Leila Getz

As founder and Artistic Director of the Vancouver Recital Society, Leila Getz has presented the Canadian and/or Vancouver debut performances of some of the world’s most brilliant and respected young musicians, and has steadily built a diverse and loyal audience for the recital concert form that doomsayers had proclaimed out-of-vogue. Since 1980, the first season of the Vancouver Recital Society, Leila has worked tirelessly to change the face of classical music in Vancouver. More than 400 different artists have been presented to Vancouver audiences, many of them in their Canadian or Vancouver debuts.

As one of only a handful of concert series in North America dedicated to presenting recitals, Leila has provided the platform for the brightest lights in the musical world long before they have become house-hold names. Built on trust, the musically adventurous Vancouver audience that Leila Getz has helped to cultivate has come to expect that a Vancouver Recital Society concert will provide the experience of discovery, of hearing the “future” of classical music, and of uncovering the “superstar” candidates for the 21st century.

In 1995, Leila was made a Member of the Order of Canada for her community service in cultivating Canada’s musical landscape. In 2004, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, appointed to the Order of British Columbia, the province’s highest award for outstanding achievement, and in 2005, was awarded an honourary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University. Leila was one of only three international consultants invited to sit on the Artistic Advisory Committee of the new Melbourne Recital Centre in Melbourne, Australia which opened in February 2009.