Welcome.

Conductor.
Educator.

Shawn Bennett is a Toronto-based conductor and educator, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador. As a freelancer, Shawn has been privileged to conduct such prestigious ensembles as Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Toronto. His career has been guided by numerous legendary conductors, including Alexander Shelley, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Kensho Watanabe, Daniel Raiskin, Michael Newnham, and Kellie Walsh. In 2024, Shawn was honoured to be named the inaugural Artistic Director of Wilfrid Laurier University’s revolutionary new “NextGen” Youth Orchestra program. He holds a Masters degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Toronto, where he studied with celebrated Canadian conductor Uri Mayer and served as Assistant Conductor for both the UofT Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony. In addition to conducting, Shawn maintains an established career as a music educator on Faculty at the Sterling Hall School in North York, ON.