Orchestras Canada

Last Saturday – February 18 – the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra made musical history by inviting Acadian hiphop group Radio Radio to perform with them in a gala fundraising performance in Moncton. The program was an enthusiastically-received mash-up of Radio Radio material (arranged for the group and orchestra by Chris Palmer, Richard Kidd and NBYO conductor Antonio Delgado) and such orchestral classics as Bizet’s Suite from Carmen, Tchaikovksy’s Romeo and Juliet, and the William Tell Overture. Over 1400 people attended, and many more people in Atlantic Canada will be able to experience the event thanks to Bell Aliant and Radio Canada. The former filmed it for streaming on community television and the latter recorded the concert for regional broadcast.

And the concert wasn’t the only highlight of the NBYO’s busy weekend: the NBYO and Sistema NB made good use of their time in Moncton by hosting sectional and orchestral workshops for almost 100 young musicians in the area, members of local school bands, and two young participants in Sistema NB made their debut with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.

February 25-29, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Institute for Orchestral Studies will host a workshop for emerging professional and pre-professional Canadian conductors. The workshop, led by conductor and teacher Kenneth Kiesler is designed to complement the conducting program at the NAC’s Summer Music Institute.

Five conductors will take part in the program: Antonio Delgado (trained through Venezuala’s renowned El Sistema, and, since 2010, music director of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and Sistema NB), Nadège Foofat (leader of the Esopus Chamber Orchestra of upper New York State, and a graduate of Juilliard and Yale), Dina Gilbert (founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Arkea, a Montreal-based chamber orchestra, assistant conductor of the Peterborough Symphony and Kawartha Youth Orchestra, and trained at the Université de Montréal), Philippe Ménard (Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Musiciens Étudiants de Montréal, and a graduate of the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal), and Lucas Waldin (resident conductor with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music).

Late last week, Mme Sophie Galaise, Directrice generale of the Orchestre symphonique de Quebec, was recognized as a “Woman of Distinction” in the field of arts and culture by the YWCA of Quebec at their annual Gala. She was cited for her track record of developing and transforming the organizations for which she has worked, the positive impact she has had in the cultural milieu, and her unique combination of business acumen and sensitivity to music and the arts – and, in particular, the numerous accomplishments of the OSQ since her arrival in 2007. Congratulations!

The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra has announced the appointment of Antonio Delgado as its new Resident Conductor, effective September 2010. Maestro Delgado, himself a product of the highly regarded El Sistema of Venezuala, will play a joint role, conducting the NBYO Senior Orchestra, and also driving the growth of the Sistema movement in New Brunswick, which officially launched in Moncton earlier this year. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he was most recently a conductor with the world famous Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, (National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela). He has conducted every major orchestra in Venezuela, has worked in Ecuador and Puerto Rico and has been a guest conductor in Italy, Cuba, Guatemala, and Panama. In 2006 he was appointed the Music Director of the National Theatre “Teresa Carreño”, where he conducted major Venezuelan professional orchestras in Symphonic concerts, Ballets, and Operas. He began in the National System’s (El Sistema) “Nucleo La Rinconada”, where he studied violin and music theory.

Three years ago, the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra launched a guest conductor program, “to inspire and develop talent within the youth orchestra”.  This year, with the launch of Sistema New Brunswick and the opening of the NBYO’s first Sistema Centre in Moncton, the NBYO invited a guest conductor (and product of the famed El Sistema program) from Venezuela to lead them, and it’s not just a fly-in weekend visit, either!  Maestro Antonio Delgado is spending the entire month of January with the NBYO and Sistema New Brunswick, teaching and mentoring at the Centre, leading youth orchestra rehearsals and sharing the podium with NBYO music director Dr. James Mark in concert, as well. 

Maestro Delgado has conducted every major orchestra in Venezuela, and has worked in Ecuador and Puerto Rico. Currently, he is in charge of the Musical Direction of the National Theatre “Teresa Carreño“, where he conducts the major Venezuelan orchestras in Symphonic concerts, Ballets, and Operas.

Another highlight of the guest-conducted concert?  The musicians of the NBYO were joined on stage by all thirteen members of the NBYO faculty, including David Adams and Paul Campbell, violin; Chris Buckley, viola; Sonja Adams, cello; Andrew Miller, bass; Karin Aurell, flute; Belinda Code, oboe; Jean-Guy Boisvert, clarinet; Robert Lewis, bassoon; James Code, horn; Richard Gibson, trumpet; Richard Kidd, trombone; tuba; and Michel Deschênes, percussion.

For more information about the NBYO, please visit their website here.