HeB次元官网网址檚 read the news on the BBC and goose-stepped with John Cleese, yet Brian Jackson is most familiar to Victoria residents as the symphonyB次元官网网址檚 principal pops conductor.
After 17 years though, Jackson, 68, is retiring. This weekend he will conduct his last three performances as PPC.
With the Canadian College of Performing Arts he will conduct the troupe through 45 minutes of Broadway song and dance medleys.
B次元官网网址淵ouB次元官网网址檙e getting a theatrical experience for a symphonic price,B次元官网网址� says Jackson. ItB次元官网网址檚 the fourth time heB次元官网网址檚 collaborated with the Oak Bay-based college, a group of performers he describes as wonderful. B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e young but respectful and professional.B次元官网网址�
Victoria is a long way from JacksonB次元官网网址檚 Ontario home, but even further from where he grew up in Cornwall, England. From a working class family, Jackson says at age two he sang along with the radio and was picking out tunes on an auntB次元官网网址檚 piano. By five he was taking piano lessons and by age 13 was off to Clifton College in Bristol on a music scholarship where he learned to conduct and play the organ.
At Clifton he also met John Cleese. Although Cleese was four years older, the actor who went on to Monty Python fame picked out Jackson to work alongside him in an outdoor play.
B次元官网网址淗e was the platoon sergeant and thatB次元官网网址檚 where he got that walk B次元官网网址� he was 6B次元官网网址�4B次元官网网址� even at that time,B次元官网网址� Jackson recalled.
Cleese went on to Cambridge and Jackson to Oxford to read music. At 21, he took a break from music and to work at the BBC as a studio manager. But music called.
B次元官网网址淥n the other side of the glass the BBC symphony would be recording and I would be telling the conductor B次元官网网址榯he brasses are too loud here, are you sure you mean this tempo?B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
Adventure also then called and he emigrated to Canada in 1968, ending up in Peterborough, Ont. as a church organist. After six months, he was conducting the Peterborough Symphony. He was 25.
Four years later he took time to study in Germany and Vienna before heading to the London, Ontario symphony where he conducted for 36 years. In 1995 Jackson stepped in as choral society conductor with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and in turn became principal pops conductor.
B次元官网网址淚 knew by age 45 I was not going to the Berlin Philharmonic, I knew I wasnB次元官网网址檛 at that level, so I created my own sort of genre: pop concerts.B次元官网网址�
And although Jackson will conduct the opening set of pop concerts next season, the series will have a facelift, VSOB次元官网网址檚 executive director says.
In a bid to attract younger audiences the pop series will include a Beatles Sgt. Pepper tribute, says Mitchell Krieger.
Guest conductor Sean OB次元官网网址橪oughlin will step behind the music stand as well as maestra Tania Miller, who will conduct the Christmas concert.
Jackson will continue to conduct London, Sudbury and Kitchener/Waterloo symphonies, but he will miss the VSO. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 now one of the top orchestras in the country B次元官网网址� theyB次元官网网址檙e disciplined and they love what theyB次元官网网址檙e doing.B次元官网网址�
If you go
Broadway Spectacular runs March 30 and 31 at 8 p.m. with a matin茅e April 1 at 2 p.m., at the Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.
Tickets start at $33 and are available from the Victoria Symphony Box Office at 250-385-6515. For more information go to victoriasymphony.ca.
