ABOUT OUR MUSIC DIRECTOR MARCO PARISOTTO

● Place des Arts’ Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall is full, Marco Parisotto steps onto the podium and the enchantment commences... What a musician! Under his baton, Haydn found all the verve and humour one could hope for...he made the Montreal Symphony Orchestra sound like a marvel.
...In Francesca da Rimini [Tchaikovsky] Marco Parisotto’s formidable musical power radiated, revealing the mastery of this score to the audience…To hear him efficiently animate this sonic canvas with all its warm or harsh colours was electrifying... What a performance! Better yet, this is the signature of an artist who stands among the greatest.
Montreal Symphony Orchestra - LE DEVOIR

● In my long career I've heard The Rite of Spring at least 50 times with most of the major orchestras and conductors. Starting with Pierre Monteux[...] Karajan, Boulez, Bernstein[...] Well! Marco Parisotto held me spellbound from one end to the other. He succeeded in realizing a performance that was masterful both musically and technically... It was indeed a commanding Rite[...] (Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer)
Ottawa Symphony Orchestra - LE DROIT

● This young conductor belongs to the greatest. Not since the debuts of Chailly and Rattle have I been so impressed.
National Arts CentreOrchestra - LE DROIT

● Longtime music director Marco Parisotto has slowly, steadily built this ensemble [Ontario Philharmonic] into a noteworthy big-city orchestra… The Mahler [Symphony no.1] was shaped, paced and coloured by Parisotto with the care and assurance of a true master… Details came to life in a performance that, under Parisotto’s firm leadership, was direct, transparent and mesmerizing.
Ontario Philharmonic - MUSICAL TORONTO

● Marco Parisotto may get on the list to succeed Saraste [at the Toronto Symphony] ...Saturday night in Roy Thomson Hall, the Montreal-born conductor leapt into a high position on the list.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra - THE TORONTO STAR

●...[Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci]: extraordinary performance... real opera and deeply moving... Marco Parisotto drew undreamt-of refinement from the OSM... The best opera performance of the year.
Opera de Montréal - LA PRESSE

● …both soloists [Igor and Valeri Oistrakh] were greatly assisted by extremely supportive playing from the Philharmonia Orchestra under Marco Parisotto.
Philharmonia Orchestra (London) - THE STRAD

●...Marco Parisotto could take on the world... I heard Parisotto lead this ensemble [Ontario Philharmonic] last Saturday at Koerner Hall. To say I was surprised is putting it mildly. Everything about Parisotto's exacting and fluid style on the podium suggested a major international talent.
Ontario Philharmonic - MONTREAL GAZETTE

● Bruckner’s long, long musical developments need a steady hand that also can take a long view of where the music is going. Silences are as important as the loud swells. And Parisotto revealed himself to be the master of all he surveyed.
Ontario Philharmonic - MUSICAL TORONTO

● I can't even begin to count the number of recordings of the work [Petrushka] I've heard, but nothing came even close to the transparency and vivid coloration of conductor Marco Parisotto's and the orchestra's collaboration.
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra - CLASSICAL NEW JERSEY SOCIETY

BIOGRAPHY

Marco Parisotto was born in Montreal of Italian lineage. Music Director of the Ontario Philharmonic (OP) since 1996, he is credited with building OP to the high standard and popularity it enjoys today. Under his leadership OP has received superlative audience and media recognition (“…a fantastic orchestra being led by a first-rate conductor” - Musical Toronto). Also Music Director of the Jalisco Philharmonic - one of Latin America’s most distinguished orchestras - he took this position in 2014 after being elected by unanimous decision. With only a little over two years since he has taken direction of the orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic has garnered international attention with its virtuosic performances and has participated in recordings, tours, major events such as Placido Domingo’s Operalia, and festivals such as Busan Maru International Music Festival and Festival Cervantino.

A frequent guest with orchestras around the globe, Marco Parisotto has appeared in major concert halls throughout the world, conducting many leading orchestras including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano "La Verdi", Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano, New Jersey Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Quebec Symphony, Busan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Japan Shinsei Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Georges Enescu Philharmonic, Janacek Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra de Bordeaux, Opéra de Marseille, Orchestre de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Philharmonique de Liège. He was received with great enthusiasm at the international Festivals of Evian, Menton, Besançon, Wieniawski International Festival (Poland), Festival de Mayo of Guadalajara, Festival of Opera in Jalisco, Skaneateles Festival New York, Busan Maru International Music Festival and Bolzano Festival; at the Montreal Opera, Shanghai Opera, Opera Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, Serbian National Theatre; in Mexico with the Mexico City Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmonica de la UNAM, Orquesta Sinfonica de UANL, Camerata de Coahuila, Sinfonica Carlos Chavez, Camara de Bellas Artes, Orquesta de Baja California; in China with the Shanghai Symphony, China National Symphony and Guiyang Symphony. He has also led to acclaim the Polish National Radio Symphony, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI of Torino, Orquesta de Cordoba, Orchestre de Bayonne Cote-Basque. On several occasions, at Théâtre des Champs Élysées, he was a guest of Paris’ oldest orchestra, the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux.

Marco Parisotto has won critical and public praise for his interpretations of Russian masters as Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and of the great German repertoire as Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler, Wagner; and of Italian opera. Acclaimed for his passionate performances in the operatic field he has led productions including, among others, Carmen, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Otello, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La Boheme, Turandot, Aida, Rigoletto and Don Giovanni.

Marco Parisotto is the winner of seven major international competitions. He crowned these achievements in 1997 with the ‘Besançon International Competition for Conductors’, joining the ranks of maestros like Seiji Ozawa and Michel Plasson. A first in this elite events history, he was awarded the Grand Prix as well as the Prix du Public. Other top prizes have included the Tokyo International Conductors' Competition in Japan, Constantin Silvestri Competition in Romania and the Antonio Pedrotti in Italy. He was moreover conferred with all other special awards at these events.

Following a special concert celebrating Canada-China relations in 1999 at the Grand Theatre in Shanghai, Marco Parisotto was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 2003. As such, he was the first foreign national to have held this position in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

He took his training both as a violinist and pianist and studied conducting with eminent maestros including Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Brück, Yuri Temirkanov, Georg Tintner and, initially, with Raffi Armenian at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Montreal.