a double album of Frédéric Chopin’s Complete Nocturnes which he also showcases in his current recital program, appeared in August 2021 and in February 2022 on vinyl, immediately topping the classical charts in North America and Europe. Most recently, his previous solo program Night Music, featuring works by Mozart, Ravel, Schumann and Paderewski, was released as a digital album. His recordings have been awarded with the JUNO and ECHO Klassik.

At eighteen, Lisiecki became both the youngest ever recipient of Gramophone’s Young Artist Award and received the Leonard Bernstein Award. He was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012.

Leave the hassle of parking behind and take the HOP 2 Chautauqua. For info and a complete list of stops, nearby parking lots, and schedule, visit chautauqua.com/HOP. Timothy McAllister

Hailed by The New York Times as a “virtuoso…one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation”, “brilliant”(The Guardian, UK), and “a sterling saxophonist” (The Baltimore Sun), Timothy McAllister is one of today’s premier soloists, a member of the renowned PRISM Quartet, and a champion of contemporary music credited with dozens of recordings and over 150 premieres of new compositions by eminent and emerging composers worldwide. His 2022 premiere of John Corigliano’s Triathlon: Concerto for Saxophonist and Orchestra, which employs soprano, alto and baritone saxes, was a tour de force “he gave the piece the knockout performance it deserved” (San Francisco Chronicle). McAllister’s rise to international fame came in 2009 with his celebrated work in John Adams’s “City Noir,” filmed as part of Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural concert as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the world premiere of John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto in August 2013 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer in the Sydney Opera House. Subsequent critically acclaimed U.S. premieres with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony followed, along with engagements with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra at the London Proms, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the New World Symphony, among others.

McAllister has recently been soloist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Elgin Symphony, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Royal Band of the Belgian Air Force, United States Navy Band, Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia, Tokyo Wind Symphony, Pacific Symphony and the Nashville Symphony, among others. An in-demand orchestral

Biographies

saxophonist, he has toured in the U.S. and abroad with both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among many others. A renowned teacher of his instrument, he has served as Professor of Saxophone at Northwestern University (IL), a Valade Artist Fellow for the Interlochen Center for the Arts (MI), and is a clinician for the Conn-Selmer and D’Addario companies. In September 2014 he joined the University of Michigan School of Music faculty, succeeding his legendary mentor, Donald Sinta. McAllister’s work can be heard on the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, OMM, Stradivarius, Centaur, AUR, Albany, Parma, New Dynamic, Equilibrium, New Focus and innova record labels.

PHOTO: TODD ROSENBERG PHOTOGRAPHY

Anthony McGill

Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character” (New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill is one of classical music’s most recognizable and brilliantly multifaceted figures. In addition to his dynamic international solo and chamber music career, McGill is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African-American principal player in the organization’s history. In 2020, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards given in recognition of soloists who represent the highest level of musical excellence.

McGill was honored to take part in the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams and performing alongside violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero. He is a dedicated champion of new music: during the 2021/22 season, McGill performs “You Have the Right to Remain Silent” by Pulitzer prize winning composer Anthony Davis; “Peace,” by Jessie Montgomery; “Ad Anah?” by James Lee III; a new work from Benjamin J. Shirley; “Book of Days,” by Daron Hagen; and “From The Mountaintop,” written for McGill by Richard Danielpour. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, McGill launched a powerful musical protest video urging people to #TakeTwoKnees in demonstration against the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice. His video went viral and hundreds of artists and citizens amplified the message and responded to the protest with their own videos using the hashtag #TakeTwoKnees. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, McGill previously served as the principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera and associate principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he holds the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair. He is the Artistic Director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program, a weekend program dedicated to students who demonstrate a commitment to artistic excellence, which actively seeks young musicians from backgrounds underrepresented in classical music.

McGill is an ardent advocate for helping music education reach underserved communities and for addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in classical music. In 2020, in concert with a $30,000 charitable gift from the Avery Fisher Artist Program designated to a charity of McGill’s choice, McGill and Weston Sprott, Dean of the Preparatory Division of The Juilliard School, established the Weston Sprott and Anthony McGill MAP Summer Scholarship Fund so MAP students can take part in summer programs and festivals. In December 2021 The Juilliard School announced a permanent endowment grant of $50 million for its Music Advancement Program (MAP) from Crankstart, which will fund full-tuition scholarships for all MAP students and program expansion. McGill serves on the board of directors for Cedille Records and the Harmony Program, and on the advisory councils for the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and Time In Children’s Arts Initiative. He is a Vandoren Artist and Buffet Crampon Artist.

