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.

Later this month – March 14 and 21 – the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra will welcome 18 choirs from elementary schools in Red Deer and elsewhere in Central Alberta to its stage as part of its 13th annual Choir Kids program, the orchestra’s signature education event. The orchestra, led by music director (and skilled arranger) Claude Lapalme will accompany each choir in two selections, orchestrated by Maestro Lapalme, and all four programs will culminate in a massed choir performance of “Dreams Children Dream”. (Oh, we can just imagine the line-ups backstage!)

As Labour Day approaches, the excitement of new seasons starts to build. This week, three launch announcements:

The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra in Scarborough ON has announced its 25th anniversary season. Music Director Norman-Illis Reintamm will lead an 8-concert season that includes such highlights as the Finale of the Clifford Poole Piano Competition, a concert with the Canadian Jazz Quartet, a performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Peterborough Singers and Pax Christi Chorale, and Mahler‘s 5th Symphony. The CBSO maintains a strong commitment to community, working in local schools and with up-and-coming musicians. cathedralbluffs.com

The Red Deer (AB) Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 24th season in 2010-11 – and its 20th anniversary with Music Director Claude Lapalme. In tribute, the program will include some of the very first pieces that Maestro Lapalme conducted with the orchestra 20 years ago, the premiere of a new work by the Maestro, and a very special performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Also included in the RDSO season is a 3-concert Chamber Series, featuring special guests and of course, musicians of the RDSO. For more information about the orchestra, please visit their website at reddeersymphony.com

The Timmins (ON) Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2010-11 season, a season that coincides with the 10th anniversary of Music Director Matthew Jones. Once again, the “other” TSO (that’s the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) opens the Timmins orchestra’s season, as part of its commitment to regular touring in Northern Ontario – and then the hometown Timmins group takes over with six orchestral concerts and a chamber series as well. Programming highlights include a world premier by local composer Luc Arsenault, a program made up entirely of audience favourites, and solo opportunities throughout the season for a number of the orchestra’s principal musicians, who also teach at the orchestra’s Geoffrey James Lee School of Music.