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“Acclaimed conductor with whom music has regained its rightful place, the first” (J.J. van Vlasselaer), Agnes Grossmann has been, in the twenty year span of her conducting career, Artistic Director of several illustrious organizations: Wiener Singakademie (1983-1986), Chamber Players of Toronto (1984-1990), Orchestre et Choeurs Metropolitain de Montreal (1986-1995), Orford Arts Centre (1989-1995, 1999-2003), Principal Guest Conductor of ProCoro Canada, Edmonton, Alberta (1995-1997), and the Vienna Choir Boys (1996-1998).
In addition, she has guest conducted orchestras and choirs in Canada, Japan, and Europe, including the Orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Canadian Chamber Ensemble, the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa and the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra, the Arcadia Orchestra and Choir in Osaka, Japan, the Osaka Philharmonic, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Agnes Grossmann started her career as a pianist touring the USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Japan with Columbia Artists Management. In 1972 she won the Mozart Interpretation Prize in Vienna. As the result of a hand injury, Ms. Grossmann was forced to abandon her pianistic career, and she soon turned her attention to conducting. Since that time, “Her profound, inborn musicianship and irresistible temperament” (Gerhard Rosenthaler, Vienna), has had her conquering her public wherever she has concertized. By 1987, the City of Montreal named her “Woman of the Year in the Arts”. Ms. Grossmann has received many honors since that time, including the Silver Cross for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts from the Austrian Government in 1992; an Honorary Doctorate from Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ottawa University(2004); and the Golden Cross of the City of Vienna in 1995. In 2003, she was proclaimed a Member of the "Order of the Pléiade" given by the Quebec Government.
In 1996, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Vienna Choir Boys. Within a year, following the 500th Anniversary Concert with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Chorus Viennensis in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, Kurier critic Franz Endler exclaimed “At last, finally, we could hear that the Vienna Choir Boys is flourishing once again.” Agnes Grossmann rounded off the celebrations with a resoundingly successful tour of the major North American concert halls including New York¹s Carnegie Hall, Boston¹s Symphony Hall and Washington¹s Kennedy Centre among others, thus “reclaiming the reputation of this organization to one of the highest order” (Gerhard Kramer, Die Presse, Vienna). She launched the Children¹s Opera Series of the Vienna State Opera by conducting Krasa¹s Brundibar. Her educational reforms for the Institution included acceptance of girls in the kindergarten, which created a worldwide positive echo. She introduced a comprehensive educational program for the children. In November 1998, she relinquished her position as Artistic Director of the Vienna Choir Boys because of the growing incompatibility with the Board of Directors on the method of financing and the goals of the Institution.
As of 1999, Agnes Grossmann resumed her international guest conducting career, conducting performances with ProCoro Canada (Edmonton), Arcadia Chamber Orchestra and Choir (Osaka, Japan), and a highly successful debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for whom she conducted the Mozart Requiem and Handel¹s Messiah. In October 1999, she was asked to resume the Artistic Directorship of the Orford Arts Center, Canada¹s oldest and most prestigious Summer Academy and Music Festival. Agnes Grossmann planned and organized this eight week Festival of Music, where she also conducted numerous operatic and concert performances.
Ever since 1989, Agnes Grossmann has returned to the podium of the Arcadia Chamber Orchestra and Chorus (Osaka) annually, conducting major sacred and secular choral works as well as orchestral concerts. In 1999, she made her debut with the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra and Choir of Taipei, Taiwan. In 2001, she founded Ensemble Montreal, which consists of a professional choir and orchestra, whose debut performance with Haydn¹s Creation was nominated for a Prix Opus of the Quebec Council of Music in the category “Best Concert of the 2000-2001 season” in the Province of Quebec. This concert was a final triumphant performance of the Orford Arts Center¹s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Another major event for this occasion, were the performances of the Hofmannsthal/R. Strauss adaptation of Moliere¹s Bourgeois Gentilhomme with Strauss¹s incidental music and ending with the opera Ariadne auf Naxos. Highlight of the 2002 season was the performances of Mozart¹s Don Giovanni which Agnes Grossmann conducted with Albert Millaire directing. This was a production of the Orford Opera Studio she directs. In Osaka, she performed Mozart¹s C Minor Mass with the participation of Ensemble Montreal Choristers joining Arcadia Chamber Choir and Orchestra in Izumi Hall.
In 2003 Ms. Grossmann performed a concert of Haydn¹s Seasons and his rarely performed Stabat Mater with Ensemble Montreal. The latter was recorded and broadcast by the CBC. In Orford, she conducted a production of Rossini¹s La Cenerentola. In 2003-04, she conducted Mozart¹s Cosi fan tutte at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. December 2004 marked her triumphant debut with Tokyo City Orchestra in an all Beethoven concert. |