Musicians

Brian Jackson

Principal Pops Conductor

Brian Jackson is a Master of Arts from Oxford University, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and an Associate of the Royal College of Music. After 3 years with the BBC he emigrated to Canada and thus began his 35 year conducting career starting as Music Director of the Peterborough Symphony, at 25, the youngest in the country.

Twice winner of the Heinz Unger award for conductors, he studied with Hans Swarowski in Vienna, and with Richard Lert in Los Angeles, as well as Karel Ancerl in Toronto. Winner of a full Canada Council grant, he furthered his studies in Germany and then was Music Director for Wiener Operetta Company conducting throughout German- speaking Europe for 6 months.

Currently Principal Pops Conductor of Orchestra London, the Victoria Symphony and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Jackson has conducted all major orchestras in Canada and lead orchestras in the UK, US, and South America.

His innovative Pops programming has made him Canada's favourite Pops Conductor. He not only arranges and orchestrates many of the scores, but in many cases plays and conducts from the keyboard. A noted pianist, he has played Mozart concerti and the Gershwin Rhapsodies across the country.

A resident of the Kingston, Ontario area, he was Music Director of the Kingston Symphony for 10 years putting it into the top 12 such organizations in the country. As a composer, Brian Jackson has 5 musicals to his credit, 3 of which have been staged in Ontario.