Bradshaw, Richard James

▪ 2008

      British-born Canadian conductor

born April 26, 1944, Rugby, Warwickshire, Eng.

died Aug. 15, 2007, Toronto, Ont.

raised the Canadian Opera Company (COC) to international stature and worked tirelessly for nearly 20 years to bring a purpose-built opera house to Toronto; as a result of his successful campaign, he was able to launch the COC's 2006–07 season in the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with Canada's first complete staging of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. Bradshaw studied conducting in England and won a fellowship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1975–77 he was chorus master of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, after which he worked as resident conductor (1977–89) at the San Francisco Opera. In 1989 Bradshaw became chief conductor and head of music of the COC, and he ascended to the position of artistic director in 1994 and general director in 1998.

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