Quebec conductor Jean-François Rivest is renowned for his energy, his extremely precise technique, and his passionate, moving and deeply involved style. His discography demonstrates the ease with which he masters a large variety of musical genres, ranging from music of the baroque era to today.
In the fall 2009, he was named Artistic Director of the Orford Arts Centre, near Montréal, where he now presides over the OAC’s prestigious Academy and International Festival. His first season was a great success and was considered by all to be a year of great artistic renewal. He was the artistic director of the Orchestre symphonique de Laval and of Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings ensemble, as well as conductor in residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal from 2006 to 2009, where he de veloped a close working relationship with Kent Nagano.
Jean-François Rivest firmly believes that the next generation of musicians must rely on performers that are also active as pedagogues. He has worked for several institutions, and has been teaching orchestral conducting as well as a variety of advanced performance classes at Université de Montréal since 1992. He is the founder, artistic director, and principal conductor of the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal.
Jean-François Rivest, who trained at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Montréal and at the Juilliard School in New York, quickly established himself as one of Québec’s foremost violinists of his generation. His main teachers were Sonia Jelinkova, Ivan Galamian, and Dorothy DeLay.
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