Shawn Bennett

I am a dynamic conductor, educator, arranger, trombonist and choral singer from Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. I hold Bachelor degrees in Music Performance (Trombone) and Music Education from Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as a Master's of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Toronto. I have served as associate conductor of the University of Toronto Campus Philharmonic since 2021, and conducted numerous professional and educational ensembles throughout my career both at home and abroad. Some of these include l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Toronto, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony, the University of Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensembles, and MacMillan Singers (CA), the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Shallaway Youth Choir (NL), and the “Off the Cuff” Community Choir (NL), for whom I served as artistic director from 2017-2019.

I've had the pleasure of learning from many beloved and respected conductors throughout my studies and travels, including Yannick Nézet-Seguin (OM, Philadelphia Orchestra, Met Opera), Kensho Watanabe (Philadelphia Orchestra, Met Opera), Daniel Raiskin (Winnipeg Symphony), Otto Tausk (Vancouver Symphony), Jonathan Girard (UBC), Michael Newnham (OT), Professor Uri Mayer, Dr. Gillian MacKay and Dr. Jamie Hillman (UofT), Dr. Nicholle Andrews and Professor Co Boi Nguyen (University of Redlands), Charles Gambetta (Embodied Conducting Institute), Kellie Walsh (Shallaway Youth Choir), and Dr. Jason Caslor (Arizona State University).

I'm generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and have been the recipient of such prestigious recognitions as the University of Toronto Fellowship in Music, the OSOTF Feldbrill Fellowship, the Newfoundland and Labrador Centennial Study Award, the Bo Ying Wat Endowed Scholarship and the Friends of Music Endowed Scholarship from the University of Redlands, and the Shallaway Choral Scholarship.