“After 14 years at the helm of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, he may be passing the baton to Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, but Kent Nagano will still maintain a vital presence here,” writes Bill Brownstein in Thursday’s (2/25) Gazette (Montreal, Canada). “Nagano has been bestowed with the honorary title of conductor emeritus of the OSM, becoming only the third to get this recognition, after Wilfrid Pelletier and Zubin Mehta. ‘I’m very honored, and it’s really symbolic of the fact everyone feels it’s appropriate for the relationship to continue,’ Nagano, 69, said…. Back in Montreal after a long absence due to the pandemic, Nagano will also be conducting the OSM in three virtual concerts, March 9, 16 and 23 … During his tenure here, he reached out to and performed for the young and disenfranchised, often for free, outside Place des Arts…. He also made a deep impact on Quebec’s Cree, Innu and Inuit communities, after first touring the North with the OSM a decade back and then returning in 2018 to perform the chamber opera Chaakapesh, the Trickster’s Quest, based on the work of Indigenous playwright Tomson Highway and for which Nagano had been the catalyst.”
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