Orchestras Canada

Last Thursday night, at the close of a performance of Handel’s Hercules, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir announced the launch of a new record label: Tafelmusik Media. Speaking about the initiative, Tafelmusik’s music director Jeanne Lamon said, “the launch of Tafelmusik Media is such an exciting moment in our 34-year history because recording has [...]

Read the full story

January 28 to February 3, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presents its 21st annual New Music Festival (NMF) – this year focusing on music from Nordic cultures, particularly Iceland. The festival is a typically intrepid NMF mix, marrying outstanding local and Canadian artists with distinguished international visitors. Here’s a quick rundown: Local stars: the Winnipeg Symphony [...]

Read the full story

On Sunday, January 29 at 2:30 p.m., the Niagara Symphony presents its neat solution to an artist cancellation: hire his twin brother, instead. The NSA had originally scheduled a program that would be led by its music director, Bradley Thachuk, and also feature him as guitar soloist. Plagued by a recurrence of tendinitis, Maestro Thachuk [...]

Read the full story

It’s a little-known fact that Orchestras Canada hosts listservs for a number of constituent groups within our membership, as a way of better linking people who do the same kinds of jobs at orchestras right across the country. Users can pose questions, answer questions, share useful resources, and stay in touch with a range of [...]

Read the full story

On Saturday, 28 January, the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières – led by Music Director Jacques Lacombe – will give the first-ever Canadian performance of Kurt Weill’s Symphony No. 1, on a program of music by Weill, Hetu, and Gershwin, featuring the singer Fabiola Toupin. Intriguingly, the program is sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation, and [...]

Read the full story

On Saturday, March 3, the Counterpoint Community Orchestra and the Dickens Fellowship Toronto Branch are partnering to present a program entitled Dickens with a Twist: a Tribute to Charles Dickens, Novelist, Social Reformer, Philanthropist on the Occasion of the 200th Anniversary of his Birth. The varied program, led by CCO music director Taras Kowalczuk, runs [...]

Read the full story

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra has just received a donation of $1 million from longtime CPO supporters, John and Ethelene (Eddie) Gareau. Inspired by the 36-year service and musical leadership of the CPO’s former Concertmaster, Cenek Vrba (who retired in May 2011), the gift is directed to the CPO Foundation, and will be recognized through naming [...]

Read the full story

This weekend, January 28 and 29, jazz pianist Ron Davis, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and its music director, John Morris Russell, embark on a collaboration that will feature two performances and culminate in a CD recording. The project, titled SymphRonica, is jazz piano and symphony orchestra fused together to create what Davis calls, “a stunning [...]

Read the full story

Calling All Oboists: The Sony Music Foundation is hosting the 10th International Oboe Competition of Japan in September 2012 – and applications will be accepted February 1-April 2, 2012. It’s a prestigious competition: past prize winners are now serving as principal oboists of such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Deutsche [...]

Read the full story

Taron Cochrane, Creative Marketing & Promotions Manager at the Regina Symphony Orchestra, is responsible for the RSO’s highly engaging social media presence – and he was recently featured in a podcast entitled “Nothing’s impossible for the Regina Symphony”. You can listen to Taron’s thoughts here. Bryan Croft, who has served as general manager of the [...]

Read the full story