The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (KWS) has named 26-year old conductor Andrei Feher to a four-year appointment as Music Director, effective August 2018. The appointment will make Feher the second youngest conductor of a major orchestra in Canada after Alex Prior (24) at the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Feher will replace outgoing Music Director Edwin Outwater who will be leaving the orchestra to lead the summer concert programming at the San Francisco Symphony, and direct the Sierra Summer Festival in California at the end of the 2016/17 Season.
“I am pleased and honoured to accept this position,” said Feher in a statement. “From my first contact with the Orchestra, I felt welcomed as if we already knew each other, as if I were part of the family. I believe that our future together will bring richly emotional experiences.”
Despite his young age, Feher has an impressive amount of experience. Originally born in Romania, he relocated to Canada in 2010 with his family to study at the Montreal Conservatoire. By the age of 22, he became assistant conductor of the Québec Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, he was named conducting assistant to Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Orchestre Métropolitan in Montreal. Feher moved to Paris in September 2014 to join the Orchestre de Paris as Chef Assistant with Paavo Järvi.
Feher made his debut with the KWS in November 2016 in a concert of Debuts & Bijoux, and immediately caught the attention of the KWS search committee. They were impressed by his “conducting prowess and musicianship, as well his imaginative approach to performance, repertoire and community connection.”
KWS Principal Trumpet Larry Larson recalled Feher’s first visit with the orchestra as creating a wonderful energy felt across all orchestra members, “…a buzz which is still being felt by members of the orchestra…”
Under the title of Music Director Designate, Feher will return in the 2017-18 season to conduct Brahms, Schubert, and Pärt featuring Krisztina Szabó and the Estonian National Male Choir in November. He will also conduct Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the season finale in May 2018.
Feher plans to move back to Montreal from his current home in Paris, and will later relocate to Kitchener-Waterloo once his new post officially begins in September 2018.
Correction March 31, 2017. A previous version asserted Andrei Feher (26) will be the youngest music director of a major symphony orchestra in Canada. In fact, Alex Prior (24) at Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is the youngest.
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