Nathan Brock, Conductor

Thanks to Yoon Jae Lee, Symphony Nova Scotia fans entered the fabulous tonal universe of Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony Thursday night in the Cohn.

Lee reduced the number of instruments originally scored for to allow a chamber orchestra version that SNS’s musicians, directed by guest conductor Nathan Brock, took on with ferocious intensity.

Brock’s skilful management of tempos amounted to a logical command of musical flow and an uncanny clarity throughout.

Brock led the audience as much as the musicians through Mahler’s characteristic mix of simple folk tunes and surreal sonorities — reached through bent pitches, extreme intervals and sudden changes of volume — that bent your ears back one moment and whispered the next.

Long though the listen was, it fascinated the imagination as compellingly as a kaleidoscope. [...]

MONTREAL - Aimed primarily at the senior set, morning concerts are not the most obvious forum for OSM first performances. Resident conductor Nathan Brock boldly marched two premières into the Maison symphonique on Friday and made a brilliant case for both. [...]

La première oeuvre offerte par l'OSM dans ce contexte nouveau fut la quatrième Symphonie de Tchaïkovsky, le 17 mai dernier. Cette saison, l'OSM procède plus tôt, au milieu des grands froids de février, avec la Symphonie du Nouveau Monde de Dvorak, composée, comme on le sait, aux États-Unis. Le public qui remplissait la Maison symphonique mercredi soir a suivi avec un intérêt évident ce qu'on lui racontait et lui montrait, il a ensuite écouté dans le plus beau silence (et sans applaudir entre les mouvements!) l'interprétation étonnamment sentie que le «chef en résidence» Nathan Brock a obtenue de l'orchestre, puis il a longuement exprimé son plaisir, si bien qu'on peut déjà annoncer que l'expérience reviendra la saison prochaine. Rien de sûr encore, mais il est question d'un Beethoven: l'Eroica ou la Cinquième. [...]

I often get the question: ”what is it that you do when you’re “assisting” another conductor?” The answer is both simple and complex. Hypothetically we are there to do anything as passive as listening from the hall and advising the Maestro on balance or any other musical matters all the way up to conducting a rehearsal or even a performance in case of emergency – and anything really in between.

This tour has been especially interesting for me since in our first few days I’ve had to do almost anything that one could expect in my situation. [...]

Canadian conductor Nathan Brock has added another major award to his honors, along with a promotion and a busy schedule for 2012-13.

On Saturday, March 24, the Ontario Arts Council presented him with the Heinz Unger Award, given to an emerging conductor, for demonstrating “tremendous talent and promise and his strong commitment to growth and excellence in the art of conducting” – as the award jury described him.

The presentation was made during Maestro Brock’s debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, in a program of Russian romantics.

The Heinz Unger marks Nathan Brock’s third prize in about one year. In 2011, he received the Jean-Marie Beaudet conducting prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, and earlier this year, Quebec’s Prix Opus for best educational concert in 2011.

OSM PROMOTION: This week, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal announced that Brock, who has been assistant conductor since 2009, has been promoted to resident conductor beginning in September 2012. In addition to the many duties he filled in his current position, he will be given more high-profile concerts to conduct in the 2012-13 season – among them one featuring celebrated violinist Maxim Vengerov as soloist.

OTHER UPCOMING ENGAGEMENTS: Also in 2012-13, Brock is slated to debut with l’Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire in France, and record works by Karol Szymanowski with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Poland. His successful debut in The Nutcracker with The National Ballet of Canada in December 2011 led to an immediate re-engagement to conduct the National Ballet/The Royal Ballet co-production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in Toronto and on tour.

Starting with a much anticipated homecoming, on March 24 conductor Nathan Brock will “return home” for his much-anticipated debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Toronto-born Brock (also a U of T Faculty of Music grad), who has held the post of assistant conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since July 2009, will conduct the TSO in an all-Russian programme, with guest cellist Joshua Roman; the programme will be repeated on the 25th.

Unashamedly and unapologetically modern. Intended deliberately for the 21st century soul. There is nothing “authentic” about this performance by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano, not as we understand the established practice of historically informed performances. Authentic, however, is the breath-taking emotional intensity channelled through this symphonic colossus. This performance leaves no doubt that Nagano has understood every nuance of Beethoven’s convictions about the world, indeed the universe around him. Every lost hope, every anger, every dream and inspiration the composer ever had seems embedded in the writing for Nagano to reveal with exquisite precision.

