Alexander Brott
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Alexander Brott
(b Montreal, 14 March 1915). Canadian composer,conductor and violinist. He studied at the McGill Conservatorium (1928-35) and the Juilliard School. In 1939 he founded the McGill CO, giving premières of many Canadian works. He was leader and assistant conductor of the Montreal SO (1945-58) and from 1948 toured as guest conductor with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His many compositions derive largely from neo-classical procedures. His son Boris (b 1944) has conducted Canadian and regional British orchestras from the early 1960s.
AMG AllMusic Guide to Classical Music :
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Alexander Brott
Biography
Brott studied at the McGill Conservatorium and at the Juilliard School. He took a position at McGill in 1939 and founded the McGill Chamber Orchestra, an organization that has gone on to première many Canadian works. He also served as leader and assistant conductor of the Montreal SO from 1945-58. The first Canadian work to be commissioned and recorded by the CBC was Brott's orchestral work =From Sea to Sea= (1947). In 1948 he began traveling throughout the world as guest conductor for the CBC. His compositional style draws upon neo-classical contraputalism and often uses familiar music in new ways. Brott's interest in Canadian folksong is evident in many of his works, including =La corriveau= (1966), a ballet-opera based on a legend of a female Bluebeard. ~ Lynn Vought, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
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Alexander Brott
Alexander Brott, CM, CQ, born Joël Brod, (March 14, 1915 – April 1, 2005), was a Canadian conductor, composer, violinist and music teacher. His wife Lotte was an accomplished cellist. Their sons, Boris Brott, is a conductor, and Denis Brott, is a cellist and conductor.
Born in Montreal, Brott earned degrees from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University (MU) and the Juilliard School. Among his teachers were Albert Chamberland and Alfred Whitehead. He began his career as a concert violinist in the 1930s. He joined the faculty at the MU in 1939, teaching there until his retirement in 1980. He notably founded the McGill Chamber Orchestra.
Brott was leader of the Montreal Orchestra, Les Concerts symphoniques de Montréal and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1945 to 1958. In 1939, he joined the Faculty of Music at McGill University, where he remained until 1980. His compositions included Arabesque, Circle, Triangle, 4 Squares, and Paraphrase in Polyphony. He was also the founder and musical director of the McGill Chamber Orchestra. He also conducted the Kingston Symphony from 1965 to 1981.
In 1979 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and in 1988 he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. His entertaining memoirs, "Alexander Brott: My Lives in Music" (with co-writer Betty Nygaard King), were published by Mosaic Press in 2005.
He died in Montreal at the age of 90.
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Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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AMG AllMusic Guide to Classical Music
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