Grammy Winner Vancouver Symphony

It was tenth evening of February 2008 when Maestro Bramwell Tovey and James Ehnes received the 2007 Grammy Award in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra” for the CBC recording of the violin concerti by Barber, Korngold, and Walton with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Later, in May, this award was completed with a Juno for Best Classical Album of the Year for the same compact disc.

Maestro Bramwell Tovey was born on July 11, 1953 in England. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of London as a pianist and composer. His second instrument was tuba.

Tovey was the music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra between 1989 and 2001. He was appointed the music director and conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in September 2000. Meanwhile, in Europe, he was music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra from 2002 to 2006.

Tovey has conducted the “Summertime Classics” series with the legendary New York Philharmonic since the inception of the series in 2004.

James Ehnes was born on January 27, 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba. He started his music lessons at 5 with his father who was a trumpeter and music teacher.



Ehnes won the Juno Award for Best Classical Album of the Year in 2001 and was named Young Artist of the Year at the Cannes Classical Awards in 2002. He graduated from the Juilliard School in 1997. He mostly plays on a 1715 Marsick Stradivarius which belongs to the Fulton Collection. His recording of Paganini’s 24 caprices in 1995 was acclaimed as a fine recording of these difficult pieces. Ehnes also won the 2007 Juno for the recording of Mozart’s violin concerti.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO), founded in 1919, is a Canadian orchestra performing in Vancouver. Each year, over 240,000 people attend the VSO concerts. The orchestra’s home is the beautiful Orpheum Theatre. VSO is the third largest symphony orchestra in Canada with 140 concerts per season and annual operating budget of $10 million.

Watch a short video of Maestro Tovey conducting the orchestra at Orpheum:



Video taken from YouTube