Artistic Director

Rosemary Thomson

Rosemary Thomson is equally at home conducting orchestral, choral, contemporary and operatic repertoire. Rosemary spent four seasons as Assistant Conductor to Richard Bradshaw at the Canadian Opera Company and also trained in opera at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has  guest conducted for Opera Garden in Scotland, Calgary Opera, Highlands Opera, Vancouver Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and recently for Tapestry Opera in Toronto, where she was nominated for a presitigious Dora award as Music Director for the world premiere of Shanawdithit, composed by Dean Burry with libretto by Yvette Nolan. Rosemary has conducted 15 seasons as Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. She has received the Kelowna Honour in the Arts civic award and was recently recognized with the provincial Community Spirit award from the BC Achievement Foundation.

Other operatic conducting has included engagements with Opera Garden (Scotland), Calgary Opera and Richard Margison’s Highland Opera Studio. For four seasons, Thomson was the Assistant Conductor to Richard Bradshaw at the Canadian Opera Company. Inspired by training she received from Hans Graf, Boris Brott and Bramwell Tovey, Thomson enjoys a reputation for working with emerging artists in both festival and university programs, most recently with Opera Kelowna’s own Valley Opera Summer Intensive. As a regular conductor and faculty member of the established Opera Nuova summer training program she has helped to train over five hundred young Canadian singers. In teaching our emerging artists, bringing her wealth and breadth of experience and leadership to Opera Kelowna, Thomson opens a bright new chapter in this young company’s story.

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