The shocking death of one of Canada’s great maestros
Some days, life can be so cruel.
Tuesday was one of those days for Boris Brott, his family and the millions of classical-music lovers he touched during a lifetime in the arts. Boris was arguably the most influential, accomplished maestro in Canadian history, yet he was taken from us in an appallingly senseless incident. He was a pedestrian who appears to have been the victim of a hit-and-run; the driver was apparently speeding the wrong way on a one-way street. He smashed into Boris, who later died at hospital of his injuries.
What an utterly senseless death.
My father, Larry, and I were at a concert in Hamilton on Sunday afternoon, and, at intermission, we saw Boris and his wife, Ardyth. He told me that, at age 78, he was still hugely involved in myriad ventures and loved it all. Slowing down or dialing it back was not in his vocabulary. He was just enjoying doing his thing far too much. He felt energized being involved in so much and urged me to continue to do likewise for as long as I could.
Boris became the conductor and musical director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, which is when I first met him. Our families became quite intertwined. His mother-in-law, Betty Webster, was a president of the orchestra. So were both my parents. I was lucky to be introduced to The Phil's" classical music with Boris at the helm. Hell, Ardyth even babysat my brother and me back in the day.
In 1973, Boris gave me one of the thrills of my life, asking me to narrate 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" with the orchestra on stage at Hamilton Place. After we'd finished, someone snapped a picture of the maestro applauding as I bowed to the audience. I quite love that picture.
Twelve years ago, we had Boris as a guest on The Agenda" for our annual December music show. The idea was to talk about all the things he was up to. Even though I knew him reasonably well, I was still overwhelmed by his appetite for engagement. His time at the Phil was done (after 23 years), but he'd created the Brott Music Festival and had regular conducting gigs in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Ottawa. Not only that, he was a motivational speaker, brought in by some of the world's biggest companies to talk to employees. As a conductor, he was responsible for getting dozens of people to play brilliantly together - that's not unlike the mission of most companies. His speeches were enthusiastic and entertaining.
But, truth be told, I really wanted Boris on The Agenda just to reciprocate the joy he'd given me almost 40 years earlier, when I was on his stage at Hamilton Place. Just before we started our interview, we looked at each other with a sort of gleam in our eyes, because of how unlikely this scene was: the little kid, all grown up, interviewing someone who'd been chosen as one of the five most important figures ever to come out of Hamilton. There's a Yiddish word for bursting with pride." It's called kvelling." Boris and I were both kvelling" in that moment.
The thing I remember most about the interview was asking Boris, What was the best concert you ever conducted?" He paused before answering. My goodness," he said as he continued to go through the thousands of potential answers to that question. Then, as the memory of it came to him, he just started to beam. The great Leonard Bernstein was his mentor. Conducting Bernstein's Mass" at the Vatican in 2000, with his father and family present, and getting to meet Pope John Paul II was an overwhelming experience for this nice Jewish boy. It was perhaps the most special night of my life, musically," he said.
Boris was a helluva promoter, and, yes, a self-promoter, too. The economics of running symphony orchestras or music festivals are such that, unless you can make some friends in high places, none of it happens. Boris was a pro at squeezing money out of governments in order to fund his musical ventures. Like many creative types, he could be hard to deal with, and stories abound on that score. But he also brought music to the masses and connected with a lot of people over classical music, which is a tough mission at the best of times.
The last time we spoke, on Sunday, we talked about how well his three kids and four grandkids were doing. He looked like a million bucks in his bow tie, wearing his Orders of Canada and Ontario.
It is a cruel fate that someone so talented, who gave so much pleasure to so many, should be killed under such criminal circumstances. But that seems to be the way of the world these days.
Steve Paikin is the anchor of TVO's flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. A native of Hamilton, Steve received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto (Victoria University, 1981) and his master's degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. This piece originally appeared on tvo.org and is being reprinted with permission.