A familiar figure on the podiums of Canada's most important orchestras and opera companies, Orchestra London’s Music Director and Principal Conductor Timothy Vernon has conducted orchestras including: the Calgary Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony, L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, Ottawa's Thirteen Strings, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony at the Lanaudiere Festival.
In addition to leading two full seasons of concerts with Orchestra London he continues as Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria and is the newly appointed Music Advisor to the Victoria Symphony. During the 2000/2001 season Maestro Vernon conducted performances of Zigeunerbaron and Handel's Giulio Cesare in Victoria. The 1999/2000 season was highlighted by the world premiere of Erewhon by Mavor Moore and Lou Applebaum. Guest conducting appearances include productions of Die Zauberflöte and Faust for Ottawa's Opera Lyra, as well as Turn Of The Screw for l'Opéra de Montréal.
As Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria, a post he has held since that company's inception in 1980, he has led over forty of its' fifty productions including the first staged Canadian presentations of L'amore Dei Tre Re, Giannini's The Taming Of The Shrew and Weber's Der Freischütz. He has also made appearances with orchestras and opera companies in Edmonton, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton, Ontario.
Broadcasts include the production of Fidelio for TV by the PBS and CBC networks, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream on CBC Radio Two's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, and the film McGill, Mahler, Montreal broadcast nationally on Bravo and on CBC. Of special note was his latest performance with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducting Ben Heppner and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert seen on CBC and filmed for worldwide television distribution.
Maestro Vernon is internationally renowned for his work with young musicians. An ecstatically received performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in Montréal with the McGill Symphony is now released as a CD on the Fonovox label. Rick Phillips 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 Maestro Vernon has conducted the McGill Orchestra in acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall, the 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 are part of an ongoing association between the McGill Orchestra and CBC/Radio Canada which will include a complete cycle of Mahler's symphonies. The orchestra's recording of Korngold's Symphony in F#, recorded live in Carnegie Hall, is distributed by Polygram and was nominated for a Juno Award.
Timothy Vernon is generously supported by Mr. & Mrs. Donald J. Smith.
Brian Jackson holds a Master of Arts in Music Theory, History and Composition from Oxford University. He began his conducting career after immigrating to Canada in 1968, becoming the country's youngest Music Director when he led the Peterborough Symphony. Maestro Jackson has since been Music Director of the International Symphony, the Kingston Symphony and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor to Orchestra London Canada.
