Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Orchestras
Founded in 1934 by a group of devoted music lovers, with the backing of the Québec Government, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is one of the major cultural organizations of the city whose name it bears with pride.
The music directors who have contributed to its growth and success are Wilfrid Pelletier, a Montrealer by birth and the first Artistic Director of the OSM; Désiré Defauw; Igor Markevitch; Zubin Mehta, who guided the OSM from 1961 to 1967, bringing increased prestige to the Orchestra through European tours; Franz-Paul Decker; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; Charles Dutoit, from 1977 to 2002, with whom the OSM assumed an important place on the international stage; and, since September 2006, Kent Nagano. Mr. Nagano has extended his contract until 2013-2014, taking effect on September 2011 with the possibility of renewing for an additional two years.
The excellence of the OSM has been demonstrated in the course of over 40 national and international tours. The Orchestra has toured in Asia nine times, visiting Japan on eight of those, and has toured Europe on ten occasions and South America twice. The OSM has also performed at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. Moreover, from 1982 to 2004 the Orchestra has been an almost annual visitor to Carnegie Hall, where it played to packed houses. The March 8, 2008 concert marked the Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall debut under Maestro Nagano.
The OSM offered in 2006 a concert at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet, its first international concert with Kent Nagano. In April 2007 the Orchestra completed its first coast-to-coast Canadian tour, placed under the direction of Kent Nagano. They toured jointly in Japan and South Korea in Spring 2008 and in 2009 toured in Europe, for the first time in 10 years. In September 2008, Maestro Nagano and 7 OSM musicians visited several villages in Nunavik in Northern Quebec performing Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat narrated in local dialect. In October 2009, the OSM under conductor Jean-François Rivest gave the opening concert of the Cervantino International Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico.
On April 2, 2009, the Orchestra presented an exceptional concert at Montreal's Bell Centre in front of 15 000 people, thereby launching the OSM Foundation.
The Conseil des arts de Montréal awarded the Orchestra its Grand Prize (2008) for the performance of Olivier Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise, during the 2008-2009 season, which marked the 75th anniversary of the OSM. That same year, the OSM was named Personality of the week by La Presse and Radio-Canada, underscoring the willingness of the Orchestra, even more apparent under the direction of Maestro Nagano, to give back to the society in which it has evolved.
The OSM has produced nearly 100 recordings with Decca, EMI, Philips, CBC Records, Analekta, ECM and Sony as well as on the OSM label, earning 48 national and international awards. The OSM and Kent Nagano won a 13th Juno award for the album “Beethoven: Ideals of the French Revolution” released in 2008. A recording of Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos by Kent Nagano, the OSM and pianist Till Fellner, released in February 2010, was selected as BBC Music Magazine's Orchestral Choice of its May 2010 edition.
SEASON 2011/2012
