Music Director
Regularly invited to conduct in Canada and overseas, Dina Gilbert attracts critical acclaim for her energy, precision and versatility. Currently Music Director of the Kamloops Symphony (British-Columbia) and of the Orchestre symphonique de l'Estuaire (Québec), she is known for her contagious dynamism and her audacious programming.
Dina Gilbert is regularly invited by leading Canadian orchestras including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre métropolitain, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic and the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. In 2017, she made debut performances in the United States with the Eugene Symphony and the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra as well as in Asia conducting a series of five concerts with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Niigata and Tokyo.
Highlights of the upcoming season include her debuts in Spain conducting the Orquestra Simfonica del Gran Teatre Del Liceu, in South Korea with world acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell in a performance of The Red Violin, and a return to France to make her debut with the Orchestre National de Metz. Dina has also been re-invited to conduct the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. The 2019-2020 season will also be her first as the Principal Conductor of the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal.
Passionate about expanding classical audiences and with an innate curiosity towards non-classical musical genres, Dina has conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre national de Lyon in several Hip Hop Symphonic programmes collaborating with renowned Hip hop artists. She has also conducted the world premiere of the film The Red Violin with orchestra at the Festival de Lanaudière and has conducted the North American premiere of film The Artist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
As the founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Arkea, a Montreal-based chamber orchestra, Dina premiered over thirty works from emerging young Canadian composers. Committed to music education, she has reached thousands of children's in Canada with her interactive and paticipative Conducting 101 workshop.
From 2013 to 2016, Dina Gilbert was assistant conductor of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Maestro Kent Nagano, also assisting guest conductors including Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Lawrence Foster and Giancarlo Guerrero. In April 2016, she received great acclaim for stepping in to replace Maestro Alain Altinoglu with the OSM in a program showcasing Gustav Holst's The Planets.
Dina Gilbert earned her doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where she studied with Jean-François Rivest and Paolo Bellomia and she polished her skills in masterclasses with Kenneth Kiesler, Pinchas Zukerman, Neeme Järvi and the musicians from the Kritische Orchester in Berlin. Awarded the Opus Prize of "Découverte de l'année" in 2017, Dina Gilbert was also named as one of the 50 personalities creating the extraordinary in Québec in 2018 by the Urbania Magazine. She has also received support from the Canada Arts Council, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and from the Père-Lindsay Foundation.