City Opera names Gordon Gerrard as new artistic director

Former VSO assistant and associate conductor to replace retiring founder Charles Barber

Gordon Gerrard has been a familiar presence on the VSO podium. Photo by Chris Graham

GORDON GERRARD, music director at the Regina Symphony Orchestra and a former assistant and associate conductor at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, is set to take the helm of City Opera.

The conductor has been named artistic director of the professional chamber-opera organization after the retirement of founding artistic director Charles Barber in January.

Gerrard has lengthy experience as an opera and orchestra conductor, making a name for supporting innovative and inclusive programming, and exploring social change and community engagement. Gerrard worked from 2012 to 2016 at the VSO under the mentorship of Maestro Bramwell Tovey, and continues to take the podium there as a guest conductor. He has also had a long association with Vancouver Opera and UBC Opera, as well as working at Calgary Opera, Opera Nuova and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

“Gordon’s impressive background as a conductor, opera specialist and educator, coupled with his imaginative programming and community engagement experience, bring a dynamic perspective to this pivotal leadership role,” City Opera board president Janet Lea said in the announcement. “His commitment to cultivating community and telling compelling stories that illuminate contemporary challenges resonates strongly with City Opera’s values, as does his passion for making music accessible to everyone. It’s an exciting new chapter in City Opera’s history.”

Gerrard takes his new role with City Opera in September 2023, while maintaining leadership of the Regina symphony.

City Opera is 16 years old, presenting repertoire that spans classical works to new compositions, and focusing on giving voice to stories and music from marginalized communities. It recently presented tenor Isaiah Bell's solo show My Book of Shames; previous presentations include Pauline, Margaret Atwood and Tobin Stokes’ chamber opera about Pauline Johnson, the mixed-race poet of Mohawk and European descent at the York Theatre in 2014; the 2017 premiere of Missing, set in Vancouver and along the Highway of Tears, about Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, by playwright Marie Clements and composer Brian Current; and Madeleine Thien and Alice Ping Yee Ho's new opera Chinatown, in 2022 at the Vancouver Playhouse, about the Head Tax, the Exclusion Act, and the building of the CPR.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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