Dutch conductor Otto Tausk has served as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) and Artistic Advisor of the VSO School of Music since 2018, with his contract renewed through the end of the 2029/30 season. Tausk has demonstrated extraordinary artistic leadership in the VSO community and beyond; his innovatively reimagined digital performance series and his initiative to introduce Canadian contemporary music, including works by five Indigenous composers, have been highly acclaimed and have significantly expanded the orchestra’s reach. Tausk is a passionate believer in the concert as a shared experience between the performers and the audience, and his inclusive approach has had a profound impact on the community of Vancouver where the orchestra has become an essential part of the cultural identity of the city and its people.  

Tausk’s musical expertise ranges from historically informed performances of Mozart and Beethoven, to the early 20th-century scores of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and R. Strauss, to new works by today’s composers. In the 2023/24 season he performed masterpieces by Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich, as well as Verdi’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation, and gave the world-première performance of a new work by BC composer Nicholas Ryan Kelly. He worked with stellar soloists such as Vadim Gluzman, Steven Isserlis, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, and Fazıl Say. Tausk’s guest conducting appearances of the season included the San Diego Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, amongst others.  

Tausk has worked with orchestras such as the Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre National de Belgique, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he made his BBC Proms début in 2018. 

As Chief Conductor of the Sinfonieorchester und Theater St. Gallen from 2012 to 2018, Tausk led numerous opera productions such as the world première of Annas Maske by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss première of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Eugene Onegin, West Side Story, Lohengrin, and Ariadne auf Naxos. He is a long-time collaborator of the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa and conducted the highly acclaimed world-première production of Upload in Amsterdam, Köln, Bregenz, and New York. In 2023/24 he conducted the Dutch premiere of Thomas Ades’s Powder Her Face at the Nederlandse Reisopera.  

Tausk has recorded with the Concertgebouworkest, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Hans Pfitzner: Orchesterlieder for the CPO label and Prokofiev with Rosanne Philippens on Channel Classics garnered international praise.  

Born in Utrecht, Tausk studied violin with Viktor Lieberman and conducting with Jonas Aleksa. From 2004 to 2006, he was an Assistant Conductor to Valery Gergiev with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011, he received the prestigious De Olifant prize of the City of Haarlem, recognizing his achievements as music director of the Holland Symfonia and his contribution to the arts in the Netherlands.

Universally recognized among today’s top performing artists, Vadim Gluzman breathes new life and passion into the golden era of the 19th and 20th centuries’ violin tradition. Gluzman’s wide repertoire embraces new music, and his performances are heard around the world through live streams, broadcasts, and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings for the BIS label.

The Israeli violinist appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including Tugan Sokhiev with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Orchestre de Paris; Neeme Järvi with the Chicago Symphony and London Philharmonic; Riccardo Chailly with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhaus Orchestra; Santtu-Matias Rouvali with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony; and The Cleveland Orchestra under the batons of Hannu Lintu and Michail Jurowski. He appears at Ravinia, Tanglewood, the BBC Proms, Grant Park, and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, which he founded in 2011.

Gluzman started the 2023/24 season with a return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony and Gustavo Gimeno, followed by performances with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia, as well as the Florida Orchestra, and the Vancouver and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras. He conducted a master class and performed at the Kronberg Festival, and continued to lead performances with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, where he serves as Creative Partner & Principal Guest Artist.

Gluzman has premièred works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Moritz Eggert, Giya Kancheli, Elena Firsova, Pēteris Vasks, Michael Daugherty, and Lera Auerbach. Last season, he introduced a new violin concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Nicholas Collon. 

Accolades for his extensive discography include the Diapason d’Or of the Year; Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice; Classica magazine’s Choc de Classica award; and Disc of the Month by The Strad, BBC Music Magazine, and Classic FM.

Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Peabody Conservatory, where he teaches a select group of young violinists, Gluzman performs on the legendary 1690 “ex-Leopold Auer” Stradivari, on extended loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.