The Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil will kick off its 25th season with an outdoor concert on August 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Parc de la Cité in Saint-Hubert – a site able to accommodate up to 20,000 audience members! The concert, led by OSL music director Marc David, will feature tenor Marc Hervieux and the repertoire will celebrate classical and popular works from Quebec and the Francophonie. As a prelude to the concert, members of the Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de la Montérégie (led by Luc Chaput) will give a short performance.

The Regina Symphony Orchestra has announced details of this summer’s outdoor concert, set to take place in Wascana Park on Sunday, August 22nd. The program, led by RSO music director Victor Sawa will feature music by Mozart, Brahms, celebrated film composers, and Tchaikovsky’s inevitable 1812 Overture, as well as an ode to the Saskatchewan Roughrider centennial! It’s an action-packed day, with pre-concert family entertainment from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the RSO performance running from 5 to 7 p.m. And this year, the event is even more special than usual, as a number of sponsors have teamed up to allow the orchestra to make the concert a free admission event. For more information, please visit here.

The brass quintet of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra continues its free concert tour of Windsor and area this August, with Quintets and Sunsets, part II! You can hear the group perform favourites from Gershwin & Berlin to Mozart & Handel on August 14 at 7 p.m. at Navy Yard Park in Amherstburg, and on August 15 at 7 p.m. at Coventry Garden in Windsor East.

The University of British Columbia School of Music is presenting a special concert series in BC’s lower mainland in collaboration with the Taipei National University of the Arts from July 16 to 25. The TNUA is the most prestigious training institution for the arts in Taiwan, and has enjoyed a formal partnership with UBC since 2007. The series includes performances with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and what’s billed as a “the largest gathering of bassoonists to play on a stage in Canada!” with student bassoonists from UBC and TNUA, along with members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, and National Broadcast Orchestra, all accompanied by a choir and dancers. “This is a great event and further strengthening of our wonderfully productive and stimulating relationship. We are delighted to welcome the students and faculty to Vancouver again,” said Martin Berinbaum, Director, UBC Summer Music Institutes. For more information about the concerts, you can visit here.

And as for summer concerts in the future…earlier this month, the board of directors of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières confirmed its support for the construction of a new amphitheatre, to be built on the shores of the St. Lawrence River by the city of Trois-Rivières. Board chair Jean-Marc Vanasse underlined the central role that the facility will play in allowing the orchestra to offer a summer season; for his part, music director Jacques Lacombe highlighted his interest in turning the new facility into a venue for collaboration between the orchestra and the other performing arts. For more information, please visit here.

Meanwhile, the National Arts Centre and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra have decided not to proceed with Project Niagara, a combined effort to launch an international summer music festival in Ontario’s Niagara region. Citing “a complex economic and political environment that made it difficult to secure government capital funding for the Project”, NAC President and CEO Peter Herrndorf stated “it’s been an extraordinary labour of love for everyone involved. And we very much hope that others will follow in our footsteps to pursue this dream in the years to come.”

From Wednesday, February 17 to Friday, February 26, the National Arts Centre will enable its event patrons to have it all:  they can support their favourite athletes while continuing to attend NAC events.

How is the NAC accomplishing this?  Three ways:

• Big screen televisions in the NAC lobby will stream CTV and RDS event coverage from 6 p.m. on performance nights, and following the performance as well;
• Attendees can “go for the gold” themselves, with the NAC offering swanky gold, silver and bronze prize packages to 3 lucky event patrons;
• Audience members are encouraged to wear red, in support of the Canadian team.  (We’re hoping that lots and lots of them wear those lovely maple leaf mittens, too.)

For more information on the NAC’s promotion, please visit here.

We’ve heard from two more groups who have made it easier for their patrons to give to Haitian relief efforts:

Last weekend, Orchestra London joined a number of other London organizations in the Haitian Relief effort, accepting donations from concert patrons for the Canadian Red Cross, in support of the ongoing efforts to provide emergency relief and long-term recovery for Haitians devastated by last week’s earthquake.  “Since the earthquake we’ve received many calls from our musicians and volunteers, asking what Orchestra London can do to help in the wake of such a horrible disaster,” says Joe Swan, Managing Director for Orchestra London.  “We are counting on our audience to help us provide the Canadian Red Cross with much-needed financial support for the victims the earthquake.”

And last night, January 28, the National Arts Centre hosted a fundraising dinner hosted by the NAC’s chef Michael Blackie and no fewer than 10 colleague chefs from other Ottawa-area fine dining establishments.  Proceeds from the dinner will be donated to CARE Canada’s Haitian earthquake relief effort – and the menu looks extraordinary!

CINARS, the Conference Internationale des Arts de la Scene/International Exchange for the Performing Arts is presenting five separate workshops in Montreal on the steps needed to successfully tour internationally , in December and in February.  The December 15 and 16 workshops are devoted to Market Development and Promotion; the February 3, 4 and 5 workshops are devoted to The New Generation, Market Focus:  European Union and Market Focus:  Asia, respectively.  Workshops will be offered in both official languages, and you can learn more (and register) here.

Monday, February 1 marks the application deadline for the 2010 version of the NAC’s Young Artists Program.  Once again this year, the program offers two levels of study to 70 gifted pianists, string players and wind players from Canada and around the world.  The Senior Level program runs from June 7-26, and the Pre-college Program runs from June 14-26.  Full scholarship support is available to Senior level Canadians, and partial support is available for all others.  For more information, please visit the NAC’s website here.

Plans are shaping up for the Orchestras Canada National Orchestras Meeting, scheduled for Winnipeg Manitoba from June 20 (pre-session) to June 23, 2010.  Watch for updates on our website next week!

A tantalizing glimpse of what’s to come at the Winnipeg Symphony’s New Music Festival 2010 was revealed yesterday, with the announcement that the WSO will debut a a new work by Darren Miller, the Saskatchewan composer who won the 2010 Emerging Composer Competition of the Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region. Miller’s work will be premiered on February 10, 2010.  According to the media announcement, “the winning composition by Miller, for amma, was chosen from orchestral works submitted by emerging Canadian composers, all of whom have Prairie connections. Each entry was judged by a jury, which included the WSO’s composer-in-residence – and former Emerging Composer Competition winner – Vincent Ho.”

The National Arts Centre has just announced the most recent winners of the NAC Awards, three $75,000 packages encompassing musical commissions and residencies.  The honorees, well-known in the Canadian orchestral community are (alphabetically) John Estacio of Edmonton; Peter Paul Koprowski of Ottawa; and Ana Sokolovic of Montreal.  Each composer will be commissioned to write three works that will be performed by the NAC Orchestra over the next five years, and will help teach student musicians as part of the NAC’s Summer Music Institute.  The NAC initiative was established in 2002, with Gary Kulesha, Denys Bouliane and Alexina Louie the inaugural recipients. The goal is to present the awards about every five years in future.