It’s been an exciting time as member orchestras across the country share the details of their season-opening concerts.  Here are a few highlights:
 
Tafelmusik launches its 2009-2010 Toronto season with set of joint concerts with Montreal’s Arion Baroque Orchestra, featuring celebratory music by Jacques Danican Philidor, André Danican Philidor, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Christian Bach and George Frideric Handel (Music for the Royal Fireworks). Leadership duties on the concerts are shared between Tafelmusik Music Director Jeanne Lamon and Dutch cellist and gambist Jaap ter Linden.  Not only will the concert be heard in Toronto, but it will also tour to Quebec the following week.  For more information about Tafelmusik, please visit here;  for more information about Arion, please visit here.

Symphony Nova Scotia kicks off its season with a series of free concerts during its second annual Symphony Week, running Tuesday, September 22 to Sunday, September 27.  The week features Symphony Nova Scotia musicians giving free, live performances at such venues as City Hall, the Spring Garden Road Library, Scotia Square Mall, Citadel High, and the Maritime Museum. Performances will include everything from children’s music to orchestral concerts featuring the entire Symphony – and one highlight among many is a new partnership with the Atlantic Film Festival, wherein the orchestra is teaming up with emerging film composers to perform and record original soundtracks to new Canadian films. Click here for more info.

I Musici de Montreal opens its Downtown Series with a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (JMC), featuring a pair of pianists who took part in the Montreal International Musical Competition 2008. Competition winner Nareh Arghamanyan will play Concerto No 2 by Saint-Saëns, Israeli pianist Dorel Golan will interpret the first Concerto by Mendelssohn – and they’ll team up to perform the concerto for two pianos by Mozart. The program will be led by I Musici music director Yuli Turovsky. Click here for more info.  
 
While the National Arts Centre Orchestra actually opened its season in the pit for Opera Lyra’s production of The Magic Flute, the orchestra will formally open its season with the five-concert Romantic Revolution Festival, September 23-October 1.  Four of five festival programs will be led by NACO Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, and concerts will feature guest artists Gil Shaham, Angela Cheng, Lynn Harrell and Katherine Chi, along with guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni.  The festival has been designed as a n exploration of the pivotal period in artistic and musical history that marked the emergence of Romanticism, and will range from Haydn to Schumann and Verdi. Each concert opens with a capella musical selections sung by the Cantata Singers of Ottawa led by director Michael Zaugg, and there will also be pre-concert lectures, and a post-concert talkback.  Click here for more info.