Ilan Kumaranayake Mendel

Resident Conductor

In the 2026/27 season, Ilan Kumaranayake Mendel joins the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as their Resident Conductor. Ilan has previously served as the inaugural Assistant Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, whom he has led in performances at Roy Thomson Hall and at the Blossom Music Center (Cleveland, OH). He has also held artistic leadership roles with student and emerging artist ensembles, including as the Managing Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Symphony and the Artistic Director of the Bloor-Annex Brass Ensemble. Under his direction, the Bloor-Annex Brass Ensemble, composed of students from universities and conservatories from across Southern Ontario, has helped broaden Canada’s brass ensemble repertoire through the performance of a world premiere/commission, a North American premiere and several Canadian premieres. Ilan has also conducted the University of Toronto Contemporary Music Ensemble, the University of Toronto Trombone Choir, and has appeared as a guest conductor with the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble. In summer 2026, Ilan serves as an Assistant Conductor at the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, resident ensemble of the Brott Music Festival. He has previously participated in the Young Conductors Residency at the Jack Long National Honour Band (formerly the Denis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra). His conducting studies include work with Sean Wang and Simon Rivard, as well as mentorship from Tania Miller, Gillian MacKay and Mark Hopkins. Ilan made his conducting debut in 2019 with his own composition “Emergence”, which was the winner of the Helen Dahlstrom Award from the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations. Also active as a trombonist, Ilan has performed with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Windsor Symphony, the Ontario Philharmonic, the Berlin Opera Academy, the National Academy Orchestra at the Brott Music Festival, and as a soloist with the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble. Ilan holds an Artist Diploma in Trombone from The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Gordon Wolfe and was a recipient of the Tim and Frances Price Scholarship. He also holds a Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Vanessa Fralick and was the recipient of the Plotenyi Bekassy-Tassonyi Award for Music Undergraduate Study, the Walter Homburger Scholarship, and the President’s Scholar of Excellence Award.