Orchestras Canada

The Vancouver Symphony has announced its 2011-12 season, its twelfth under the leadership of music director Bramwell Tovey. It’s a busy season that sees the orchestra performing in fourteen different venues in the Lower Mainland, including its home at the Orpheum. New or unusual works on the season include performances of Korngold’s violin concerto, a concert version of Bramwell Tovey and John Murrell’s new opera, The Inventor, and John Ireland’s Piano Concerto – along with a full array of standard orchestral classics, pops, family and educational programs. Featured soloists on the season include soprano Renee Fleming, pianists Lang Lang and Peter Serkin, and young Canadians Jan Lisiecki and Nicki Yanovsky. For more information, please visit www.vancouversymphony.ca.

Quebec’s intrepid Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec has launched its 2011-12 season under the leadership of music director Bernard Labadie and principal guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni. The season features twenty-seven different programs, to be performed at home in Quebec and Montreal, nationally and internationally. Highlights include a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion, with Ian Bostridge as the Evangelist, a program featuring soprano Karina Gauvin in arias by Porpora and Mozart, and a visit by guest leader Jeanne Lamon, music director of Toronto’s Tafelmusik. In the fall, the orchestra will undertake a two week European tour, with performances in the Netherlands, Switzerland and France; in early 2012, they will perform a 10-concert North American tour with recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger, and in the spring, the orchestra and choir will travel to New York’s Carnegie Hall for a repeat performance of the St. John Passion. As well, the orchestra will release a pair of recordings – one with pianist Alexandre Tharaud (who is, not coincidentally, soloist for this year’s European tour), and the second with contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux. The latter recording represents the orchestra’s first collaboration with the Naïve label of France. www.violonsduroy.com

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony announced its 11-12 season recently, its fifth under the direction of Edwin Outwater. Highlights range from a Mozart Festival to the Canadian premiere of a co-commissioned work by Nico Muhly, and the program also includes creative collaborations with the Institute for Quantum Computing, such soloists as André Laplante, Sara Davis Buechner, the Canadian Brass, Gryphon Trio, and Sultans of String. As well, the orchestra will return to the SONY Centre for several performances next season, and will introduce a weekend Matinée Series which features repeat performances of outstanding classical and pops programs. kwsymphony.ca

The National Arts Centre has announced the renewal of Maestro Pinchas Zukerman’s contract as the NAC Orchestra’s Music Director for four more years, to August 31, 2015.  The decision to renew Mr. Zukerman’s contract was unanimously approved by the National Arts Centre Board of Trustees, on the recommendation of NAC President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Herrndorf.  In a statement Mr. Herrndorf said, “Pinchas Zukerman’s gift of music has delighted audiences across Canada and internationally. For more than a decade the National Arts Centre has benefitted from his leadership on the podium, his extraordinary artistry as a soloist, and his deep commitment to music education. We are thrilled this relationship will continue.”

Congratulations to Bernard Labadie, music director of Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec, who will make his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra this weekend in Bach‘s St. Matthew Passion.  He will not be the only Canadian on stage, either:  celebrated contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux will be one of the six soloists for these performances.

Once the cascade of season launches begins, it can’t be stopped!  This week, we heard from the following orchestras about their plans for the 2010-11 season

Orchestre symphonique de Montreal:  Next season marks the final year for the OSM in its long-time venue, the salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts – and it’s a big one.  The season opens with a major outdoor concert (led by music director Kent Nagano) that features Cirque Éloize, Luck Mervil, and Dany Laferrière, all directed by Denis Bouchard – and will include a concert version of Das Rheingold, a program on Beethoven’s celebration of nature featuring David Suzuki, Mahler and Dutilleux cycles, and such guest artists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Salvatore Accardo, Midori, June Anderson, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Yefim Bronfman, Alain Lefèvre, André Laplante, Nikolai Lugansky, Peter Serkin,  Mischa Maisky, Mikhaïl Pletnev, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Roger Norrington and others.  For more information, please visit here.

Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec:  The noted chamber orchestra and choir celebrate their 27th season under the direction of Bernard Labadie, and tenth season with principal guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni.  Their Quebec season consists of 26 concerts over the course of the season, and presents both baroque and classical-era works (principally under the direction of M. Labadie) and romantic and contemporary repertoire (led by M. Zeitouni), featuring emerging and established Canadian and international soloists.  Concerts take place at the capital city’s lovely Palais Montcalm.