Bramwell Tovey

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Bramwell Tovey is an English-born conductor and composer born 11 July 1953.

He was educated at Ilford County High School, the Royal Academy of Music and London University.

His musical roots are in The Salvation Army, a fact of which he is extremely proud. His formal music education was as a pianist and composer. During his student years at the Royal Academy of Music he also became a tuba player, studying with the late, great, John Fletcher.

He has been the music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since September 2000 (and until 2010), and of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2002 (and until 2006).

Between 1989 and 2001 Tovey was the music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and was instrumental in establishing the city's annual New Music Festival, the first of which was held in 1992.

He has also regularly led a number of other major ensembles throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe - including the New York Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Tovey has also become known as a composer. Arguably amongst his most notable compositions are a Cello Concerto (premiered in Winnipeg in January 2001), and a work for a large choir and brass band, 'Requiem for a Charred Skull', which in 2003 was awarded a Juno for Classical Composition of the Year. Tovey also composed the film score, recorded by the VSO, for director Richard Bell's upcoming film 'Eighteen'. Tovey was commissioned to write the test piece for the 2005 British Open Brass Band Championship and responded by writing 'The Night to Sing'. Inspired by VE Day celebrations, the score brilliantly captures the mixed emotions of that night in 1945.

He has been involved as well with a number of television programs related to music and with a number of youth ensembles and concerts. He has been the recipient of two honorary doctorates and many awards.

In 2005, maestro Tovey was appointed Artistic Director of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, conducting his first course in April 2006.