NEWS RELEASE    February 6th, 2008
VBC Music Director Bruce Pullan appointed to the Order of Canada

Her excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, announced 61 new appointments to the Order of Canada. Among these is Bruce Pullan CM, Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir. The citation states that he is appointed "for his contributions to the development of singers of all ages, as a professor of music and a founder and director of numerous choirs".

Bruce Pullan was made Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir in 1983 and has conducted the major choral repertoire with this and other choral groups with the Vancouver Symphony and the CBC orchestras in Vancouver, and numerous other choral groups across Canada, in the United States and the UK.

In 1984 he founded the Vancouver Bach Children's Chorus and continues to conduct 6 of the 10 choirs in the Children and Youth Project. In 1986 he conducted the massed choirs for the opening ceremonies of Expo and the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Vancouver Symphony in a very successful documentary film: Whalesong, which has been shown worldwide.

Bruce Pullan and the Vancouver Bach choir have become known for presenting the British Columbian premieres of a numerous of important choral works such as Mahler's 8th Symphony, the Symphony of a Thousand, and Pendereckiis Polish Requiem. They have also commissioned a number of prominent Canadian composers to write large scale choral/orchestral works which have been premiered by Bruce Pullan and the choir.

Following an illustrious career at several academic institutions Bruce Pullan became Director of Choirs at the University of British Columbia in 2001.

For further information contact Gillian Wilder, 604-921-8012 bachchoir@telus.net