[1] He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, La Scala, and Covent Garden.
He took courses at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal and the McGill Conservatory, and in 1956 studied conducting at the summer school of Pierre Monteux, who engaged him as assistant for concerts in Europe.
He won first prize and a gold medal at the sixth Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition in 1968 and served 1968-9 as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 1969 to 1990, Brott was artistic director and conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, which grew from an amateur ensemble to a professional one with a 42-week season and 16,000 subscribers.
Brott and the HPO were in the news when they performed in the middle of a steel factory blast furnace in Hamilton's industrial core at Dofasco Inc.- now Arcelor Mittal.
[9] A charismatic maestro, Brott included visual elements, ballet dancers, Shakespearean actors, film, rock groups, even astronauts to the stages of classical music concerts.
[12] The NAO pairs music graduates pursuing a career with professional musicians from North American orchestras in a mentor-apprentice relationship.
Brott studied law at the University of Western Ontario from 1992 to 1995, and in 1995 began giving motivational seminars to Fortune 500 companies using symphonic music as an example of teamwork at the highest level.
Brott produced, conducted, or hosted a large number of television and radio programs for the CBC, and the BBC and ITV in the UK, and recorded with various orchestras for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Mercury, Pro-Arte and Sony Classical.
In 2000, he conducted the first performance of Bernstein's Mass in Vatican City for an audience which included Pope John Paul II.
He died on April 5, 2022, at the age of 78, when he was struck while walking in a hit-and-run collision by a driver who was speeding in the opposite direction on a one-way street, near Brott's home in Hamilton.
[16][17] The news sent shockwaves throughout Canada and the world's classical music community,[18] most intensely in Hamilton, the City he had helped transform from being known only as a Steeltown into a cultural hub.