Biographies

Gabriela Montero

Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Recipient of the prestigious 2018 Heidelberger Frühling Music Prize, Montero’s recent and forthcoming highlights include debuts with the New World Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas), Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo (Aziz Shokhakimov), Orquesta de Valencia (Pablo Heras-Casado), and the Bournemouth Symphony (Carlos Miguel Prieto. Montero also recently performed her own “Latin” Concerto with the Orchestra of the Americas at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Edinburgh Festival, as well as at Carnegie Hall and the New World Center with the NYO2. Additional highlights include a planned European tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; a second tour with the cutting edge Scottish Ensemble, this time with Montero’s latest composition Babel as the centerpiece of the program; and return invitations to work with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, Jaime Martin and the Orquestra de Cadaqués for concerts in Madrid and Barcelona, and Alexander Shelley and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.

A graduate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Montero is an award-winning and bestselling recording artist. Her most recent album, released in autumn 2019 on the Orchid Classics label, features her own “Latin” Concerto and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, recorded with the Orchestra of the Americas in Frutillar, Chile. Her previous recording on Orchid Classics features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and her first orchestral composition, Ex Patria, winning Montero her first Latin Grammy® for Best Classical Album (Mejor Álbum de Música Clásica). In 2008, she also received a Grammy® nomination for her album Baroque, and in 2010 she released Solatino, a recording inspired by her Venezuelan homeland and devoted to works by Latin American composers. Winner of the 4th International Beethoven Award, Montero is a committed advocate for human rights, whose voice regularly reaches beyond the concert hall. She was named an Honorary Consul by Amnesty International in 2015, and recognized with Outstanding Work in the Field of Human Rights by the Human Rights Foundation for her ongoing commitment to human rights advocacy in Venezuela. She was invited to participate in the 2013 Women of the World Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, and has spoken and performed twice at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters. She was also awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award for her contribution to the arts and was a featured performer at Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Inauguration. Born in Venezuela, Montero started her piano studies at age four with Lyl Tiempo, making her concerto debut at age eight in her hometown of Caracas. This led to a scholarship from the government to study privately in the USA and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne.

Abigail Nims

Mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims is renowned as a musician of integrity and versatility for her performances of repertoire spanning from Bach, Handel, and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti, and premieres of contemporary works. On opera stages her past successes include Melanto in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque; Veruca Salt in Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket at the Wexford Opera Festival and Atlanta Opera; Lazuli in L’Étoile with New York City Opera; Despina in Così fan tutte with Palm Beach Opera and Opera Grand Rapids; Nancy in Albert Herring with Florentine Opera; Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Virginia Opera; Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera New

Biographies

Jersey and Opera Grand Rapids; Zefka in “Scenes of Gypsy Life” (Janácek/Dvorák) with New York’s Gotham Chamber Opera; Milena in the world premiere of Martin Bresnick’s My Friend’s Story at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas; Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Princeton Festival; Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi; Meg in Little Women and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Delaware; and Tessa in The Gondoliers with Opera North. Ms. Nims has presented recitals at Trinity Church Wall Street, New York City; Wexford Festival Opera; the University of Colorado, Boulder; and as guest alumna at Ohio Wesleyan University. In recital she has performed repertoire by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Brahms, Mahler, Wolf, Debussy, Berg, Bridge, Ives, Ginastera, Argento, and Harbison. Abigail Nims holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. She was a Virginia Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival in 2009, an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera in 2007 and 2008, and a Young Artist with Opera North in 2005. Additionally, she has participated in the Spoleto Festival USA, AIMS in Graz (Austria), the AustrianAmerican Mozart Academy, and the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program in Vienna. Ms. Nims is currently a member of the voice faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Emelie O’Hara

Emelie O’Hara’s regional credits include Electric Baby and Sense and Sensibility (Arvada Center); Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors and Henry IV, Parts 2 and 3 (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Sierra Reparatory Theatre); Viola in Twelfth Night and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatricum Botanicum); Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost (American Studio Theater); and Amanda in Private Lives (Adobe Theatre).

Really Inventive Stuff

Founded in 2004 by Sara Valentine and Michael Boudewyns, Really Inventive Stuff has the honor of performing family and education concerts with orchestras, conductors and musicians from all around the world.

Based outside of Portland, Maine, our company of classicallytrained performers is committed to sharing inspiring, memorable experiences with audiences of all ages. Our productions are created with a core commitment to imaginative, playful, and entertaining storytelling. With a sprinkling of childlike enthusiasm, we create skillful, delightful performances that combine our love of vaudeville and our passion for classic theatre, while keeping the music in the spotlight.

Biographies

CREDIT CHRIS LEE

Albert Cano Smit

Praised as “a moving young poet” and “a great romantic” (by Christophe Huss – Le Devoir), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the San Diego, Montreal, Las Vegas, Manchester, and Barcelona symphony orchestras, amongst others. He also won First Prize at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, which presented him in recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Most recently, Albert was awarded the 2020 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Prize from The Juilliard School.

This season, Cano Smit performs with The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle with Lorenzo Muti, and with the Boca Del Rio Philharmonic. In recital, he plays at the Bach Festival Montreal, Florida University of Performing Arts, the Krannert Center in Chicago, and is set to return to Merkin Hall in New York, among others. He will premiere Katherine Balch’s work with flutist Anthony Trionfo, an ongoing collaboration taking them to the Morgan Library, Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. He also is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD “Danse Russe”.

