Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1919, the Vancouver Symphony is one of Canada’s most active and successful performing arts institutions; the largest performing arts organization west of Ontario and the third largest symphony orchestra in the country. The VSO performs to an annual audience of more than 200,000 people and features more than 50 celebrated guest artists each season. Over 140 concerts are performed annually by the VSO in the historic Orpheum Theatre and numerous additional venues throughout Lower Mainland British Columbia. The orchestra is also heard regularly coast-to-coast on CBC Radio.

Touring and recording have played an important part of the VSO’s history, including numerous visits to Japan and performances throughout British Columbia. Most recently, the orchestra toured to great critical acclaim in Korea, Macau and China in 2008, and was the first Canadian symphony orchestra to perform at the prestigious Beijing Music Festival. This was followed by a successful Canadian tour in 2009 with concerts in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. In 1986 the VSO’s recording of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings was featured in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award winning film Platoon. In 2004 the orchestra performed the sound track for Canadian filmmaker Richard Bell's feature film “Eighteen”. The powerful music was written by VSO Music Director Bramwell Tovey. The VSO won a GRAMMY and a Juno award in 2008 for its recording of the violin concertos of Walton, Korngold and Barber, performed with violinist James Ehnes and conducted by Maestro Tovey. In the winter of 2010, billions of people around the world heard the VSO’s recordings of the national anthems of those countries awarded gold medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and in 2011 the VSO was nominated for a Juno award for its recording of the two Chopin piano concertos with Janina Fialkowska.

VSO Music Director Maestro Bramwell Tovey is the consummate ambassador for music; his extraordinary artistic leadership and remarkable ability to relate to people on all levels, combined with passionate advocacy for music education makes him an ideal Music Director for an orchestra in the 21st Century. As a composer, he was honored with the Best Canadian Classical Composition Juno Award in 2003 for his Requiem for a Charred Skull. New works include a co-commission for the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics’ 2008 summer seasons as well as a full-length opera for the Calgary Opera, The Inventor that premiered in January of 2011.

The VSO also maintains extensive education and community programs experienced by over 50,000 children each year. Significantly expanding these activities, in September 2011 it will open a 25,000 square foot community music school, the VSO School of Music, in downtown Vancouver.

For more information, please visit www.vancouversymphony.ca.

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