Jacques Lacombe becomes Vancouver Opera's new music director

Canadian maestro conducted last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and has conducted at symphonies and opera houses around the globe

VANCOUVER OPERA HAS ANNOUNCED the appointment of maestro Jacques Lacombe as its new music director—the first to be named since 2018, when Jonathan Darlington became music director emeritus.

Lacombe has a more than two-decade association with the company, taking the podium for last season’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and helming such other shows as 2003’s La fanciulla del West.

"I am deeply honoured to join the Vancouver Opera family," said Lacombe in the announcement today. "Vancouver Opera has a rich tradition of artistic excellence and their work continues to push the envelope of opera each season. I am excited to collaborate with this outstanding team to create unforgettable experiences for our audiences and to continue elevating extraordinary talent. Together, we will push the boundaries of opera, embrace diversity, and bring the magic of music to the heart of British Columbia."

Quebec-born Lacombe was assistant conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 1998 and its principal guest conductor from 2002 to 2006. He was chief conductor and music director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens from 1990 to 2003. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and Knight of the Ordre National du Quebec. In February of this year, the Orchestre Classique de Montréal named Lacombe its new artistic director and principal conductor.

Lacombe has conducted at such hallowed opera halls as Bonn Opera, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Germany, Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Festival Internacional de Opera Alejandro Granda in Lima, and Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Lacombe recorded Janáček’s suite from The Cunning Little Vixen, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, and the Verdi Requiem on releases with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

In 2012, he received a Juno Award for his recording of Lettres de Madame Roy à sa fille Gabrielle, featuring Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

VO general director Tom Wright said today that Lacombe would help to further boost the company’s reputation globally: “The award-winning Maestro has brought nuance, power, and artistic integrity to many VO productions as a visiting conductor, so we are honoured that he has accepted this key leadership role.”

Lacombe will now participate in the audition process for the 2024-25 season. Darlington will continue to work with the company providing artistic contribution in the role of music director emeritus.

Featured

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.

Articles

Western Front presents Karen Ng's improvised concert Backwards Blue, March 26

Toronto-based artist is known for her prowess as a saxophonist and creative music collaborations

Brahms X Radiohead finds common ground between classical music and alternative rock

Composer and conductor Steve Hackman has no fear of crossing stylistic boundaries

Cascade Peaks ChamberFest announces a world premiere for its inaugural vocal ensemble program

At a July 20 concert, faculty lead Mark Vuorinen directs Where Wildness Lives by renowned B.C. composer Imant Raminsh

Bansuri player Lara Wong and flamenco guitarist Melón Jiménez cultivate otherworldly sounds at the Kay Meek, March 19 to 21

Tracks off the pair’s Juno-nominated 2024 album Confluencias trace the music traditions of Spain and India

Vancouver Opera stages Giacomo Puccini’s beloved opera La Bohème, April 25 to May 3

Music director emeritus Jonathan Darlington returns to conduct this Parisian love story tested by the bittersweet passage of time

Legendary Inuk artist Susan Aglukark and throat-singing duo PIQSIQ perform at the Chan Centre, April 12

Award-winning artists reclaim Arctic sounds with soaring vocals

SUBA Trio creates inspiring musical unity from Africa’s sublime sources

Although from different points on the map, pianist Omar Sosa, kora player Seckou Keita, and percussionist Gustavo Ovalles realized through improvisation that they were attuned to one another

Ramneek Singh performs her spring-inspired concert Basant Ke Rang at the Shadbolt Centre, March 29

Internationally acclaimed Hindustani classical vocalist is joined by harmonium player Mohan Bhide and tabla player Sunny Matharu

All nine Beethoven symphonies, as Vancouver Symphony Orchestra unveils 2026-27 season

Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, and Augustin Hadelich among the soloists hitting the concert stage

Vancouver International Children’s Festival gets set to welcome everything from high-energy Danish dance to artful Korean doodling

Eighty shows in all, as Italy’s Teatro Telaio sets up an ARCHIPELAGO installation, plus pow-wow, hip-hop, and massive puppets

A Dorothy Chang premiere unites the seasoned and emerging players of Vetta’s Mentorship Orchestra, March 6 to 9

At a concert called A Look to the Future, the piece shares a program with works by John Rutter, Jocelyn Morlock, and Tchaikovsky

With PopCappella, Chor Leoni reinterprets everything from the B-52s to the Proclaimers, March 6 and 7

Harmonizing through the decades, Vancouver choir is set to premiere six new arrangements

Jenn Grant draws on her family history for sometimes-heartbreaking songs

The Nova Scotian singer-songwriter is touring with a new multimedia show, Cradled by the Waves

Dominique Fils-Aimé’s music becomes a way of life rooted in emotional journey

Acclaimed Montreal singer and songwriter intertwines healing experiences in nature and musical history to reach toward the light

Bilingual Montreal tunesmith Aleksi Campagne carries on a family tradition

At Festival du Bois, the singer-violinist will blend Québécois fiddle tunes with an indie-folk sensibility

Music on Main fetes 20 seasons of programming with Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, March 23

Percussionist Vern Griffiths leads a rare performance of the rhythmic composition

Nicholas Wright conducts candlelit show Enchanted Brilliance: A British Serenade, February 26

The VSO School of Music’s advanced young string ensemble Sinfonietta plays pieces by Vaughan Williams, Purcell, and more

Ruckus Early Music finds lightness of dance in inspiring story of Ignatius Sancho

New York City ensemble’s program for Early Music Vancouver pairs pieces by Handel with high-spirited English country dances by the British African composer and abolitionist

Tord Gustavsen Trio performs sublime Nordic jazz at Christ Church Cathedral, March 17

Acclaimed ensemble’s impressionistic sound is inspired by blues, gospel, Scandinavian folk, and church music

Vancouver Cantata Singers artistic director Paula Kremer to move to role of conductor emerita

The long-time vocalist, pianist, and conductor is set to pass on the baton at the end of the 2026–27 season

Composer Kati Agócs reveals sacred music as source of resistance in Hosanna of the Clouds

Vancouver Bach Choir performs Canadian premiere of work that draws on both ancient tradition and the 20th-century avant garde to explore the creative act

Baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg sings the role of Figaro in The Barber of Seville, February 21 to 28

Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa is the subject of countless pop-culture references by characters like Bugs Bunny and Homer Simpson

Maestro Otto Tausk guides the VSO through Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, March 13 to 15

Powerful composition shares a program with Henri Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain… (A Whole Distant World…) and Michael Oesterle’s La Chapelle

Alliance Française Vancouver presents Amir Amiri and Elham Menouchehri's MA, March 14

Musical dialogue between santour and tar explores concepts of space and unity

Elektra unites Canadian composers with If the Earth Could Sing, March 28 and 29

Pieces by Katerina Gimon, Andrew Staniland, and more offer reflections on climate change and peace

Chan Centre for the Performing Arts hosts Omar Sosa and Seckou Keita's SUBA Trio, March 13

Musicians celebrate ancestral connections to Africa with a unique fusion of genres

Canadian pianist Sophia Liu joins the VSO's celebratory Lunar New Year event, February 12

Prior to the concert, the Orpheum hosts traditional art-making activities and lion dancing

Powerful compositions by Dame Ethel Smyth and Kati Agócs mark Canadian premieres at the Orpheum, February 28

Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs presents the 1893 masterpiece Mass in D major and contemporary work Hosanna of the Clouds

Review: Vancouver Opera’s cheeky Così fan tutte satirizes men as much as women

Set handsomely in a hotel lounge in the Canadian Rockies, the show features a strong and comedically adept cast that helps finesse a fun new spin on Mozart’s original