Sarasota Orchestra has announced the appointment of renowned conductor Bramwell Tovey as Music Director. His five-year contract will begin on September 1, 2021, as Music Director Designate, with him serving as Music Director for the following four seasons.

Tovey has held the position of Music Director for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for 18 years, and is now their Music Director Emeritus. He is currently the Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Artstic Advisor to the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. As a conductor he has performed with leading companies such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and more, throughout American, Europe, and Asia.

He is responsible for the creation of the VSO School of Music within Vancouver’s Tovey Centre for Music, which opened in 2011 with an emphasis on education and community. As an artistic director, Tovey has worked with Calgary Opera and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where he created the latter’s New Music Festival, now in its 30^th year.

His inaugural concert with the company will come on October 30, for a program of Beethoven, Verdi, Saint-Saëns, and Sarasate. Tovey will be joined by Grammy Award-winning violinist and frequent collaborator James Ehnes.

“We are thrilled to welcome an artist of Bramwell Tovey’s stature at this important time in the development of our organization,” writes Joseph McKenna SO’s President and CEO. “His brilliant musicianship, passion for education, and his immediate chemistry with our musicians inspired his selection by the search committee and Board of Sarasota Orchestra.”