Orchestras Canada

We recently received media releases about a pair of noteworthy orchestra education programs – and we thought they were intriguing enough to share with a national audience.

The Edmonton Symphony will be performing its final school concerts of the season shortly, and the program (for grades K-3) was devised by the ESO’s resident conductor Lucas Waldin. Entitled Canadian Road Trip, the program presents a musical voyage across Canada, exploring diverse cultural traditions, landscape, flora and fauna. Jingle dancers from Ben Calf Robe School, River Cree Drummers, Métis child jiggers and Edmonton fiddler Daniel Gervais all take the stage to give students a unique and authentic experience. Students will hear and see the Women’s Jingle Dress Dance and the Red River Jig; the program also includes Aaron Copland’s Hoe-Down, John Estacio’s Farmers Symphony and ESO Resident Composer Robert Rival’s The Great Northern Diver.

The teachers’ guide takes a cross-curricular approach, applying the program themes to assist with Drama, English, Social Studies, Science and Art curricula, with activities that examine topics that run the gamut from loon lifecycles to Franco-Canadian heraldry. As well, students can find interactive games, videos and information online via DiscoverESO.com.

Down the road in Red Deer, AB, the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra presents the 14th annual version of Choir Kids, which brings together sixteen choirs from elementary schools in Red Deer and central Alberta to rehearse and perform with the orchestra April 23 and 30. Each choir will perform two specially-orchestrated selections with the orchestra, and the concerts will end with a mass choir piece. Of particular note: the orchestrations have all been prepared by RDSO music director Claude Lapalme, who is a gifted arranger as well as conductor. For more information about Choir Kids, please visit rdso.ca.

This weekend – November 11 and November 12 – the Edmonton Symphony pays tribute to local musical heroes on its Masters series. The program includes the Edmonton premiere of the late Malcolm Forsyth’s A Ballad of Canada (a work for chorus and orchestra, featuring the Richard Eaton Singers), the world premiere of a new trumpet concerto especially written for Edmonton-raised Jens Lindemann by British composer Peter Meechan, and the program is capped off with Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony.

These concerts are dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Forsyth, one of Canada’s finest composers.

September 30, October 1 and 2 mark year 2 for Culture Days and the 15th anniversary of les Journées de la Culture. Here’s a quick round up – east to west, more or less – of the orchestral activity we were able to identify via media releases from member orchestras, as well as the user-friendly websites for the movement.
Culture Days : culturedays.ca
Alberta Arts Days : culture.alberta.ca
Journées de la culture : journeesdelaculture.qc.ca

Symphony Nova Scotia: open dress rehearsal, September 30; Musical Munchkins programs at local libraries, October 1; small ensembles in various venues including the Discovery Centre October 1 and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, October 2.

Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil : chamber concert, October 2.
Orchestre symphonique de Lévis : open rehearsal with on-stage seating, October 2.
Orchestre symphonique des Basses-laurentides: meet the musicians, October 2.
Orchestre métropolitain : Sing with the Choir of the Orchestre métropolitain, October 1.

National Arts Centre Orchestra: participating in a complete weekend of Culture Days events presented by the National Arts Centre
Kingston Symphony: instrument petting zoo and open rehearsal, October 1.
Peterborough Symphony: behind the scenes at Showplace Peterborough, October 1.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra: 2 lobby concerts by a small ensemble, featuring performance, story-telling and instrument demonstrations, October 1.
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony: open rehearsal, September 30.
Stratford Symphony Orchestra : orchestra petting zoo, October 1.

Winnipeg Symphony: open dress rehearsal, September 30; small ensembles at Nuit Blanche, as part of Musicians in Healthcare, and at Steinkopf Gardens, October 1.

Saskatoon Symphony: quintet performance at Flowers by Fred, September 30; musical petting zoo, October 2.
Regina Symphony: Chamber Players performance at the Mackenzie Gallery, October 2.

Edmonton Symphony: Open dress rehearsal and tours of the Francis Winspear Centre for Music, September 30; Symphony 101 with D.T. Baker, October 1.

Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra: assorted events at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre, October 1.
Victoria Symphony: instrument petting zoo, October 1 and 2

On November 9, the Edmonton Symphony is reliving its storied youth and inviting British prog rock band Procol Harum to join them for one last performance, almost 40 years after their first joint performance. Their first collaboration in 1971 turned into the best-selling album “Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra”, which peaked at #5 on the US Billboard chart, became the first cross-over collaboration with an orchestra to sell Gold, and eventually achieved Platinum status.

In 1992, the Edmonton Symphony invited Procol Harum and the Greenwood Singers back for a 20th anniversary nostalgia-filled reunion concert. “The orchestra had been in and out of the charts worldwide with Conquistador since 1972. So we had to play it about four times in ’92. The crowds just would not go home,” recalls Gary Brooker, founder of the band.

To learn more about the event, you can visit the ESO’s website here.

The Edmonton Symphony has just launched its Piano Spectacular contest – a YouTube driven initiative through which budding Mozarts and Bartóks can post a video demonstrating why they deserve the chance for an hour on stage with the Winspear Centre’s Steinway concert grand piano.

Here’s the fine print:

A panel of judges selected by the ESO will judge video entries on, but not limited to, virtuosity, musicality, and uniqueness. The Grand Prize winner will receive one hour of scheduled time on the Winspear Centre’s Steinway piano, on stage at the Winspear Centre, at a time to be mutually agreed upon by the winner and Winspear staff. The Grand Prize winner may have up to twenty guests present during this hour of scheduled time. The Grand Prize winner will also receive a pair of tickets to our Piano Spectacular concert on March 10, 2010.

For more information or to enter, please visit the ESO’s website here.

This Sunday, the Edmonton Symphony is presenting a concert in its Sunday Showcase series that features not only a delightful program onstage (with music by Dvořák, Liszt, Arutunian, Estacio, and Falla) led by ESO Music Director Bill Eddins and resident conductor Lucas Waldin, but also a well-thought-through sequence of events in the lobby, before and after the concert.   Before the 2 p.m. concert, patrons can listen to a concert by duo flutists Chiara and Juliana Concini, as part of the ESO’s Musicians in the Making program; after the concert, “guests are invited to sit down, relax, and engage in a casual conversation with Lucas Waldin and pianist Daniel Fung in the main lobby.  Sunday Coffee Shop offers a uniquely interactive Q&A setting with our Resident Conductor and guest artists this season.”  edmontonsymphony.com