“In perfect control of the whole orchestra, Rivest led the OSM (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal) to the most unbearable limits of silence and immobility (Mahler, 9th Symphony)” – Claude Gingras, La Presse, Montréal

Quebec conductor Jean-François Rivest is renowned for his energy, his precise technique, his passionate style, and his great communication skills. He masters a large variety of musical genres ranging from the baroque era up to today.

Regularly invited by orchestras in Montréal, in Canada and around the world (United States, Mexico, Peru, France, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, and South Korea), he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Laval (10 years), of Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings Ensemble (5 years), as well as Conductor in Residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (4 years).

He is now Artistic Director of the prestigious chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal. As Christophe Huss said recently in Le Devoir, it is “a logical nomination because since his arrival, the symbiosis has been great between the conductor and the musicians”.

He has worked for several institutions, especially the faculty of music of the Université de Montréal since 1993, where he is the founder and Artistic Director of the University Orchestra. He has been Artistic Director of the Orford Arts Centre as well (now Orford Music), from 2009 to 2015, a period unanimously seen as a time of tremendous artistic renewal and growth.

Mr. Rivest, widely acclaimed as one of the foremost Quebec violinists of his generation, trained at the Conservatoire de Montréal and at the Juilliard School in New York, with professors such as Sonia Jelinkova, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay.