The Brott Music Festival has announced who will be taking over for Boris Brott, just over a month after the renowned conductor was struck and killed by a vehicle on the streets of Hamilton.
Montreal-born Alain Trudel, a six-time Juno nominee with a long list of accolades, has been named the interim artistic director for the festival ahead of its 35th season.
Ardyth Brott, Boris’ wife, said Trudel embodies the qualities that Boris wanted to see in his successor.
“Though he had no plans to retire, one name was always at the tip of Boris’s tongue,” she said during the announcement at FirstOntario Concert Hall. “He said emphatically this musician, pedagogue, conductor and community builder was his very first choice to take over the reins from him.”
Trudel said he first met Brott and his parents more than 40 years ago when he was a teenager playing the trombone with the McGill Chamber Orchestra – now known as the Orchestre Classique de Montréal (OCM).
Along with his six Juno nominations, Trudel was nominated for an Emmy in 2020 and has received numerous honours throughout his career, including the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2012 and a knighthood from the province of Quebec, Chevalier de l’Ordre, in 2020.
The 55-year-old maestro is music director of the Toledo Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, and has conducted every major orchestra in Canada, as well as orchestras in the United Kingdom, the U.S., Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Latin America.
Trudel said he’s honoured to be stepping into the role, although he wishes it weren’t happening so soon.
“The consensus was he’s going to die conducting on the podium at 95, you know, or something like that,” Trudel told reporters following the announcement.
But he added that the show must go on and that Boris would have wanted it that way for the sake of the young musicians whose careers he always sought to support.
“Boris would be very (displeased) if we were not moving forward and trying to do our very best to serve those young professionals so they can have a good career after that. So the best way to pay tribute to him is to continue the legacy in a very strong way.”
The 78-year-old Brott was fatally injured during a hit-and-run in the area of Park Street South and Markland Street on April 5.
A 33-year-old man has been charged in connection with his death.
This year’s edition of the Brott Music Festival will kick off on June 30 with a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Trudel and dedicated to the memory of Brott.
Trudel said the festival is typically planned a year in advance, so this year’s lineup – which is now posted on the festival’s website – is “all Boris.”
“We talked many times about music, about arts, about how we see this in the community and all that,” he said.
“I have a good idea of how it’s going, I’ve been here many times as a guest conductor … but you cannot fill those shoes, to put it very simply. You can just come and do the best you can to keep the legacy going.”
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