The Orchester Classique de Montréal (OCM) has found its new captain. A well-known figure in the Quebec musical scene, Jacques Lacombe will become artistic director and principal conductor of the ensemble founded in 1939 by Alexander Brott in July. A five-year term.
The sudden death of Boris Brott – son of the CMO founder – in Hamilton last April following a collision with a car, accompanied by a hit and run, had shaken the musical world, in particular the Orchestra Montreal Classical Orchestra, with which he had been associated since the 1980s, when the ensemble was still known as the McGill Chamber Orchestra. It is Geneviève Leclair and Alain Trudel who are keeping the house this year as principal guest chefs.
“When Boris died, Taras [Kulich, directeur général de l’OCM] asked me to conduct the last concert of the season, which Boris was to give at the Maison symphonique. There was a fairly generous energy among the musicians and the level was very good. We had a very nice Heroic [de Beethoven] “, remembers the conductor, who had decided not to take up his post immediately after the end of his contract with the Orchester symphonique de Mulhouse two years ago.
The former first guest conductor of the OSM then got to know the ensemble better during the summer with the recording of the Ice Storm Symphony by Maxime Goulet for ATMA.
“Taras then asked me to do contracts this year, but I had a big opera season, so little availability,” says Jacques Lacombe, who nevertheless agreed to contribute to the production of the 2023-2024 program. .
It’s a bit later, when he was in Toronto to direct Carmen, that the chef was asked by the board of directors of the OCM to meet the selection committee set up to choose a successor to Mr. Brott. Everything was settled a little before Christmas.
“I live on the Plateau and having this anchor point with the Classical Orchestra allows me to settle down a bit at home on a regular basis”, specifies the one who is leaving soon to direct a production of Wether in Greece.
Mr. Lacombe promises “programming that fits in with what Boris was doing”, joking to quote Charles Dutoit who “said that an orchestra is like an ocean liner and that you cannot turn on a dime like on a bicycle . You have to be aware of the tradition, where you come from”.
“One thing that fascinates me in my job is artistic programming. I was starting to miss it, ”says the man who is pursuing an intensive career as a lyrical conductor across the planet.
Jacques Lacombe, who had never conducted the orchestra until last May, nevertheless knew the Brott family very well. “One of the first, if not the first concert I heard when I was a child [à Trois-Rivières] was with the McGill Chamber Orchestra and Alexander Brott, Boris’s father. There is a kind of return of fate which is quite amusing, ”notes the musician.
“At the end of the concert, they had played something quite fast. They had encored it again, playing it even faster. Alexander Brott said they weren’t able to play it any faster,” recalls Jacques Lacombe, laughing.
He had also been entitled to the encouragement of Boris Brott, who had sat on the jury of a Canada Council for the Arts competition that the musician had won, which had enabled him to go to study in Vienna. “He had it at heart, the young people”, assures the chef.
Jacques Lacombe also already knew the orchestra in a way before having conducted it, he who had already collaborated with several of its musicians in other formations. “You could say I’m on familiar ground,” he says. There is a chemistry that happened with the musicians, who were also consulted for the choice of the next artistic director. It’s a good match, in the end. »