Victor Feldbrill
Victor field Brill ( born April 4, 1924 in Toronto ) is a Canadian conductor and violinist.
The son of Polish Jewish immigrants took from 1936 to 1943 private violin lessons with Sigmund Steinberg. He also studied at the Conservatory of Toronto music theory with John Weinzweig and conducting with Ettore Mazzoleni. 1942-43 he conducted the orchestra of the University of Toronto. During his service in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1943 to 1945 he was stationed in London. There he studied harmony and composition with Herbert Howells and conducting with Ernest Read.
Upon his return to Canada he worked until 1949 as concertmaster and conductor of the RCMT Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Company and took violin lessons from Kathleen Parlow. He also attended summer courses for orchestral conducting at Tanglewood and studied in the summers of 1949 and 1950 with Pierre Monteux.
From 1946 to 1956 field Brill was first violinist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and from 1952 to 1956 the CBC Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 1956 he took lessons with the conductor Willem van Otterloo in Hilversum and Meinhard von Zallinger in Salzburg. From 1958 to 1968 he was conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Between 1960 and 1975 he conducted performances of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. 1963 and 1967, he appeared on an exchange program in the Soviet Union.
From 1968 to 1982 field Brill worked at the University of Toronto as a conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the University and Composer in Residence. He led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1973-1978) and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (1974-1978) and was from 1979 to 1981 the musical director of Orchestra London Canada. In 1979, he worked three months as the guest conductor of the Tokyo National University of Art and Music. There he received a professorship in 1981 and was in the following year conductor of the Philharmonia Geidai. In 1984 he conducted the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Manila, 1987, he appeared as a guest conductor in Beijing and Shenyang.
From 1990 to 1996 field Brill was chief conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, he worked between 1993 and 2003 as a teacher and guest conductor in the Czech Republic. Notably, to field Brill sat for the promotion of Canadian musicians and composers. In 1985 he was honored as an Officer of the Order of Canada for this. He was awarded the Order of Ontario in 1999, the same year he was awarded the Distinguished Visitor Award from the University of Toronto. In 2009 he was appointed ambassador of the Canadian Music Centre.