Timothy Vernon

Invested as a Member of the Order of Canada, Timothy Vernon is the Founder and Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) and Conductor Laureate of Orchestra London. As a guest conductor he has been engaged by Calgary Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Winnipeg and Toronto symphonies and Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings. He has also appeared with Symphony Nova Scotia, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and with the Montreal Symphony at the Lanaudiere Festival. Conductor of Pacific Opera Victoria’s recent productions of Rinaldo, Macbeth, Falstaff, Vanessa, Rodelinda, Flight and La bohème, Maestro Vernon has led Opéra de Montréal’s Opera Gala, Macbeth for Opéra de Québec, Die Fledermaus for Opéra de Montréal and La traviata, Eugene Onegin and Carmen for Calgary Opera. Vernon’s most recent projects have included Il barbiere di Siviglia for L’Opéra de Québec, the World Premiere of Les Feluettes for Opéra de Montréal and subsequent remount in Victoria and Simon Boccanegra and Jenufa also for POV. His affinity for all things Viennese made his recent New Year’s Gala for the Victoria Symphony particularly festive and added Kalman’s Gräfin Mariza in a new production to his credits for Pacific Opera Victoria.

Maestro Vernon’s creative imagination in opera was Honored as a recipient of the prestigious Ruby Award by Opera Canada, his visionary leadership and daring repertoire choices with Pacific Opera Victoria have yielded sold out performances of works including Hoiby’s The Tempest, Giannini’s The Taming of the Shrew and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. His skills as impresario fostered a partnership with Orchestra London and Pacific Opera Victoria, resulting in productions of Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly and Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute being seen in both cities. He has been associated with the Edmonton Symphony as conductor for the ‘Symphony Under the Sky’ concerts and ‘A Lighter Classical Christmas.’ He was re-engaged by the Victoria Symphony and also led performances of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, produced by the Glenn Gould School of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

Other credits include Don Giovanni for Edmonton Opera, Madama Butterfly for the Green Mountain Festival in Vermont, Rigoletto with Calgary Opera and Madama Butterfly, Blitzstein’s rarely heard Regina, Thaïs, Die Zauberflöte, La traviata, The Rake’s Progress, Così fan tutte, Semele and his own orchestral reduction of Strauss’ rarely heard Capriccio for Pacific Opera Victoria.

In addition to his duties in London and Victoria, he has been engaged as guest conductor by the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa conducting Ben Heppner and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert seen on CBC and filmed for worldwide television distribution.

As Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria, a post he has held since that company's inception in 1980, he has led the vast majority of their productions including such rarely heard works as L’amore dei tre re, Wozzeck, Giulio Cesare and Der Freischütz. Fidelio, directed by Robert Carsen, was produced for TV and broadcast by the PBS and CBC networks and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream was heard on CBC Radio Two's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera which also broadcast a live performance of the POV production of Richard Strauss’ Daphne, in another orchestral reduction prepared by Maestro Vernon.

Internationally renowned for his work with young musicians, he conducted the McGill Symphony in an ecstatically received performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in Montréal, now released as a CD on the Fonovox label. Rick MacMillan of Classical Music Magazine praised both orchestra and conducting, noting that "this is the only Canadian recording ever made of a Mahler symphony, and it's a real triumph. It has every right to share shelf space with the celebrated readings of Bernstein, Karajan, Tennstedt and other giants of Mahler interpretations.” Previously Vernon conducted the McGill Orchestra in acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Roy Thomson Hall, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Le Grande Théâtre de Québec and Montréal's Place des Arts. Broadcasts of Britten's WAR REQUIEM and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 were part of an ongoing association between the McGill Orchestra and CBC/Radio Canada brokered by Maestro Vernon during his professorship. The film McGILL, MAHLER, MONTREAL has been broadcast nationally on Bravo and on CBC. The orchestra's recording of Korngold's Symphony in F sharp, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, is distributed by Polygram and was nominated for a Juno Award.

September 2023

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