Bramwell
Tovey (1953–2022)
Bramwell Tovey’s international
conducting career began in 1986 when he stood in at
short notice for the opening night of the London
Symphpny Orchestra's Leonard Bernstein Festival.
Bernstein himself was in the audience. The Financial
Times described the occasion as ‘The sort of
glittering opportunity young conductors dream about.
He seized it with distinction.’
Since 1989 Bramwell was resident in North America,
initially as Artistic Director of the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra where he founded the WSO's annual New Music
Festival in 1992 and since 2000, as Music Director of the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In the 2004/05 season his
guest engagements included the New York Philharmonic, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony,
and Canada's National Arts Centre orchestras.
As a composer Bramwell Tovey won the 2003 Juno Award, Best
Canadian Classical Composition for Requiem for a
Charred Skull for chorus and brass band. He has
written concertos for cello, viola, and brass quintet and
orchestra. He wrote the orchestral score and performed as
solo pianist for the feature film eighteen, starring Ian
McKellen and Alan Cumming, released in 2005.
He was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal
Conservatory of Music in Toronto and in 2006 became
Artistic Director of the National Youth Brass Band of Great
Britain. He regularly conducted some of the world's best
brass bands. The Night To Sing was commissioned by
the British Open Brass Band Championship for the contest of
September 2005.