When Shawn Bennett steps onto the podium with the Brantford Symphony Orchestra this October, he brings with him more than musical expertise. He brings a philosophy rooted in collaboration, curiosity and a deep belief in the power of music to create something beautiful.
His motto sums it up perfectly:
“We need more music, not less.”
“The world needs more beauty, more harmony, more art,” Bennett says. “Never less.”
It is a philosophy that has shaped a career encompassing conducting, performance and more than a decade of music education.
Creating Music Together
For Bennett, an orchestra is at its best when it stops sounding like a collection of individual musicians and begins sounding like one living, breathing musical voice.
He is continually impressed by the ability of exceptional orchestras to “play with time” and blend their sounds so completely that an audience can forget it is listening to individual musicians and instruments.
“Good orchestras can really capture your thoughts and bring you to an entire other place,” he says.
That sense of collaboration also defines Bennett’s approach to conducting.
He believes musicians create their most beautiful art when they feel safe and empowered to express themselves. Every musician on stage, he says, brings a musical opinion and foundation that is just as valid as his own.
“I want my musicians to be themselves and take risks on stage, knowing that their conductor is there to support them.”
It is also one of the first things he considers when meeting a new orchestra. Stepping onto the podium, Bennett pays attention not only to how the musicians sound, but to how they feel.
Setting — or sometimes resetting — the tone of a rehearsal is part of the conductor’s responsibility.
“An orchestra that isn’t feeling its best is an orchestra that likely needs a reminder of why we all became musicians in the first place,” he says.
The Magic of Live Performance
Bennett is particularly drawn to the spontaneity that happens when musicians respond to one another in the moment.
The soloists he most admires are those who have developed such a personal connection with a composer’s voice that they understand the notes on the page do not have to sound exactly the same every time they are played.
“Soloists and orchestras can truly make magic when they are open and responsive to each other live in front of the audience.”
That openness has given Bennett great satisfaction when conducting works such as Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and Gershwin’s An American in Paris, both of which he has had the opportunity to revisit more than once.
But there is at least one work audiences probably shouldn’t expect to find on his podium anytime soon.
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana?
Not if Bennett can help it.
Still More Music to Explore
Ask Bennett which composer he would most like to conduct for the first time and choosing only one proves impossible.
The sweeping works of the late Romantic era are high on his list, including music by Mahler, Rachmaninoff and Puccini. But his interests extend well beyond the traditional orchestral canon. He would also relish the opportunity to conduct modern masterpieces by composers including Hans Zimmer, Koji Kondo, Kevin Puts and Terence Blanchard.
And although Bennett continues his own journey toward mastery of the trombone, there are a couple of other instruments that tempt him.
“If I were to go back to my youth and do it all again, I’d have gotten immense satisfaction out of studying either piano or cello.”
He also admits that leading an orchestra for the recording of one of Hollywood’s great film scores would be an unforgettable experience.
A Career Highlight on a Canadian Stage
Bennett is proud of his work as Artistic Director of Wilfrid Laurier University’s NextGen Youth Orchestra, but one performance stands out as a particular professional milestone.
In June 2025, he led the National Arts Centre Orchestra in a performance of Ian Cusson’s challenging and rewarding 1Q84 – Sinfonietta Metamoderna at Southam Hall in Ottawa.
Yet some of Bennett’s most memorable musical experiences have happened away from the conductor’s podium.
In 2016, while living in his native Newfoundland, Bennett sang with the Newman Sound Men’s Choir. The ensemble travelled to the Basque Country of Spain and France for a side-by-side performance tour with Coro Easo, a men’s choir from San Sebastián.
During the tour, Bennett performed as soloist in an arrangement of Otto Kelland’s Cape St. Mary’s.
Their final concert took place at the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France.
Bennett still remembers singing about Newfoundland to a sold-out audience thousands of kilometres from home — and seeing members of that French audience moved to tears.
“I’ll just never forget the overwhelming sense of Newfoundland pride that I felt,” he recalls.
Music, Teaching — and Maybe Coaching?
Music education has been an important part of Bennett’s life for more than a decade, so if he isn’t standing in front of an orchestra, there is a good chance he can be found in a classroom.
But there may be another kind of sideline in his future.
A longtime sports fan, Bennett suspects that as his daughter gets older, some of his experience conducting and teaching could eventually find its way into coaching.
After all, bringing a group of individuals together, helping them develop confidence, encouraging them to take risks and guiding them toward a common goal sounds remarkably familiar.
Whether in a classroom, on a field or standing on the podium, Bennett’s approach comes back to people — and to creating an environment where they can do their best work.
This October, Brantford Symphony Orchestra audiences will have the opportunity to see that philosophy in action.
Because for Shawn Bennett, music is not simply something written on a page and reproduced on stage. It is something created between musicians, conductor and audience in real time.
And in a world that could always use a little more beauty and harmony, his motto seems particularly fitting:
“We need more music, not less.”