Brott friend Alain Trudel carries on maestro’s legacy
Conductor named interim artistic director of 2022 Brott Music Festival
The show must go on and the legacy must continue.
Barely a month after the tragic hit-and-run death of renowned conductor and artistic director Boris Brott, the Brott Music Festival announced Alain Trudel as interim artistic director for 2022 at a news conference held Tuesday on the stage of FirstOntario Concert Hall.
“I am humbled to join the Brott Music Festival and continue Boris’s extraordinary contributions to music,” Trudel said. “I can’t wait to get to know Hamilton and to meet the wonderful audiences that the festival has built over three and a half decades.”
Trudel, a 55-year-old Montrealborn and based conductor, trombone virtuoso, and composer, is no stranger to the BMF, having previously guest conducted, mentored and performed with the BMF’s National Academy Orchestra. Congenial, approachable and fluent in French, English and Spanish, Trudel is currently music director of l’Orchestre symphonique de Laval in Québec and the Toledo Symphony in Ohio.
He has also conducted every major orchestra in Canada, including the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra where he was twice a candidate for music director, as well as orchestras in the United States, United Kingdom, Latin America, Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
He is also a six-time Juno nominee and in 2019 was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec.
Joining Brott Music Festival board chair, Judy Marsales, Brott’s widow and BMF executive director, Ardyth Brott, and Mayor Fred Eisenberger, were Brott-Opera administrator and principal coach, Emily Hamper, Vitek Wincza of the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, pianist Valerie Tryon, and others.
“We are endeavouring to continue for our maestro, Boris Brott,” Marsales said in her bittersweet opening remarks about the late visionary, creator, and driving force behind the festival.
“When we lost our beloved maestro, Boris Brott, we continued to program the season that he imagined.”
Mayor Fred Eisenberger quoted the adage, “The show must go on,” before adding that “Boris wouldn’t have it any other way. The legacy must continue.”
Though Brott had no plans to retire, a poised Ardyth Brott spoke of her late husband’s wish that Trudel would one day succeed him at his eponymous festival.
“Yes, we had discussions in the past, but it was only far into the future,” echoed Trudel.
Trudel shared with The Spectator that he and Brott would speak on the phone, perhaps once a month, to talk about singers and instrumentalists.
“Isn’t it wonderful that we can be such great friends as conductors,” wrote Brott in what turned out to be his final text message to Trudel.
“It seems to be a natural fit,” said Trudel of his appointment. “I hope to live up to the legacy created by Boris and Ardyth.”
The 35th annual BMF opens in FirstOntario Concert Hall on Thursday, June 30, with a concert titled, “The Unconquerable Soul: A Festival in Memory of Boris Brott,” Trudel leading the NAO, the Bach Elgar Choir and soloists in Beethoven’s monumental “Symphony No. 9.”