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Music Director: Peter Dala

Born in Toronto, Peter Dala studied piano and conducting at England's Royal College of Music. During his time in London he also worked at the Royal Ballet School as a pianist, which led to his first professional engagement as conductor and pianist of the Basel Ballet in Switzerland in 1984. He conducted Coppelia, La Fille mal Gardee, Nutcracker, and Giselle in his first season, with performances in Monte Carlo, Israel, Germany, New York, and China. From 1987 he worked at the International Operastudio, Zurich Opera, Switzerland, where he conducted his first opera. He also guest conducted for the Zurich Ballet.

In 1988 Mr. Dala joined the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, where he conducted both opera and ballet performances. Career highlights include performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Mendelssohn's ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Singapore and Hong Kong Festival of Arts. From 1994-95 he acted as Music Director at the Hungarian Dance Academy. After six years in Budapest he returned to Canada and joined Edmonton Opera as Chorus Director / Repetiteur. Mr. Dala made his Canadian conducting debut with Edmonton Opera in Gounod's Romeo and Juliette (1997), and was named resident conductor of Edmonton Opera in 2002. In the same year he conducted Ballet British Columbia's world premiere of John Alleyne's Orpheus.

In 2001 Mr. Dala was invited to conduct The Nutcracker tour, which began his association with Alberta Ballet, and was appointed Music Director in October 2005.