[3] Over the years guest conductors have included Franz Breuggen, Sir Neville Marinner, Alan Hovhaness, Boyd Neel, Raffi Armenian, Kees Bakels, Michel Corboz, Victor Feldbrill, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Serge Garant, Monica Huggett, Milton Katims, Gary Kulesha, Sir Ernest MacMillan, Ettore Mazzoleni, Geoffrey Moull, Harry Newstone, George Cleve, Brian Law, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jaap Schroeder, Georg Tintner, Owen Underhill, Heinz Unger, Simon Streatfeild, Brian Law, Odaline de la Martinez, Rosemary Thomson, Bruce Pullen, Glen Mossop, Elmer Iseler, John Nelson, Janos Sandor, Bruce Dunn, Bernard Labadie, Grzegorz Nowak, Helmut Rilling, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Pinchas Zukerman, Louis Lortie, Susan Haig, Jacques Lacombe, Earl Stafford, Daniel Swift, Timothy Vernon, Andrew Parrott, and Jon Washburn.
On April 30, 2006, Canadian trombonist Alain Trudel was named musical director of the orchestra, replacing Mario Bernardi as of fall 2006.
tour in the early 1970s, Markham and Toronto, Ontario in the late 1990s, a trip to Yellowknife in December 2004 and to Iqaluit, Baffin Island in September 2008.
[1][2] The orchestra's disbanding was unpopular in the classical music community, and there was significant coverage in the media including a long front-page article in the Vancouver Sun, a prominent article in Vancouver's Georgia Straight and coverage in The New York Times.
[7] Several Members of Parliament from different parties expressed their opposition to the orchestra's demise at a meeting of the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on May 2, 2008; Bill Siksay (NDP - Burnaby—Douglas), Denis Coderre (Liberal Canadian Heritage Critic), Joyce Murray (Liberal - Point Grey) and Ed Fast (Conservative - Abbotsford).
The NBO would have a projected budget of $1 million to be provided through fundraising though the ensemble hopes to eventually qualify for government grants.
[8][9] In 2010 the orchestra, based in Vancouver, prepared for its first concert; the program included The Sparrow’s Ledger, a CBC-commissioned composition by Michael Oesterle.