Internationally acclaimed conductor Kristian Alexander encouraged graduands to embrace creativity, take risks and build opportunities as he accepted an honorary doctor of letters degree during a 91ɫ Fall Convocation ceremony on Oct. 15.
Alexander is a music director of the Kindred Spirits Orchestra and Orion Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the Markham Contemporary Music Festival and the International Music Competition. Having led hundreds of orchestral and operatic performances, he has built a reputation for championing artistic excellence, cultural exchange and opportunities for emerging musicians. Through his leadership, mentorship and community initiatives, he has helped expand access to the arts for more than 1,000 young people, including neurodiverse youth, at-risk youth and students from low-income families.
“For more than three decades, Maestro Kristian Alexander has dedicated his life to advancing the role of music in education and social connection,” said Brandon Vickerd, dean, (AMPD).
“Through his work as a conductor, educator, scholar and humanitarian, he has enriched the cultural life in Canada and around the world, inspiring audiences, artists and communities alike.”
Addressing graduands from AMPD and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Alexander reflected on a career spent building artistic institutions and creating new opportunities for musicians and audiences alike.
He recalled his time as a young conducting student who envisioned a different kind of orchestra at a time when the practice was largely defined by tradition and established structures.
"I wanted to develop an orchestra that could make its own artistic decisions, one that could operate according to a different model," he said. "There was no such orchestra, so I decided to create one."
What began as an idea eventually grew into an internationally recognized organization, though not without setbacks and moments of self-doubt. The experience, he said, taught him lessons about perseverance, leadership and innovation.
"You don't always have to find your place in an existing institution," he said. "Sometimes you can create the institution yourself, and sometimes the fact that something is difficult is precisely why it must be done."
Almost 20 years later, he applied the same philosophy when he founded the Kindred Spirits Orchestra, despite warnings that the venture was too ambitious or unlikely to succeed.
"When you believe in an idea, you must have the courage to make it happen and trust that others will join you," he said.
Alexander noted that creating something new is only one part of the process; equally important is ensuring it can grow, adapt and continue to evolve through the contributions of others.
"As graduates, you have enormous opportunities to create, but creation is not about keeping something under your care forever,” he said.
“There comes a point when the most important thing you can do for what you have created is to allow others to shape it, to carry it forward, to make it their own.”
That philosophy informed his advice to graduands preparing to enter an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Rather than feeling constrained by traditional career paths, he encouraged them to recognize the possibilities that emerge when existing models no longer meet people's needs. Alexander encouraged graduands to think big and to see uncertainty as an opportunity for innovation.
“You have spent all of these years learning how to create, to imagine, to question, to experiment, to make something real,” he said. “Now you are standing at the beginning of something higher. A world that is waiting for you.”
Alexander concluded by urging graduands to trust their ideas, take risks and embrace the responsibility of building the future.
"When you leave here today, carry two questions with you: What is missing, and what could I create?" he said. "Don't wait for permission. Don't wait for the right moment. Don't wait until you feel completely ready.
"Create what doesn't exist. Nurture it. Build it. Give it everything you have."