Maestro John Morris Russell has consistently won international praise for his gift for making extraordinary music and for making a difference. Since his appointment as Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in 2001, Mr. Russell has ushered in a new era of unprecedented artistic growth for the WSO and has invigorated the musical life of the Windsor-Essex region. The Windsor Star reported in 2006 that “the Windsor Symphony Orchestra is on a roll...Russell never shrinks from the most demanding works in the repertoire [and] his enthusiasm shows in virtually every aspect of the orchestra.” Now in his seventh season, Mr. Russell will conduct 17 weeks with the WSO including symphonic and pops subscription programmes, concerts on the Bach and Mozart series, and the prestigious Windsor Canadian Music Festival.
During his tenure, Mr. Russell has attracted some of the world’s most notable soloists to perform with the WSO, including Lara St. John, Stewart Goodyear, Anton Kuerti and Kevin McMillan. He has also championed the works of some of Canada’s most illustrious composers, including Jacques Hétu, Brent Lee and Nathaniel Dett, conducting numerous Windsor premiers of important Canadian works and 32 world premiers of commissioned compositions. Mr. Russell has also performed the USA premiers of many Canadian works during his active schedule as guest conductor. He created the WSO’s first multi-year composer-in-residence position, and is deeply involved in the production of the annual Windsor Canadian Music Festival (WCMF), described by CBC producer David Jaeger as, “one of the most exciting and innovative developments to appear lately in the Canadian musical scene.”
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra has made twelve national broadcasts with Maestro Russell on CBC Radio and the orchestra’s first nationally televised production on the CBC series Opening Night, with violinist Eugene Nakamura and pianist Darrett Zusko. The WSO segment from this production was originally broadcast in December 2003 and again in 2004; it was subsequently nominated for a Gemini Award and won the Gold Worldmedal for “Best Performance Program” at the New York Festivals Awards for Television and New Media. In 2005, the WSO and Mr. Russell were featured in the documentary Clearly Symphony: not all performances are on stage by filmmaker Nicholas Shields and Suede Productions. In December 2006, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra released its second commercial recording, including Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf narrated by the internationally acclaimed actor, Colm Feore, and Last Minute Lulu, composed by WSO Composer-in-Residence, Brent Lee, with text by the Newbery Medal winning author, Christopher Paul Curtis.
Maestro Russell has taken an active role in creating and revitalizing programmes and programming to develop young listeners and musicians in the region. His passionate support of music in the schools has forged performance partnerships with the Windsor Centre for the Creative Arts, the University of Windsor School of Music and dozens of choral, dance and performing ensembles throughout the community. Mr. Russell’s intensive work with educators, administrators, and students has helped to bolster annual attendance at the WSO’s spring Educational Concerts by nearly 100% within five years, to over 12,000 students and teachers in Essex, Lambton and Kent counties.
As a guest conductor, Mr. Russell has led many of North America’s most distinguished ensembles, including the orchestras of Toronto, Edmonton, Victoria, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Louisville, Miami’s New World Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, New York City Ballet, and the New York Philharmonic. 2008 marks his eleventh year with Carnegie Hall, where he conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in the “LinkUP!” concert series, as well as Carnegie Hall’s family concert series.
Mr. Russell served as associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for eleven years where he regularly led concerts at the Music Hall and the Riverbend Music Center. In September of 1999, Mr. Russell replaced Erich Kunzel with an hour’s notice to conduct the Pops’ opening weekend concerts. The following week he substituted for Maestro Kunzel in concerts on the stage of the famed Musikverein in Vienna, featuring the Harlem Boychoir, the Vienna Choir Boys and actor Gregory Peck. The performance was televised throughout Europe, Japan and in the USA on PBS, and has been made into a compact disc and DVD.
Maestro Russell received a Master
of Music degree in conducting from the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts degree
in music from Williams College in
Massachusetts. He has also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine.