Orchestras Canada

November 22 to December 3, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra presents Virtuosity! A Festival of Extreme Classics. As befits any orchestral festival worthy of the name, the CPO event (intriguingly sponsored by The Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary) blends orchestral performances, distinguished Canadian and international soloists, lectures, a film, and plenty of pre- and post-concert activity as well. Many of the festival activities are taking place in concert with the Classical Calgary partnership, a consortium that includes Honens International Piano Competition, Mount Royal Conservatory, Irene Besse Keyboards Ltd, the National Music Centre, Tourism Calgary, Fairmont Palliser and Downtown Calgary.

Featured soloists include no fewer than six laureates of the Honens Competition, Calgary’s own Jan Lisiecki, soprano Erin Wall, guitarist Yamandu Costa, and violinists Yi-Jia Hou and Nina Feng. Major works include Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Liszt’s Hexaméron. For more information about the festival, and a detailed schedule, please visit cpo-live.com.

November 9 and 10, the National Arts Centre Orchestra – led by guest conductor Julian Kuerti, and featuring pianist Jan Lisiecki – will give the Ottawa performances of a program they’ll be repeating during their Atlantic Canada Tour, which runs from November 13-25. The program includes not only Mozart’s Piano Concerto #20 and Brahms’s Symphony #1, but also the world premiere of a NACO commission by John Estacio, entitled Brio: Toccata and Fantasy for Orchestra.

Both programs will be preceded by a pre-concert chat, featuring Maclean’s writer Paul Wells and composer John Estacio.

While not every season opening can be as spectacular as that of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s launch of the new Maison symphonique last week, many Canadian orchestras are launching their 2011-12 seasons with particular flair. Here are a few highlights.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra, led by special guest Peter Oundjian, presented a free outdoor concert of Hope and Remembrance, starting at 8:46 a.m. on Sunday, September 11. The program – which included works by Mozart, Barber, Elgar and Brahms – was designed to “ honour every person affected on that terrible day, including all military and civilian personnel who have displayed great courage over the past decade.”

The Orchestre symphonique de Québec launches its 110th season tonight – 14 September – with a program that features OSQ associate artist Alain Lefèvre and guest conductor Rossen Milanov, in works by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Dvořák. In honour of the 40th anniversary of the Grand Théâtre de Québec, the opening festivities also include a simultaneous outdoor screening of the concert, plus pre-concert talk, plus a special intermission performance on an outdoor stage by M. Lefèvre of the solo piano version of Andre Mathieu’s Concerto de Québec.

On Saturday, September 17 the Regina Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2011-12 season with an Opening Night Gala and Concert – an event that combines music and fundraising in grand style. The Gala marks the kick-off of the new RSO Education & Outreach Fund, and the concert features the startlingly gifted teenage piano virtuoso Jan Lisiecki in a program that includes music by Chopin, Brahms and the world premiere of a new work by Regina composer, Matthew McLellan.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 OSM Standard Life Competition, announced early last week.  The grand prize winner was Alberta pianist Jan Lisiecki; other first prize  winners included pianist Tristan Longval and percussionist Benjamin Duinker.

Congratulations also to Bernard Labadie, winner of this year’s Prix d’excellence des arts et de la culture, presented by the Fondation de l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec.  The award was presented by provincial minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women, and during the ceremony, Maestro Labadie was cited for his exceptional contribution to the city’s and the province’s musical landscape since he founded Les Violons du Roy over twenty-five years ago.