Co-founder and Artistic Director

Brandyn Lewis is a Canadian double bassist who has been highly sought-after as an orchestral musician and chamber musician. He was featured on the CBC 30 Under 30 list and named a CBC Black Changemaker in recognition for his work advocating for increased cultural diversity and inclusion in classical music through the creation and development of Ensemble Obiora in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

In 2016, Lewis started his professional career performing with the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal while completing his undergraduate studies and has since worked with other orchestras such as the National Arts Center Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Quebec, FILMharmonique, Orchestre Classique de Montreal, Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke, and Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime. He was also invited as guest principal double bass of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and is currently principal double bass of Ensemble Obiora.

Lewis has had the immense privilege of performing under the direction of maestros Kent Nagano, Rafael Payare, Zubin Mehta, Suzanna Malkki, Sir Andrew Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, to name a few, and has toured across Europe, South America and South Korea playing in some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world. He has also made select appearances on the octobass with the OSM and the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières.

As a chamber musician, Lewis was guest artist at the Toronto Summer Music Festival in 2016 and the Prince Edward County Music Festival in 2022 and has had the pleasure of performing alongside members of the OSM, TSO, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and the Myriade String Quartet. More recently, he was invited to collaborate on a stunning new and reimagined arrangement of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha by Jessie Montgomery and Jannina Norpoth, and produced by Volcano, an avant-garde theater company in Toronto.

A native of Montreal, Lewis received his Bachelor of Music with Outstanding Achievement from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University under the tutelage of Ali Yazdanfar. Previous teachers include René Gosselin at the Conservatoire de musique de Montreal, and Pablo Seib.

Lewis makes his solo debut performing the Eduard Tubin Concerto for Double bass with the McGill Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Alexis Hauser.

Photo : Miet Verhauwaert