Arthur Arnold

Artistic Director

Dutch-born conductor Arthur Arnold is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Pacific Region International Summer Music Association (PRISMA Festival & Academy) on Canada’s west coast. The annual event attracts world-renowned musicians and international music students from top universities and draws over 7000 concertgoers to daily musical events. Arnold is the Music Director and conductor of the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, the premier ensemble at the festival. 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the PRISMA Festival & Academy.

Arnold was the Music Director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra from January 2012 to his resignation in March 2022. Artistic cooperation with the MSO started in 2001 with two concerts in the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and developed into a long and fruitful collaboration.

Arnold is the driving force behind The Mosolov Project. In Russian libraries he discovered lost manuscripts of the repressed composer Alexander Mosolov. He performed and recorded the Fifth Symphony (1965) and Harp Concerto (1939) in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The CD (Naxos) received the second prize in the prestigious Russian competition Pure Sound. For more information and links to CD reviews, see The Mosolov Project.

Recent engagements included concerts with the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, Poland, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra in the USA, a three-week concert tour through China with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, a new opera production with Pacific Opera Victoria and recordings for the Canadian Broadcast Company with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Arnold conducted orchestras in Europe, North America, and Asia and appeared at international festivals with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and as guest conductor. He has conducted the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, Banatul Philharmonic Orchestra, Het Balletorkest, Košice Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, North Netherlands Orchestra, Novaya Opera, Moscow, Nieuw Ensemble, Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Minora, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Opera Victoria, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Raduga Ensemble, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibiu Philharmonic Orchestra, Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra, Transylvania State Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, and Woodstock Mozart Festival. As assistant conductor to Hans Vonk, he was invited to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, The Hague Philharmonic and WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. Arnold was Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific from 2004 to 2011. In South Korea, he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2001.

Arnold studied conducting with Anton Kersjes and Hans Vonk and received additional training from Marcello Viotti, Jean Fournet, and Graeme Jenkins. He studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy with Myung-Whun Chung and Gianluigi Gelmetti, and with Jorma Panula and Diego Masson in international master classes.

Arthur and his wife Kim divide their time between the rugged West Coast of Canada and The Netherlands. In Canada they enjoy hiking, sea kayaking and paddleboarding. In Europe they enjoy the adventurous road trips to the different orchestras, camping in a roof tent on their Volkswagen van. Kim writes about their travels in her blog Waking up on the roof.