Les Dala
Leslie Dala is the Music Director and Conductor of the Prince George Symphony and the Chorus Director and Assistant Conductor with Vancouver Opera. Equally at home with symphonic music, opera and contemporary works, Leslie is steadily in demand across the country. This season marks Leslie’s 5th as Music Director of the PGSO, making him the longest serving conductor in the history of the organization, a fact of which he is extremely proud.
He has assisted on over 40 main stage productions with Vancouver Opera and in 2004 he conducted the company premiere production of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. This past summer, he conducted the Festival Vancouver Opera Gala concert with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and soloists Richard Margison and Measha Brueggergosman. He has collaborated with the UBC Opera Ensemble in productions of The Magic Flute, HMS Pinafore, and the popular Merry Evening of Opera concerts presented by the Bard On the Beach festival. This season he will conduct Die Fledermaus at the Chan Centre in December and La Bohème in Prince George with UBC Opera.
Leslie previously held the positions of Music Director of Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin, in Strasbourg, France (2001/02) and the Opera as Theatre program at the Banff Centre (2002-04). He has worked with the Canadian Opera Company, Edmonton Opera, Soundstreams Canada, Tapestry New Works Toronto, Vancouver New Music and the Okanagan Vocal Arts Festival. He has been the Artistic Director of The Little Chamber Music Series That Could and the conductor of the Helikon Ensemble. An avid performer of contemporary music, Leslie has recorded three dramatic works by Canadian composer, Harry Somers for upcoming release on the Centrediscs label. He has conducted the Canadian premiere of two major works of American composer Steve Reich in Toronto and he has worked with virtually all of the leading contemporary music ensembles in Vancouver, including the Hard Rubber Orchestra, Standing Wave, and the Turning Point Ensemble.
Orchestral guest conducting engagements have included the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the West Coast Symphony, UBC Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra. It was with the VPO that Leslie began his conducting career as the assistant to the late Wallace Leung in 1999. This season he returns to guest conduct the UBC Orchestra in a program of Liszt, Wagner, Strauss, and Stravinsky.
Leslie received his early music education at St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, where he studied voice, piano, organ, and violin. He then went on to complete a Bachelors degree in piano performance at the University of Toronto with William Aide and the late Marek Jablonski. After a session at the Banff Centre, Leslie moved to Vancouver and completed a Masters degree at UBC as a pupil of Lee Kum Sing. As a soloist he has appeared with the Prince George Symphony, the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fraser Valley Symphony. He is married to soprano Rosalind Beale and is the proud father of two boys, Christopher and Andreas.
