Peter Gardner

Executive Director, BISQC

Peter Gardner is the executive director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). He is also General and Artistic Director of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO), and Executive Director of the NSO Foundation. He is also the founding director of both the NSO Sinfonia and the NSO Light Orchestra. In addition he is the Executive Director of Festival 500, Sharing the Voices, a biennial international choral festival held in Newfoundland.

Mr. Gardner completed his formal training as a violinist at Trinity College, London under noted violinist, Nicholas Roth, a student of the great Hungarian teacher Jeno Hubay. Mr. Gardner has performed throughout the province and in many regions of Canada and Europe and for many years was a regular performer for the CBC Radio and Television network. Amongst other things He was, for many years, the founding first violinist of the Atlantic String Quartet and of the new music ensemble Fusion.

In 1981, he was elected the founding president of Local 820 of the American Federation of Musicians and during 1984/85 he was engaged as a classical music producer for CBC Radio. Mr. Gardner is the founding director of the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and has at various times he has held the positions of Vice-President, Executive Director and Festival Director of the Canadian Association of Youth Orchestras. He is currently and executive member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Conference on the Arts.

In 1984 Mr. Gardner was nominated for the Silver Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for services to music in Atlantic Canada. In 1995, he was the recipient of the Northern Telecom Arts Achievement Award, presented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council for lifetime achievement in the arts, and in 1996 was awarded the Association of Canadian Orchestras Award, in recognition of outstanding contributions and dedication to the orchestral community in Canada, an award which carries with a lifetime membership of ACO, now called Orchestras Canada.