Canadian Opera Co. general director Alexander Neef appears in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, where he will assume duties in October. (Michael Cooper/Canadian Opera Co.)

The Canadian Opera Company in Toronto has hired Alexander Neef, the casting director of the Opéra national de Paris, as its new general director.

Just 34, the German-born Neef represents a fresh start for the COC and is charged with filling the void left by Richard Bradshaw, the former general director who died suddenly last August.

Neef is not a conductor, but plans to soon begin the process of hiring a music director for the opera company. Under Bradshaw, the positions of music director and general director were combined.

A COC search committee, with the aid of an international executive search firm, chose him from a long list of 40-50 people, after doing intensive interviews.

"He was the unanimous choice of the search committee and of the senior members of the company who met with him," said David Ferguson, president of the COC board of directors, at a news conference Wednesday at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

"One of the things we liked about him as a candidate is that he is young. The COC, along with many other arts organizations, faces a challenge of continuing to attract attention to our art forms in the younger elements of our community and certainly this candidate is a very visible symbol of what can be achieved by the right person," he said.

Despite his age, Neef has an extensive background as an administrator.

Born in Ebersbach an der Fils, near Stuttgart, he studied piano and has been a music enthusiast since he was a youth. He studied at Eberhard Karls University and began volunteering with the renowned Salzburg Festival while still a student.

He began work as an administrator with the Salzburg Festival in 2000 and then joined the RuhrTriennale, preparing opera theatre and dance productions for the multi-disciplinary festival.

He has been at the Paris Opera for four years, casting 80 operas in that time and getting to know talent from around the world.

"I'm very pleased and very proud to be standing here on this beautiful stage and to be leading the Canadian Opera company in the future," Neef said after being introduced to crowd of supporters and media.

"One of the predominant qualities of the company is it sets its sights very high," he said, "I've been very impressed with the commitment of the staff and the artists. What was impressive to me was the pride that all these people take in the company."

He paid tribute to Bradshaw's legacy and said he intends to build on it.

Neef briefly sketched an ambitious vision for the company that includes:

• Attracting great artists, including more international opera stars.
• Creating a high-quality standard repertoire and adding new operas the COC has never performed.
• Commissioning and producing new operas.

"It is important for this company to do operas it has never done before — there are a few major pieces that have never been done here," he said, mentioning Wagner's Parsifal.

In answer to a question from the audience, he said another Ring Cycle is not likely in the near future.

Neef said the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season are largely planned, but he intends to start work on the following two seasons. He said he will "extend the planning cycle" to make it possible for the COC to attract major international stars who are booked years in advance.

He also plans more collaborations, possibly with companies such as the New York City Opera, which he has worked with in the past.

Neef is married and has one daughter. He takes up the position as general director of the COC in October.