Perhaps the joy of familiar works is discovering new inner voices brought forward by fresh interpreters who uncover secret countermelodies that have eluded others. Nagano does this repeatedly with oboes and lower string phrases, especially against the solo vocal parts. The effect is astonishing and delightful.

Numbering some 92 players, the orchestra is massive but always lithe, agile and fully capable of every dynamic required by the score. The 60-voice combined chorus of the OSM and Tafelmusik Chamber Choir under Ivars Taurins sings beautifully with flawless diction. Every German word is there with clarity and intent.

It would be hard to find higher production values than those demonstrably evident on this recording. I haven’t heard a Ninth so moving, so exciting, in very many years. Recorded during the inaugural concerts at the OSM’s new home, the Maison symphonique de Montréal, this testament certainly bodes well for the orchestra’s future.

Nathan Brock won a "Prix Opus" from the Conseil Québécois De La Musique for his creation "On n'est jamais trop classique" - a youth concert project launched at the Montreal Symphony last season!

For those living in Toronto, it’s hard to miss the dancing bear posters during the holiday season signalling the arrival of the National Ballet of Canada’s beloved rendition of James Kudelka’s classic staging of The Nutcracker.

The last few shows before the production closes on Jan. 3 mark the debut of guest conductor Nathan Brock, the assistant conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Le chef d’orchestre torontois et très francophile Nathan Brock, dirige en ce moment deux orchestres éminents, et ce, pour la première fois de sa jeune carrière. Une fin d’année dorée pour cette étoile de la direction d’orchestre qui a remporté le prix Jean-Marie Beaudet 2011 du Conseil des arts du Canada, décerné à un jeune chef à la direction d’un orchestre canadien. Il a également été finaliste du prix Heinz Unger 2011, décerné par le Conseil des arts de l’Ontario.

Depuis le 10 décembre, et ce jusqu’au 3 janvier, Nathan Brock dirige l’Orchestre du Ballet national du Canada pour une partie des représentations du ballet Casse-Noisette de Tchaïkovsky (chorégraphie signée James Kudelka). Maestro Brock partage la tâche avec David Briskin, directeur artistique de l’Orchestre du Ballet national.

Diriger un orchestre pour une chorégraphie de James Kudelka est forcément spécial pour un chef d’orchestre canadien. En effet, James Kudelka devient, année après année, l’un des chorégraphes les plus en vue du pays.

Quant à Casse-Noisette, ce ballet s’avère être le grand ballet de Noël à Toronto depuis quelque temps. Il est tellement ancré dans la culture locale qu’il a vu sur scène et sous des oripeaux de poupée russe, un invité particulier, en la personne du maire Rob Ford.

Casse-Noisette est un ballet féérique et merveilleux qui est devenu, depuis le XIXe siècle, le ballet le plus représentatif de Noël. La musique, confiée à Tchaïkovsky et composée de février 1891 à mars 1892, est certainement une des musiques de ballet les plus populaires aujourd’hui et une des œuvres de Tchaïkov-sky les plus appréciées. « Je ne croyais pas moi-même au succès de ce ballet », dit-il à la fin de la représentation.

Casse-Noisette est devenu, depuis sa création, un véritable symbole musical. Le soir de Noël, Clara reçoit de son oncle un casse-noisette. Pendant la nuit, une merveilleuse féerie commence : dans le salon, les jouets s’animent et le casse-noisette se transforme en prince...

D’ailleurs, Nathan Brock dirigera l’orchestre du ballet pour les matinées à partir du 27 décembre. De plus, il reviendra à Toronto en mars pour diriger l’Orchestre symphonique de Toronto, pour la première fois. Une direction au service d’œuvres romantiques russes, et pour deux concerts, le 24 mars en soirée, et le 25 mars à 15 h.

Encore une preuve, s’il en fallait, que Toronto est définitivement une des villes les plus dynamiques en matière d’orchestre classique et de formation!

Nathan Brock, assistant conductor of l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since July 2009, is about to make his conducting debut in his birthplace, Toronto, with two of its leading artistic institutions. These debuts are part of what has been an especially successful and productive season.

December 10-January 3, he shares conducting duties for the National Ballet of Canada’s production of James Kudelka’s The Nutcracker, with Music Director David Briskin.

On March 24, 2012, 7:30 p.m. he makes his Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut on a program of Russian romantics, at Roy Thomson Hall. The concert is repeated March 25, 3 p.m.

