One of Canada’s most distinguished music directors, Wayne Strongman is a champion of Canadian writers and composers. As Founding Artistic Director of Tapestry, a position he held for 35 years, he commissioned and premiered over 30 new Canadian operas, notably the Cantonese-English Iron Road (Brownell/Chan), Elsewhereless (Egoyan/Sharman), Facing South (Hannah/Smith), The Shadow (Poch-Goldin/Daniel), and Nigredo Hotel (MacDonald/Gotham. He also conducted the premieres of Tapestry developed operas: Shelter (Salverson/Palmer) for Edmonton Opera and Elijah’s Kite (Chai/Rolfe) at the Manhattan School of Music.
Strongman conducted the world premiere of Dark Star Requiem (Battson/Staniland), his second premiere for Luminato, after Sanctuary Song (Chan/Richardson). He has led opera creation projects at the Banff Centre, the National Arts Centre, and the Universities of Toronto and Wilfred Laurier, the Manhattan School of Music as well as directing projects with Vancouver New Music, Montréal’s Centaur Theatre, American Opera Projects in New York and Scottish Opera in Glasgow. Many of his performances have been broadcast nationally on the CBC.
Beyond creating opportunities for Canadian writers and composers, Strongman has encouraged and nurtured artists from the USA, New Zealand and UK through Tapestry’s new opera development programmes. He cultivated relationships with English National Opera, American Opera Projects and Scottish Opera, giving Canadian artists international exposure.
Awarded one of 50 Canadian Ambassadors for New Music by the Canadian Music Centre, Strongman is a member of the Order of Canada, recognized for his innovative leadership of Tapestry and his volunteer work at the Regent Park School of Music.