The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has appointed Jean-Sébastien Vallée as BSO Director of Choruses and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) with the start of the 2026-27 season.

Vallée becomes the all-volunteer group’s third director since its founding in 1970 and succeeds James Burton who led the TFC from 2017 to 2025.

Vallée served as one of several guest choral directors in 2025-26 and was at Tanglewood on the final weekend of the BSO’s summer season to lead the TFC in a Prelude concert. He also directed the TFC’s performances last spring.

In a statement, Jean-Sébastien Vallée said, “I am deeply honored to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Director of Choruses and to become part of the extraordinary legacy of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. My experiences making music with the BSO and TFC have already shown me what is possible when exceptional musicians come together with curiosity, generosity, and a shared sense of purpose. I look forward to building on the remarkable tradition created by generations of TFC singers while imagining together what comes next—deepening the connection between chorus and orchestra, exploring the extraordinary breadth of the choral-symphonic repertoire, and further strengthening the chorus’s role within the community. I am especially excited about the opportunities for education and civic engagement, and for the TFC and BSO to help foster the development of singers, conductors, and the choral art for generations to come.”

Throughout his career, Vallée  has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers. He is also Full Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. He is also an active recording artist who has recored for ATMA Classique.

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