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Appointments
Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec have announced news that Bernard Labadie will assume the music directorship of the orchestra starting in the 2026–27 season while the organization continues to recruit his eventual successor. This decision comes after the June 2025 departure of Jonathan Cohen, who had led the ensemble since the 2018–19 season. Labadie founded Les Violons du Roy in 1984 and remained its music director for three decades until 2014. He also founded La Chapelle de Québec in 1985, and has remained the choir’s music director ever since. Labadie will play an advisory role in the selection process for his eventual successor, a process already underway that will continue over the coming years.
Orchestre symphonique de Québec recently announced violinist Sheila Jaffé as its new concert master. She succeeds Darren Lowe, who has since been named a Distinguished Member of the orchestra. Born in Montreal and raised in South Florida, Jaffé studied violin performance at Université de Montréal and received her master’s degree from Berlin’s Hochschüle für Musik Hanns Eisler. A violist as well as a violinist, she has appeared in the viola section of the Canadian Opera Company and served as principal viola of the National Ballet of Canada.
Symphony Nova Scotia announced Scott Tresham as its next chief executive officer, effective Oct. 6. He succeeds Chris Wilkinson, who retired from the position at the end of June. Tresham brings more than three decades of experience in the classical music sector to his new role. He has held positions at some of Canada’s foremost cultural institutions including the CBC, Concours musical international de Montréal and, most recently, Tresham worked closely with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s Music Director Rafael Payare, contributing to the conductor’s programming vision for three seasons.
Opéra de Québec has announced Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni as its new artistic and musical director. Zeitouni has been a frequent guest conductor with the company since his debut there 21 years ago. He now returns to guide both its regular season, and its sister summer festival. “I look forward to presenting my first program at the 2026 edition of the festival next July,” said Zeitouni in an October press statement this October. The company’s former general and artistic director, Grégoire Legendre, continues to serve as interim general manager.
Awards
Yvonne DeRoller, long-time Symphony Nova Scotia (SNS) violist, educator and musician advocate, is the winner of the Orchestras Canada Betty Webster Award for 2025. The award celebrates her contribution to Canadian orchestras through her career-long service to the Atlantic Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. DeRoller holds a master’s degree in Viola Performance from New England Conservatory in Boston. She joined the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (SNS’s predecessor) in 1978 after a summer as a Tanglewood fellow and founded Halifax’s first Suzuki School in 1982. The 2024–25 season marked her 47th and final season in the viola section of Symphony Nova Scotia.
Competitions
On Oct. 20, the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition announced its winners, including first prize to American pianist Eric Lu, second prize to Canadian Kevin Chen and third prize to Zitong Wang of China. A record number of more than 640 young artists from around the world applied to participate in the competition with 162 who took part in the preliminary rounds, while 84 performers from 19 countries competed in the main competition.
On Oct. 18, soprano Karoline Podolak was awarded the top prize of $10,000 at the 2025 National Capital Opera Competition in Ottawa. Countertenor Nicholas Burns won the $5,000 second prize while baritone Jamal Al Titi placed third and received $3,000. Remaining competitors soprano Hannah Crawford and mezzo-sopranos Kcenia Koutorjevski and Rachael McAuley each received $1,000.
On Oct. 23, Ottawa soprano Nikan Ingabire Kanate won the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio Competition, taking home a first prize of $12,500 as well as the $3,000 Audience Choice Prize. Kanate is currently pursuing her master of music in opera at the Curtis Institute. Second prize ($8,000) went to Brazilian-born, Montreal-based mezzo-soprano Camila Montefusco, a current resident artist with L’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. Taking home the $5,000 third prize was Canadian-American baritone Søren Pedersen, currently pursuing his Artist Diploma at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The third prize was renamed the Erin Wall Prize at this year’s competition in honour of the Canadian soprano who died at age 44 in 2020.
Canadian pianist Élisabeth Pion was named Gold Laureate of the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition on Oct. 24 in Calgary. Pion receives $100,000, as well as a comprehensive three-year artist development program valued at an additional $500,000. Pion also won the $5,000 Audience Choice Award. The other two finalists, Canadian Carter Johnson and Russian Anastasia Vorotnaya, received prizes of $40,000 and $20,000 respectively.
In the News
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has returned to the stage two years after declaring bankruptcy. In 2023, the orchestra abruptly cancelled its season just four days before it was set to begin. They opened their 19-concert season on Sept. 13 under the baton of Andrei Feher. The new season, organized by the players themselves and a new board of directors, represents a significant drop from their heyday when seasons lasted 38 weeks, with close to 90 performances. In 2025–26, the orchestra will perform across the Waterloo region and in Guelph.
After walking off the job on Sept. 25, having served a 72-hour strike notice, the musicians of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra reached an agreement in principle allowing them to return to the stage for their Oct. 10 concert. The agreement came after months of bargaining and two days of mediation at the B.C. Labour Relations Board during which musicians called for higher wages to bring them in line with peers in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. The union had demanded a 23-percent raise over three years, noting that Vancouver musicians earn roughly 30 per cent less than their counterparts elsewhere. The tentative deal still needs to be formally ratified.
Orchestre Métropolitain announced a historic $5 million donation from the OVI Fund – The Ionescu Family Foundation at their season-opening concert on Sept. 23. The donation will ensure the sustainability of the orchestra’s artistic activities and play a decisive role in its mission of accessibility. The fund is the vision of Alex Ionescu, a first-generation immigrant of Romanian origin. After spending a decade in Silicon Valley and Seattle, his family returned to their adopted city of Montreal determined to give back to the community, supporting artistic and educational initiatives that aim to make culture more accessible to all, particularly children and families. The donation supports the orchestra’s accessible concerts in several boroughs as well as free outdoor concerts like their OM at the Foot of Mount Royal.
In Memoriam
Composer, theoretician, and conceptual artist, Miodrag Lazarov Pashu died on Oct. 5. He was born in Skopje, Yugoslavia, in 1949 and studied in Belgrade in the 1970s where he established the avant-garde group Opus 4. They were pioneers in music minimalism, multimedia and performance art. Lazarov emigrated to Canada in 1992 with his wife and son, where he established a freelance career as an artist and composer. He is respected, loved, and missed internationally.
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