Canada’s Vancouver Island Symphony Announces Next Artistic Director

Cuban conductor Cosette Justo Valdé will assume the role as of Summer 2023

The Vancouver Island Symphony (VIS) will welcome Cuban native Cosette Justo Valdés as its new artistic director in July this year. She succeeds Pierre Simard, who left the role in 2022 after a 14-year tenure. 

Valdés worked with the VIS two months ago, appearing as a guest conductor for one of its subscription concerts. For this event, she was showcased as the second of the orchestra’s candidates for the artistic director position.

“I can only imagine how I will feel if I become the Artistic Director of the VIS,” Valdés said in a February interview. “It would be such an honor, and the possibility to dream big for this fantastic group of people and of course for myself along with them would be a dream come true.”

Now a successful candidate, Valdés has started planning the next season with VIS concertmaster Calvin Dyck and executive director Margot Holmes.

Born and raised in Cuba, Valdés saw her first symphony concert at age 18 — an experience that inspired her to become a conductor. A graduate of Cuba’s Instituto Superior de Arte and Germany’s Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, she was mentored by conductors Jorge López Marín and Klaus Arp.

She has appeared with ensembles including the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Nationaltheater Mannheim, iMusici de Montréal, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and assisted conductors such as Francesco Belli, Alexander Prior, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Alexander Shelley, Mario Venzago, and Michael Stern.

Currently serving as the resident conductor of Canada’s Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, she is an honorary director of Santiago’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente and a frequent guest conductor of the Orquesta Nacional de Cuba.

Valdés was recently appointed music director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and was nominated for the 2022 Heinz Unger Award by the Ontario Arts Council in Canada.

Now celebrating its 28th concert season, the VIS is only one of two professional Canadian orchestras on Vancouver Island. In addition to offering various concert series throughout the year, VIS has also presented a Music Education Program for Grade 4 students in the Central and Northern Vancouver Island School Districts for over 15 years.