Maestro Boris Brott Becomes Honorary Patron of the Canadian Orpheus Male Choir

Hamilton, Canada, December 08, 2014 --(PR.com)-- COMC president, Keith Thomas, announced: “The Canadian Orpheus Male Choir is extremely proud that Maestro Boris Brott will lend the prestige of his name to signify his support for our endeavors.’’

A registered Canadian charity, the COMC has been singing to promote civic pride, to build community, to support charitable causes and to encourage artistic excellence in the greater Hamilton area since 1977.

“We’re all delighted that Maestro Brott has graciously agreed to be an honorary Patron,” Simon Irving, COMC’s music director, added. “As a musician with wide international recognition and prestige, his patronage adds greatly to the cachet of the COMC.”

“I am pleased to accept the invitation to join the COMC as Patron,” said Brott. “Having spent seven years as Chief Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, I am very familiar with the rich tradition of male voice choir singing. It is a pleasure to be associated with the COMC, which embodies the spirit, camaraderie, and dedication to community music making of the great tradition.”

Brott is one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, holding major posts as music director in Canada and the United States. He enjoys an international career as guest conductor, educator, motivational speaker and cultural ambassador and has a particular commitment to the development of new audiences and young artists. In Canada, he has developed no less than six Canadian Orchestras and has served as Assistant Conductor to the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, and as Music Director and Conductor for the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, and Northern Sinfonia, and the BBC Welsh Symphony. In 2000, he conducted Bernstein’s Mass, for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

Founder of the Brott Music Festival in 1988 and the National Academy Orchestra in 1989, Brott is also Music Director of the McGill Chamber Orchestra in Montreal and founding Music Director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles.

In 1987, Brott was awarded Officer of the Order of Canada. May 2006, he was voted one of the top five Greatest Hamiltonians of All Time by Hamilton Spectator readers. In February 2007, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Tourism Hamilton, and is also the recipient of the 2007 National Child Day Award for his work in introducing classical music to nearly 2 million children in the course of his career. In December 2006, Brott was awarded the Order of Ontario for his work in developing five orchestras in the province, most notably the Hamilton Philharmonic. Most recently, he was awarded Officer of the Order of Quebec for all of his work with the McGill Chamber Orchestra, which his father, Alexander Brott, founded in 1939.

Brott has a commitment to the development of new audiences and young artists. His programs have received rave reviews, in particular, a series of concerts bringing to life the great classical composers. The National Academy Orchestra, a unique mentor-apprentice program, in which emerging young musicians gain invaluable experience from working with seasoned professionals, stands as the centerpiece of his music festival in Ontario, Canada.

Brott also presents motivational speeches to Fortune 500 companies and his students around the world linking music and business. The speeches center around “teamwork,” “leadership” and “creativity.”

About the Canadian Orpheus Male Choir:
The COMC is an internationally known, Hamilton-based choir of some 45 members open to men ages 19-plus from all cultural backgrounds. The choir’s repertoire is extensive and varied, including popular tunes, jazz, songs from musicals, opera choruses, spirituals, ballads and folk songs.

The COMC has performed more than 450 concerts in venues such as the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall in London. Concert tours have taken the choir to the United States, Western Canada, the Maritime Provinces, Europe and elsewhere.

Over the years the choir has performed with many guest artists, most notably the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Abigail Freeman, tenor Glyn Evans, violinist Martin Beaver, the Canadian Brass, and the Central Band of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The choir is a registered charitable organisation which founded the David Davis Fund to provide supplementary funding for musically talented youth locally. The COMC has raised and donated some $800,000 to support charities, including service clubs, churches, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and The Hamilton Spectator Children’s Fund, among others.

The COMC’s popular Christmas Concert will be held in Christ’s Church Cathedral, Hamilton, on December 13 this year, featuring special guests, The Blazing Fiddles – an exciting and versatile, Toronto-based celtic music band.