There’s a new conductor in town, folks. Symphony Nova Scotia has just happily welcomed Shalom Bard, a vibrant, Israel-born clarinetist, as its resident conductor for the next two performance seasons. He comes to Halifax packing major prowess, having studied music since he was six and most recently receiving a master’s in orchestral conducting from McGill. “I try to do the best I can in knowing, whatever it means to know the music. Like to have it inside you, to feel how it moves inside you and how you move inside it, maybe it’s interchangeable, and then deliver that and try to get the orchestra on the same page,” Bard says, calling the opportunity a privilege. He’ll make the move from Montreal this August after spending the summer at the Aspen Music Festival, exercising his chops at the American Academy of Conducting Workshop.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2011.