"Brott has taken concerts to the steel mills. He has taken music to the parks and to libraries, out of the stuffiness of a concert hall….he doesn’t just rely on the relaxed outdoor environment to make classical music more populist. He mixes music with visuals and prose readings." Sarah Hampson, The Globe and Mail, July 2002

"There’s always an air of expectation and excitement at the beginning of each Brott Summer Music Festival… largely because each year is centred around a brand new edition of the National Academy Orchestra…I’m happy to report this edition is a corker – a real vintage." – Hugh Fraser, Hamilton Spectator July 2001

"Brott’s concert boutique has spread out across the face of Southern Ontario and across the face of musical history." – Peter Goddard, Toronto Star July 2002

HAMILTON - Brott Summer Music Festival (July 10 to August 19, 2004) is pleased to announce its 17^th season as one of Canada’s most acclaimed orchestral music festivals and Ontario’s premier summer’s orchestral music festival. The Brott Summer Festival continues to be the centrepiece of Hamilton’s vibrant arts scene in July and August each year.

The Festival features Classical, Chamber, Jazz, Pops, Education concerts. The 2004 Festival will feature Russian Showstoppers Series and will include works by Prokofiev, Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Khatchaturian.

Summer soloists will include violinist Lara St. John (Khatchaturian Violin Concerto), cellist Amanda Forsyth (Herbert Cello Concerto No. 2), jazz pianist Michael Kaeshammer (piano), violinist Lindsey Deutsch (Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto) and pianist Valerie Tryon (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1) singers John Fanning, Mark Dubois, Helena Holl, Laura Whalen, Michael Burgess, Aaron St. Clair Nicholson, David Dongkyu Lee.

Other highlights include a Summer Evening in Vienna, to compliment the wildly successful New Year’s traditional Viennese evening of Waltzes and songs. Carl Orff’s perennial favourite Carmina Burana is programmed alongside Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Ballet Suite, to be danced by Chan Hon Goh & Guillaume Cote, both principal dancers with the National Ballet of Canada. Miss Goh opens the Brott Summer Music Festival when she dances the pas de deux from Tchaikvosky’s Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake with New York City Ballet principal dancer Nilas Martins.

Venues range from traditional indoor theatres (Hamilton Place, Theatre Aquarius) to outdoor tents and "rooms with views" at Dundurn Castle and Royal Botanical Gardens to name a few. Canadian soloists of the highest calibre have included Valerie Tryon, Pinchas Zukerman, Anton Kuerti, Oliver Jones, Martin Beaver, James Ehnes, to name a few.

Festival founder and Artistic Director Boris Brott has an international reputation as an innovative programmer and charismatic conductor, best known to area audiences as the conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for 21 years. Under the artistic direction of Boris Brott, the young and exuberant National Academy Orchestra comprises top graduating music students from across Canada and players from the country’s finest orchestras who act as "mentor musicians" in the stands.

Tchaikovsky: Master of the Ballet

Chan Hon Goh, Odette & Aurora
Nilas Martins, Siegried & Prince Gottfried

Tchaikovsky & The Cello

Amanda Forsyth, Cello
 

Musical Souvenirs of Summer
 

Russian Splendour

Programme
 

Frieder Bernius, conductor
 

Russian Genius          Dofasco Centre for the Arts

Michael Burgess, singer        Windermere House, Front Lawn
 

Valerie Tryon, Piano

John Fanning, baritone