VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra & Artistic Adviser of the VSO School of Music
Otto Tausk has brought dynamic musicianship, curiosity, and a distinctive vision to one of Canada’s leading arts organizations. Together they have been building a unique sound and intensity of playing through ambitious programming, with a deep commitment to connecting audiences with extraordinary music and artists. Shaping every concert to a memorable and moving experience.
The Start
Their first collaboration goes back to 2017, performing works by Mozart, Liszt and Smetana, revealed an immediate connection. A shared understanding of the score, working in detail and exploring expressive possibilities created a sense of pure joy and discovery. A musical highlight, marking the beginning of a deeply intuitive and meaningful collaboration.
Where we are now
Building the musical partnership rooted in curiosity, trust and a shared appetite for discovery they continue to deepening the fundamental core repertoire and also supporting the distinctive voices of Canadian new music. The spirit of renewal, growth and awareness extends to recordings and international projects, including music by the late Jocelyn Morlock, the VSO’s former Composer in Residence, and the orchestra’s first European tour, with a Salzburg residency with Prokoffiev at its heart. Mahler has become another defining thread of the collaboration, with an annual performance of one of his symphonies. Most recently the highly acclaimed Third Symphony.
Mahler 3, VSO and Rihab Chaieb
Connecting our community through music
The Vancouver Symphony and the VSO School of Music believe that music can make a difference. You don’t have to know much about music to enjoy it and to initiate an inner change. Without words, music can connect us emotionally, mentally, physically and socially, both with one another and with ourselves. Through performances, education and community engagement we bring the transformative power of music to people of all ages and backgrounds creating belonging, confidence and opportunity.
Initiatives supporting at risk youth - including projects with homeless and vulnerable young people - the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the VSO School of music demonstrate that music is not simply something we experience; it is a way of connecting, healing, growing and building ourselves and our community.
Upcoming Performance
What people say
“Tausk’s winning strategy was to conceive of the materials as three big gulps: the extended first movement, a central pair of what could be considered scherzos, and a three-stage finale Tausk’s feel for the psychological drama of the opening was spot on.”
David Gordon Duke
Musical Composer, VSO, Mahler 3
“I had the opportunity to work with Otto both with his wonderful Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canada and with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Germany. It was extremely important to me that he conducted my own compositions with such dedication and understood them in the best possible way. I followed his work with great admiration.”
Fazil Say
Pianist
“The VSO is now an orchestra that can go full bombast with the clarity of a truly great orchestra. Tausk, for his part, played the final movement with an intelligent ambiguity that made the movement feel like an internal struggle between joy and terror. Everyone involved was on fire. Truly exciting stuff all around.”
Fred Cholowski
Music reviewer & contributor, VSO, Shostakovich 5
