A young Torontonian currently working in Zurich has been named assistant conductor of l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

Nathan Brock, 30, will begin work in July, assisting music director Kent Nagano at the Lanaudière and Knowlton festivals. He is expected to work with Nagano through the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

His first OSM concert and his Canadian debut will be this December with soprano Marie-Josée Lord at Montreal's Notre Dame Cathedral.

Toronto-born Brock learned to play drums, piano, treble and bass viola da gamba and finally the cello. He studied music at the University of Toronto.

He began studying conducting at U of T and moved to Switzerland in 2003 to complete his studies in orchestral conducting at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

He is currently an instructor and assistant there to Prof. J. Schlaefli, leader of the orchestral conducting program.

From 2003 to 2008, he served as founding artistic director and conductor of the Northern Lights Music Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Brock won the 2007 Bern Chamber Orchestra's young conductors' competition and was one of six finalists in a field of more than 150 at Spain's eighth Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in May 2006.

Quebec native Stéphane LaForest, head of the Sherbrooke symphony orchestra, was previously announced as an assistant conductor of the OSM. He takes up his post in September.