Orchestras Canada

Conductor Alain Trudel, already serving as the music director of Orchestra London and the Orchestre symphonique de Laval and conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, has just been announced as the new conductor of the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, effective September 2012. Speaking about the appointment, Orchestra London executive director Joe Swan noted that the orchestra has always had a good relationship with the University of Western Ontario, “but this will give us a much deeper working relationship. So we’re delighted about it.”

The Regina Symphony Orchestra has announced a career transition for its long-time and well-loved concertmaster Eduard Minevich. After 13 years with the orchestra (as well as 10, 11 and 6 years each as concertmaster with the KW Symphony, Orchestra London and the Leningrad Concert Orchestra respectively), Minevich will step down as RSO concertmaster at the end of the 2011-12 season – but he will stay on with the organization, leading its new Piapot project (through which he’s teaching violin to young students, arranging music and performing as soloist at the Piapot First Nation) and exploring opportunities to expand the RSO’s education programs into more communities in future seasons.

Congratulations to Toronto artist manager Ann Summers Dossena, who has been awarded the Manager of the Year Award at the annual Awards Ceremony and Luncheon of NAPAMA – the North American Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents – and APAP – the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The presentation was made by Robert Baird, Toronto artist manager and president of NAPAMA, at the Hilton New York. From her 1958 start in New York, through her years in Rome (1968-1977) to her Toronto base since 1977, Ann Summers Dossena has been a tireless advocate for the arts for more than five decades.

The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, Market Hall, and the Kawartha Youth Orchestra have named conductor Dina Gilbert as RBC Emerging Artist for 2012, under a newly created emerging artist apprenticeship program. Ms Gilbert holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Université de Montréal. The program is a collaboration between three community arts partners, Market Hall, the Kawartha Youth Orchestra and Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. Working under the guidance of PSO and KYO music director Michael Newnham, Ms Gilbert will receive an intensive period of mentoring and gain insight into the role played by a conductor and music director of community and youth orchestras.

A few weeks ago, we remarked on the role that chamber ensembles play in many Canadian orchestras’ community engagement and artistic programs. This week, we received notice about a series being given by small ensembles from the Orchestre symphonique de Laval.

The series kicks off on November 16 with a 75-minute program that traces the development of the string quartet through performance and talk. It features permanent members of the OSL, Marie-Josée Arpin and Valérie Belzile (violins), Julie Dupras (viola) and Jeanne de Chantal Marcil (cello). Repertoire runs from Mozart to Jose Evangelista, and the concert takes place at the Maison des Arts in Laval. For more information, please visit osl.qc.ca.

AUDITIONS

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Section Cello (National)/Violoncelle de section (national)
Auditions: May 4 mai 2011

Orchestre symphonique de Laval
Violon solo
Violon I de section (2 postes à combler)
Date limite/Application Deadline: March 21 mars 2011

The Orchestre symphonique de Laval will be giving three performances at Mondial Choral – an international celebration of the choral arts in all their variety – tonight (June 18) through June 21. The orchestra will give two concerts under the leadership of Music Director Alain Trudel, June 18 (in a program that features excerpts from Carmina Burana, as well as works by Wagner, Barber, Mussorgsky and Sibelius) and June 20 (in a program celebrating the artistry of tenor Marc Hervieux). Both concerts take place at the outdoor stage at l’Espace Montmorency. On June 21, the strings of the orchestra move inside for a concert of music by Estonian mystic Arvo Part, featuring the Elora Festival Singers and their conductor Noel Edison. That concert takes place at the Sainte-Rose-de-Lima Church in Laval. For more information, please visit the festival’s website here.

The Orchestre symphonique de Laval (under the leadership of Music Director Alain Trudel) has just announced its 25th anniversary season, and it’s a rich one!  Highlights include Alain Lefèvre’s performance of André Mathieu’s Piano Concerto No. 4, the world premiere of a new work by Tim Brady and Michel Rivard, and a return appearance in an all-Brahms program by former music director Jean-François Rivest.  The season will also mark the introduction of a new two-concert chamber music series featuring members of the orchestra.  For more information, please visit  here.

The Orchestre symphonique de Laval will present an intriguing program on January 27, in celebration of Mozart’s birthday and stellar young talent!  The orchestra, under the leadership of Alain Trudel, has invited a quartet of young soloists from the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and a massed choir made up of the Petits Chanteurs de Laval and the Voix Boreales (Philippe Ostiguy, music director) for a program that includes Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Requiem, K. 626, along with the world premiere of a new piece by OSL Composer in Residence Tim Brady, entitled Requiem 21.5. 

The concert takes place at 8 p.m. at the salle André-Mathieu in Laval.

For more information, you can visit the orchestra’s website here.

A number of Quebec orchestras and ensembles will be highlighting their new seasons through participation in Les Journées de la Culture, from September 25-27.  Les Journées are a project of Culture pour tous, an organization whose mission is to contribute to the democratization of culture in Quebec and which “arose from the firm conviction that the arts and culture are at the heart of Quebec’s social and economic development”.

From our quick scan of the website, we’ve identified the following orchestras as taking part in this year’s event:

• Les Violons du Roy (in collaboration with the Canadian Institute of Quebec) will present a free concert at the Gabrielle-Roy Library at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, under the leadership of their new resident conductor Eric Paetkau;
• The Orchestre symphonique de Laval will present an open dress rehearsal, led by music director Alain Trudel, featuring piano soloist Anton Kuerti on Sunday from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Chapelle de l’école secondaire Mont-de-La Salle in Laval;
• The Orchestre symphonique de jeunes Philippe Filion will present an open rehearsal and opportunity for discussion with the conductor and young musicians, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Centre des Arts in Shawinigan;
• The Orchestre symphonique de Lévis will present a concert with commentary entitled  entitled Mozart’s Requiem Demystified, Sunday from 2-3:30 p.m. at Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire in Lévis;
• The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne will present a reading of a new work by Denys Boulian, led by music director Lorraine Vaillancourt at Montreal’s Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur, Saturday from 2-5 p.m.

For more information about this remarkable, province-wide event, please click here.