Alexander Brott, , born Joël Brod, (March 14, 1915 – April 1, 2005), was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 conductor, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and music teacher. His wife Lotte was an accomplished cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

. Their sons, Boris Brott

Boris Brott

Boris Brott, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker.Born in Montreal, the son of violinist and composer Alexander Brott and cellist Lotte Brott, and brother of cellist Denis Brott....

, is a conductor, and Denis Brott

Denis Brott

Denis Brott is a Canadian cellist, music teacher and Founder & Artistic Director of the award winning Montreal Chamber Music Festival.Born in Montreal, the son of violinist and composer Alexander Brott and cellist Lotte Brott....

, is a cellist and conductor.

Born in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Brott earned degrees from the Schulich School of Music

Schulich School of Music

The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning...

 at McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 (MU) and the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

. Among his teachers were Albert Chamberland

Albert Chamberland

Albert Chamberland was a Canadian violinist, composer, conductor, music producer, and music educator. As a violinist he was highly active as a chamber musician with a number of notable ensembles, including the Beethoven Trio with whom he made some early recordings for His Master's Voice during the...

 and Alfred Whitehead

Alfred Whitehead

Alfred Ernest Whitehead was an English composer, organist, choirmaster, and music educator who was primarily active in Canada. He taught music at several Canadian institutions of higher learning during his career and held the post of organist/choirmaster at a number of prominent Canadian churches...

. He began his career as a concert violinist in the 1930s. He joined the faculty at the MU in 1939, teaching there until his retirement in 1980. He notably founded the McGill Chamber Orchestra.

Brott was leader of the Montreal Orchestra, Les Concerts symphoniques de Montréal and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is a symphony orchestra based in Montréal, Québec, Canada, with Montréal's Place des Arts as its home.-History:...

 from 1945 to 1958. In 1939, he joined the Faculty of Music at McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, where he remained until 1980. His compositions included Arabesque, Circle, Triangle, 4 Squares, and Paraphrase in Polyphony. He was also the founder and musical director of the McGill Chamber Orchestra. He also conducted the Kingston Symphony

Kingston Symphony

The Kingston Symphony is a Canadian orchestra based in Kingston, Ontario. The orchestra was founded in 1953 under the name the New Symphony Association of Kingston. It was renamed the Kingston Symphony in 1963 with the formation of its new umbrella organization the Kingston Symphony Association...

 from 1965 to 1981.

In 1979 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 and in 1988 he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec

National Order of Quebec

The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...

.
His entertaining memoirs, "Alexander Brott: My Lives in Music" (with co-writer Betty Nygaard King), were published by Mosaic Press in 2005.

He died in Montreal at the age of 90.

External links

• Alexander Brott at The Canadian Encyclopedia
  The Canadian Encyclopedia
  The Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...