In June 2011, Nathan Brock received the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting given by the Canada Council for the Arts to a young Canadian conductor on the staff of a Canadian orchestra. This yearly award is presented upon recommendations by the Music Advisory Committee of the Music Section of the Canada Council for the Arts.

More recently, he has been chosen as a finalist for the 2011 Heinz Unger Award for young to mid-career conductors, from the Ontario Arts Council. Candidates will be informed of their status by the end of December, and the winner named in the coming months.

The OSM originally engaged Maestro Brock in 2009 for two seasons. However, his contract was extended to the current third season, and he has just been asked to remain for an unprecedented fourth season.

As assistant conductor with the OSM, Brock notably conducted the Orchestra during the 2011 edition of the OSM/Loto-Québec Concerts in the Parks. He works closely with Music Director Kent Nagano and many invited artists in performances at Montreal’s Place des Arts and now the Maison symphonique, the Knowlton, Orford, and Lanaudière festivals in Canada, and abroad on tour with the orchestra at the Cervantino, Spring for Music (Carnegie) and Edinburgh Festivals. He plays an integral role in OSM productions for CBC Television and Radio and for DVDs (Handel’s Messiah, 2010 CBC), as well as being an associate producer for the Analekta/SONY recording of the Beethoven Symphonies).

Nathan Brock graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.A as a double major in History/International Relations and in Music, as well as a minor in French. He also holds an advanced certificate in performance. With assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, he studied conducting internationally, completing his training at the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was also a faculty member and assistant to the head of the orchestral conducting program. From 2003 to 2008, he served as founding artistic director and conductor of the Northern Lights Music Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Last week, we began our tour of Canada's assistant conductors with VSO assistant Pierre Simard. This week, we turn to the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal's assistant, Nathan Brock.

Nathan Brock grew up in Toronto but he always had a thing for the Montreal Symphony. So imagine how exciting it was to get the appointment as the OSM assistant conductor.

When Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings orchestra presents its popular annual candlelight Christmas concert at Dominion-Chalmers Church Dec. 12, it will mark the professional Canadian debut of Nathan Brock, a young maestro who’s in his first season as assistant conductor of the Montreal Symphony.

For Brock it will be a rare break from his duties in Montreal, where he says the workload has been exhilarating and exhausting.

Brock and conductor Stéphane Laforest, 45, were both hired as assistants. Laforest handles pops, family and outreach concerts. Brock is a rehearsal assistant for Nagano and guest conductors, sitting in on rehearsals, learning the music and ensuring he's ready to fill in if needed.

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Nathan Brock is Resident Conductor of the internationally acclaimed Montreal Symphony, with whom he performs regularly in their new home, La Maison Symphonique.

Aside from his busy schedule in Montreal, Brock is in demand internationally performing in the US, Europe as well as in Canada. In the 2012-13 season he leads l’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Washington National Opera orchestra, and has return engagements in Toronto with the National Ballet of Canada.

The Arts Councils of Ontario and Canada have honoured Brock with two top conducting awards in recognition of his outstanding work in Montreal. He has also received the Quebec Music Council’s Prix Opus for his innovative educational programming.

His tenure in Montreal began when he won the position of assistant conductor to Kent Nagano in 2009. Since then, he has worked as associate producer on numerous critically acclaimed Montreal Symphony recordings for Sony, Analekta, and CBC Radio and Television. His expertise was also critical in the “tuning” of the Montreal Symphony’s acoustically adjustable new concert hall.

In addition to his continuing work in Montreal, future engagements include l’Orchestre National d’Ile de France in Paris and Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax. He has performed with the Toronto and Quebec Symphony orchestras as well as with renowned soloists Maxim Vengerov and Jian Wang.

Originally from Toronto, he began conducting in 2003 at the renowned Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Maine. He also studied with David Zinman for two summers at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. Further masterclasses were undertaken with Finnish Maestro Jorma Panula in Vaasa, Gennady Rozhdestvensky in Moscow, Bernard Haitink in Lucerne and Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami. Brock completed his studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Zürich, Switzerland, where, prior to finishing, he also taught conducting. He has an Advanced Certificate in cello Performance from the University of Toronto and an honours degree in History/International Relations and French.

In 2007 he created the Aaron Brock Foundation in memory of his brother, accomplished classical guitarist Aaron Brock. The foundation supports a number of educational initiatives and performances in Toronto.

Brock currently resides in Montreal with his wife and two children.

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