The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (french: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, or OSM) is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at

Place des Arts Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

. It is the only orchestra in the world that possesses an

octobass The octobass is an extremely large and rare bowed string instrument that was first built around 1850 in Paris by the French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875). It has three strings and is essentially a larger version of the double bas ...

History

Several orchestras were precursor ensembles to the current OSM. One such orchestra was formed in 1897, which lasted ten years, and another was established in 1930, which lasted eleven. The current orchestra directly traces its roots back to 1934, when

Wilfrid Pelletier Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier (sometimes spelled Wilfred), (20 June 1896 – 9 April 1982) was a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and arts administrator. He was instrumental in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, serving ...

formed an ensemble called Les Concerts Symphoniques. This ensemble gave its first concert January 14, 1935, under conductor

Rosario Bourdon Joseph Charles Rosario Bourdon (March 6, 1885 – April 24, 1961) was a French Canadian cellist, violinist, conductor, arranger and composer. He was a child prodigy skilled with many musical instruments. Bourdon worked much of his life for ...

. The orchestra acquired its current name in 1954. In the early 1960s, as the Orchestra was preparing to move to new facilities at Place des Arts, patron and prominent Montreal philanthropist,

John Wilson McConnell John Wilson McConnell (July 1, 1877 – November 6, 1963) was a Canadian sugar refiner, newspaper publisher, humanitarian and philanthropist in Quebec, Canada. Early life J.W. McConnell was born to a farming family in the Muskoka region of Ont ...

, purchased the 1727 '' Laub-Petschnikoff Stradivarius'' violin for Calvin Sieb, the Symphony's concertmaster. The orchestra has begun touring and some recording in the 1960s and early 1970s, during the tenures of

Zubin Mehta Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father was the fou ...

and

Franz-Paul Decker Franz-Paul Decker (June 26, 1923 – May 19, 2014) was a German-born conductor. Life Decker was born in Cologne, Germany, where he studied at the Hochschule für Musik with Philip Jarnach and Eugen Papst. He made his conducting debut at the ...

. During the music directorship of

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (born Rafael Frühbeck; 15 September 1933 – 11 June 2014) was a Spanish conductor and composer. Frühbeck was born in Burgos, Spain to a family of German ancestry. He first took up conducting while on military serv ...

(1975-1976) the OSM received its first invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall. However, Frühbeck de Burgos had rejected the composition ''Fleuves'' by Gilles Tremblay, which Tremblay had composed for tour performances by the OSM. In addition, Frühbeck de Burgos was quoted in print in ''La Presse'' as expressing public criticism of selected OSM musicians. The ensuing controversy led to Frühbeck de Burgos' resignation. (When Frühbeck de Burgos returned as a guest conductor in 2002, he apologised for his earlier behaviour.) Because of the conducting dates that opened up after Frühbeck de Burgos' departure, one of the slots fell to Charles Dutoit. Dutoit subsequently became music director of the OSM in 1977. Dutoit had struck a friendship with the London/Decca records producer Ray Minshull, which led to a twenty-year recording partnership with Decca/London. During this period, Dutoit and the OSM released many recordings and embarked on tours of North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. Most notable among this discography are the recordings of the French repertoire, especially the music of Maurice Ravel, as well as works of Stravinsky and Debussy. The OSM and Charles Dutoit have various awards for their recordings, including the Grand Prix du Président de la République (France) and the Prix mondial du Disque de Montreux. The OSM won Grammy awards in 1996 for its recording of Hector Berlioz' '' Les Troyens'' and in 2000 for

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...

and Béla Bartók piano concerti with

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; Eastern Catalan: �ɾʒəˈɾik born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and education Argerich was born in Buenos A ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. It has additionally won a number of Juno Awards and

Felix Awards Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

. The London/Decca recordings ceased in the late 1990s, because of market changes in classical recording industry was turned upside-down. Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal avec Octobasse

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal avec Octobasse

In 1998, the OSM musicians took industrial action, which lasted three weeks and was resolved largely due to the personal relationship between Dutoit and

Lucien Bouchard Lucien Bouchard (; born December 22, 1938) is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician. Minister for two years in the Mulroney cabinet, Bouchard then led the emerging Bloc Québécois and became Leader of the Opposition in the Ho ...

, then the premier of

. In 2002, Dutoit abruptly resigned as music director, following a long-simmering dispute between Dutoit and the OSM musicians. Dutoit did not return to the OSM as a guest conductor until 2016. Following the departure of Dutoit, Jacques Lacombe served as principal guest conductor of the OSM, from 2002 to 2006. In March 2003, the orchestra announced the appointment

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 202 ...

as its new music director, starting in 2006. He gave his first concert in Montreal as music director-designate March 30, 2005. Later in 2005, the OSM's musicians took industrial action, where this work stoppage lasted five months, ending shortly before Nagano's first scheduled concerts. With the OSM, Nagano has conducted commercial recordings for such labels as ECM New Series and Analekta. In June 2017, the OSM announced that Nagano is to stand down from as its music director at the close of his current contract, at the end of the 2019–2020 season. Nagano concluded his OSM music directorship at the close of the 2019-2020 season, with the scheduled final concerts of his tenure curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, the orchestra toured several Cree and Inuit communities in

Nord-du-Québec Nord-du-Québec (; en, Northern Quebec) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With nearly of land area, and very extensive lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsu ...

to perform ''Chaakapesh: The Trickster's Quest'', an indigenous opera by

Tomson Highway Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore ...

and

Matthew Ricketts Matthew Oliver Ricketts (April 3, 1858 – January 3, 1917) was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American member of the Nebraska Legislature, where he served two terms in the Nebraska House of Representatives (th ...

. The tour was documented by

Roger Frappier Roger Frappier (born April 14, 1945) is a Canadian producer, director, editor, actor, and screenwriter. Biography Roger Frappier worked in all areas of the film business, from film critic to television commercial director to director/ producer of t ...

and Justin Kingsley in the 2019 documentary film ''

Chaakapesh ''Chaakapesh'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Roger Frappier and Justin Kingsley and released in 2019. The film documents a 2018 tour by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to perform ''Chaakapesh: The Trickster’s Quest'', an indigenous- ...

''. In 2018,

Rafael Payare Rafael Payare (born 23 February 1980) is a Venezuelan conductor. Background Born in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, Payare's parents were Trina Torres de Payare, an elementary school teacher, and Juan R. Payare, a cartographer for the city. He began ...

first guest-conducted the OSM. He returned as guest conductor in 2019. In January 2021, the OSM announced the appointment of Payare as its next music director, effective with the 2022-2023 season, with an initial contract of 5 seasons. He held the title of music director-designate in the 2021-2022 season.

Music directors and leaders

(1935–1940) *

Désiré Defauw Désiré Defauw (5 September 1885, Ghent, Belgium – 25 July 1960, Gary, Indiana, United States) was a Belgian conductor and violinist. During World War I he became a refugee, working in London where in 1917 he appeared at the Wigmore Hal ...

(1941–1952) *

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...

(1950–1953; Artistic Advisor) *

Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...

(1957–1961) *

(1961–1967) *

(1967–1975) *

(1975–1976) * Charles Dutoit (1977–2002) *

(2006–2020) *

(2022–present)

References

External links

Orchestre symphonique de Montreal official website
{{Authority control Canadian orchestras Musical groups established in 1934 Musical groups from Montreal Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment winners Tourist attractions in Montreal Arts organizations established in 1934 1934 establishments in Quebec Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Solo or Chamber Ensemble winners Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Vocal or Choral Performance winners Félix Award winners

History

Music directors and leaders

See also

References

External links