Mr. Cano Smit is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma with Robert McDonald at The Juilliard School. Previous teachers include Ory Shihor, Graham Caskie and Marta Karbownicka. He has benefited from extensive artistic advice by YCA alumni Richard Goode and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, with whom he gave four-hand performances at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles and Wallis Annenberg Center Hall in Beverly Hills. Mr. Cano Smit is an alumnus of the Colburn School and the Verbier Festival Academy.

CREDIT AMANDA TIPTON

Takács Quartet

The world-renowned Takács Quartet, is now entering its fortyeighth season. Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola) and András Fejér (cello) are excited about the 2022-2023 season that begins with a tour of Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, and includes the release of two new cds for Hyperion Records. A disc of Haydn’s opp. 42, 77 and 103 is followed by the first recording of an extraordinary new work written for the Takács by Stephen Hough, Les Six Rencontres, presented with quartets by Ravel and Dutilleux. As Associate Artists at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Takács will perform four concerts there. In addition to programs featuring Beethoven, Schubert and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, one concert consists of works by Britten, Bartók and Dvořák that highlight the same themes of displacement and return explored in Edward Dusinberre’s new book Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home. The book is published by Faber and the University of Chicago Press in the Fall of 2022. Throughout 2022 and 2023 the ensemble will play at prestigious European venues including the Edinburgh and Schwetzingen Festivals, Madrid’s Auditorio de Música, Bilbao’s Philharmonic Society, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Bath Mozartfest. The group’s North American engagements include concerts in New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tucson, Portland and the Beethoven Center at San Jose State University. The Takács Quartet is known for innovative programming. In 2021-22 the ensemble partnered with bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro to premiere new works by Clarice Assad and Bryce Dessner, commissioned by Music Accord. In 2014 the Takács performed a program inspired by Philip Roth’s novel Everyman with Meryl Streep at Princeton, and again with her at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 2015. They first performed Everyman at

Biographies

Carnegie Hall in 2007 with Philip Seymour Hoffman. They have toured 14 cities with the poet Robert Pinsky, and played regularly with the Hungarian Folk group Muzsikas. Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the members of the Takács Quartet are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows, and the grateful beneficiaries of an instrument loan by the Drake Foundation. The members of the Takács are on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where they run a summer string quartet seminar, and Visiting Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music, London.

The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. The group received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982.

CREDIT DAVID CURLEIGH

Jean-Marie Zeitouni

Jean-Marie Zeitouni is recognized as one of the brightest conductors of his generation for his eloquent yet fiery style, in repertoires ranging from baroque to contemporary. He studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, most notably under Maestro Raffi Armenian, and graduated in conducting, percussion, and music theory. He is currently principal guest conductor of the Colorado Music Festival (where he served as music director from 2014 to 2018) and Artistic Partner of the Edmonton Symphony. Jean-Marie Zeitouni was also artistic director and principal conductor of I Musici de Montréal (2011-2021), music director of the Columbus Symphony (2010-2015) in Ohio, music director of the Opera as Theatre program at the Banff Centre (2005-2007), and assistant conductor and chorus master of the Opéra de Montréal (and music director of its artist-in-residence program, the Atelier lyrique). He was also chorus master of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Opéra de Québec and music director of Université Laval’s opera workshop and symphony orchestra. While with the Violons du Roy, an orchestra with which he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration for a dozen years, he was alternately conductor in residence, assistant conductor and principal guest conductor. Greatly appreciated as a lyrical director, he recently conducted the Opéra national de Montpellier and Orchestre national de Lorraine of Nancy. He has also conducted numerous productions at the Opéra de Montréal, Opéra de Québec, Glimmerglass Opera, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Opéra national de Lorraine, as well as productions in Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Among the many Canadian symphony orchestras Jean-Marie Zeitouni has conducted are those of Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax, Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo and London, not to mention the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra and Club musical de Québec. No stranger to the international stage, Mr. Zeitouni has conducted the symphony orchestras of Tucson, Houston, Oregon, Monterey, San Antonio, Omaha, Honolulu, Huntsville and Cincinnati, in addition to the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Pacific Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonique de Marseille, Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony of Mexico, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Arco Ensemble and Detroit Symphony. He is also a regular at the Festival international de Lanaudière, Festival international du Domaine Forget, Elora Festival, Parry Sound Festival and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival. You may also have seen him at festivals in Round Top, Texas, and Grant Park, Illinois. He recently made his debut in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées of Paris. In 2021-2022, Jean-Marie Zeitouni will conduct at the Victoria Symphony, the Violons du Roy, the Opéra de Québec (Don Giovanni) and will return at l’Opéra National de Lorraine (Ariane et BarbeBleue). Next season he will conduct the world premiere of La beauté du Monde with Opéra de Montréal and will conduct Massenet’s Grisélidis in France in Montpellier and at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.