Hommage prize: cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, founder and 30-year leader of I Musici de Montreal.
Concert of the year, Montreal: Shostakovich’s four last quartets, Quatuor Molinari
Concert of the year, modern/contemporary: Homage to Xenakis, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
New work of the year: Mutation, by Denis Gougeon (Nouvel Ensemble Moderne)
Concert of the Year, young audiences: On n’est jamais trop classique, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Recording of the year, romantic/post-romantic/impressionist: La tragédie de Salomé, F. Schmitt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Orchestre Métropolitain, ATMA Classique
Artistic Director of the year: Jean-François Rivest, Orford Arts Centre
Event of the year: Festival de Lanaudière, summer 2011

As regular readers of Orchestra News may recall, in recent years the WSO has explored various options for a new concert hall.

“We are grateful for this opportunity to help preserve a significant heritage building for the benefit of our community and the arts groups that perform here,” says WSO Executive Director Jeth Mill. “The Capitol Theatre will provide an attractive concert hall in which to showcase the Music Director candidates who will conduct the orchestra during our 2012-2013 concert season.”

For more information about the WSO, please visit windsorsymphony.com.

Hétu requires little to no introduction to Canadian orchestras: his catalogue includes some 80 works, including symphonies, opera, choral and chamber music, and concertos for numerous instruments. NACO’s programs this February include an orchestral concert on February 8, led by music director Pinchas Zukerman, and featuring soloists Alain Trudel (trombone) and Nathalie Paulin (soprano). The major work on the program is Hétu’s Symphony No. 3, originally commissioned by the CBC for the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. The concert on February 9 features chamber music by Hétu and his teachers, performed by leading players from NACO in assorted configurations.

For more information about the celebration, please visit nac-cna.ca.

There’s also a robust section devoted to Jacques Hétu on the NAC’s Music Timeline on-line feature, which you can access here.

S4M began in 2011, and is designed as a celebration of the quality and creativity of North American orchestras. Orchestras are invited to participate on the basis of the imagination and boldness of their proposed programs, as judged by an expert panel of evaluators. The Orchestre symphonique de Montreal closed out the 2011 festival, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will be featured in 2012.

The WSO will perform three works that have also been featured at its annual New Music Festival: Derek Charke’s 13 Inuit Throat Song Games featuring throat singer Tanya Tagaq, WSO Composer-in-Residence Vincent Ho’s The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie as well as R. Murray Schafer’s Symphony No. 1. And, of course, WSO music director Alexander Mickelthwate will conduct.

For more information, please visit springformusic.com.

The event unfolds in four stages:
1. Participants get an exclusive tour of the very first exhibit at Arsenal, dedicated to important works from a dozen or so of the foremost Montreal collections. Featured artists include Anselm Kiefer, Irene F. Whittome, Marc Séguin and Carl Bouchard.
2. Participants also take in a discussion between Mr. L. Jacques Ménard, President of BMO Financial Group, Québec, and member of the OSM board of directors, and Mr. Jean-François Bélisle, Director of Arsenal – during which they’ll discuss the business world’s involvement in the arts, and share some leadership lessons.
3. Naturally, there will be a performance by the OSM. This one will be led by Peter Eötvös (former music director of Ensemble intercontemporain) who will conduct Répons by Pierre Boulez and Stravinsky’s The Firebird, right in the exhibition space, with the audience seated all around the orchestra.
4. The evening concludes with a cocktail party, accompanied by renowned DJ Thomas H.

Created at the start of the 2009-2010 season, the OSM’s Young Ambassadors Club was established in order to offer networking activities at OSM concerts, and to develop an audience of young professionals and to expand the growth of the community that sustains the OSM. Funds raised by this gala will help support the OSM’s education activities.

For more information, please visit osm.ca.

March 2-4, we’re co-presenting a workshop designed specifically for small budget orchestras and volunteer presenters of classical music with CCI, the Ontario Presenting Network. Entitled Marketing Classical, the workshop will be led by expert marketers and trainers Lendre Kearns, Judy Harquail and Cheryl Ewing, and the costs are subsidized by the Ontario Arts Investment Fund. For more information, and to register, please click here.

And, of course, Orchestras Canada’s national meetings are taking place in Montreal from May 27-29, with the valuable help of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and HEC Montreal, along with our wonderful programming committee. This year, we’re running a parallel stream for education and community engagement staff, too. As they are confirmed, we’re posting logistics and programming details on the OC website, here.

AUDITIONS

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 always been an extremely important part of Tafelmusik’s activities. Recordings are important artistically, as they bring focus and depth to our understanding of the repertoire. There is nothing like a recording studio to expose every last detail of a performance. This meticulous attention to detail and the opportunity to capture the true spirit of the music is carried forward in our concerts. Recordings are simultaneously a permanent legacy of Tafelmusik’s music-making, and our most current calling card for future touring and recording engagements. Aside from the obvious international exposure it offers, recording on our own label gives us the chance to assume complete artistic control and make a lasting artistic statement.”

Tafelmusik Media releases will include new digital, live performance, studio CD and DVD recordings, and re-releases of previous Tafelmusik recordings from SONY Classical and CBC Records. A new Watch and Listen site has also been launched as the precursor for a future digital concert hall, which will feature live concert broadcasts and podcasts via social media and on internet television.

In its first three months – beginning March 27 – Tafelmusik Media will release a total of nine recordings. They include CD and DVD recordings of The Galileo Project created by Alison Mackay, which has been seen in Asia, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, and which will be experienced by audiences in Australia and New Zealand this spring. March re-releases include the JUNO Award-winning Bach Brandenburg Concertos (2-CD package), and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which garnered the prestigious Penguin Guide Rosette — both originally recorded for SONY Classical.
And there’s much, much more to come, both from Tafelmusik’s existing (and extensive) discography and videography, as well as newly recorded work.

Tafelmusik Media recordings will be distributed by Naxos USA throughout the Americas, and by Naxos Global Logistics in the rest of the world, as well as through iTunes, Amazon and other digital retail outlets. Tafelmusik has also created high-definition performance films in anticipation of the movement towards internet television. These films are also available on the newly-launched interactive Watch & Listen site, along with audio materials and samples of all of Tafelmusik’s new releases.

Visit tafelmusik.org to watch a short video about Tafelmusik Media.