The Pacific Baroque Orchestra has announced the appointment of Melissa Ratcliff to the position of General Manager, effective early June. Ms Ratcliff succeeds Nancy Cottingham Powell, who is now working for Festival Vancouver.

Dr. Murray Frum, chair of the Ontario Arts Foundation, has announced the appointment of Alan Walker as the Foundation’s new Executive Director. Mr. Walker has been a senior executive with TD Bank Financial Group, active as a director and board chair in not-for-profit organizations, and brings expertise in estate and trust law and a keen appreciation for the arts to his new role. He will be joining the Foundation at the beginning of July.

Congratulations to violinist Alexandre da Costa, winner of this year’s Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts! The $25,000 prize was established in 1982 by Virginia Parker for Canadian performers of classical music under the age of 32, who demonstrate outstanding talent and musicianship. Mr. Da Costa has won many national and international prizes including the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award and was awarded the loan of the 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank in 2003.

Martin Macdonald, resident conductor at Symphony Nova Scotia, has been awarded the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting for 2010. Worth $1,000, the award is given annually to a young Canadian orchestra conductor selected by the Music Advisory Committee of the Music Section of the Canada Council from among the staff conductors with Canadian orchestras.