Dr. Lisette Canton

Lisette Canton is a choral and orchestral conductor, vocal coach and technician, guest conductor, adjudicator, workshop leader and early music specialist. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the JUNO Award winning Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC), and is also Associate Professor and Head of Choral Music at York University in Toronto, where she conducts the Chamber Choir and Concert Choir, and is in charge of the graduate program in choral music.

Dr. Canton has been a guest conductor at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, and, in addition to directing a large concert series in Ottawa, has taken the Ottawa Bach Choir on five successful European tours (2022, 2014, 2009, 2007 and 2005), including two invitations as the first Canadian choir to perform in the prestigious Bachfest Leipzig in 2014 and again in 2022. She has been the guest conductor of numerous ensembles worldwide, including in China and Mexico, and has prepared choirs for Franz-Paul Decker, Johannes Ullrich, Pinchas Zukerman, Helmuth Rilling and John Rutter. She was invited to perform in the International Choral Festival at the University of Caen, France, in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of D-Day, in 2004, and was invited to represent Canada at the III International Symposium for Women Conductors 2020, based in Brazil. She returns to New York City in 2025 to conduct at Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated with several musicians and arts organizations worldwide, and is a strong advocate of music education, undertaking a number of outreach initiatives to bring choral music to children and students from diverse backgrounds in the Ottawa-Carleton region and beyond. Lisette Canton holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from McGill University.