Orchestras Canada

Congratulations to the young winners of the 28th annual Concours de l’Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivieres : grand prize winner, flutist Ariane Brisson, and second place winners, clarinettist Éric Abramovitz and percussionist Charles-Alexis Côté (the latter also awarded the People’s Choice award).

Congratulations are also due to eight young classical or jazz musicians who will be taking part in “My First NAC”, a free concert in the Studio of the National Arts Centre on May 29. They’ve all been touched by one or more of the NAC’s artist training programs (from the Manhattan on the Rideau masterclasses, ‘Musically Speaking’ pre-show chats and concerts, Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra, the Summer Music Institute Young Artists Program, to the Debut Series), and each will be awarded a $1,000 Astral Artist Prize. The young performers are Matthew Chalmers, jazz vibraphone/drums; Timothy Chooi, violin; Lara Deutsch, flute; Aidan Ferguson, mezzo-soprano; Emilie Grimes, viola; Alexander Malikov, piano; Simon Millerd, jazz trumpet; and Dan Reynolds, jazz piano.

Orchestra Toronto has announced the winner of the 2012 Marta Hidy Prize: fifteen-year-old cellist Daniel Hass of Toronto. The prize is named for the Canadian violinist Marta Hidy, whose legacy as a solo artist, orchestral and chamber musician, conductor, teacher and music professor it honours. Daniel is a student of David Hetherington, and is principal cellist of both the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Academy Chamber Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The National Youth Orchestra of Canada has announced its Composer-in-Residence for 2012 : James O’Callaghan. Mr. O’Callaghan, who was also selected for the Canadian League of Composers/Canadian Music Centre’s inaugural Composer Mentoring Project in 2011, will compose an original work for the NYOC’s 2013 North American tour.

After an emotional series of farewell concerts, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra has named departing Music Director John Morris Russell as its Conductor Laureate, the first time in the orchestra’s 65-year history when that title has been awarded. Speaking about the appointment, Maestro Russell said “I am deeply honoured to receive this title and look forward with joy and affection to many years of great music making to come.”

From late February until mid-April, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra will give a total of 20 performances of two distinct programs in schools throughout Windsor-Essex – two narrated in French, the remainder in English. The programs have been created specifically for targeted grade ranges and feature an education guide with background information and activities tied to the Ontario curriculum. Wild & Wacky Woodwinds, for Grades K-3, is part of a four-year cycle that features a different family of instruments each year. Students attending these performances will hear music that features a variety of woodwind instruments, including Prokofiev’s classic Peter and the Wolf. Canadian Music, Eh?, for grades 4-6, highlights Canadian music from the drumming traditions of the First Nations to a piece of orchestral music written by a student from Walkerville Collegiate Institute.

To complement and extend the concert experience, the WSO has partnered (for the second year in a row) with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through The Arts (LTTA) program. Award-winning LTTA puppeteer Matthew Romain has been working with Grades 3 & 4 classes from six different schools since November to create a puppet show for Peter and the Wolf that will be performed for selected Wild & Wacky Woodwinds concert dates.

Canadian Music, Eh? features bass-baritone Adam Iannetta along with choirs from the French Catholic school board. Together, they’ll sing a Windsor-Essex folk medley featuring songs celebrating the history of Windsor/Essex County. As well, the program will include a demonstration of First Nations drumming traditions, and the performance of a work by Eric Swiatoschik, a student at Walkerville Collegiate Institute and a member of the Windsor Symphony Youth Orchestra.

This Sunday night, February 26, Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra presents a concert inspired by man’s search for light and meaning at Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The program includes the Toronto premiere of Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht! for mezzo-soprano, ensemble and tape, Scelsi’s Ohoi for 16 strings, John Rea’s Zefiro Torna, and Schnittke’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, featuring Toronto Symphony Orchestra principal violist Teng Li. Alex Pauk conducts. For more information about the Esprit Orchestra, please visit espritorchestra.com.

The last few weeks have been good ones for Orchestras Canada members, and we’d like to acknowledge some key accomplishments and landmarks.

Congratulations to the Royal Conservatory of Music, which kicked off its 125th year of operation on November 20th. Speaking about the milestone, RCM President Dr. Peter Simon noted that, ““the broad-based programs of The Royal Conservatory support Canadian education and, ultimately, Canadian innovation. The Conservatory provides a structured system of learning that develops musical literacy, professional training for Canada’s most gifted young artists, and pioneering learning solutions. Over 125 years it has been the vision of The Royal Conservatory to weave these programs into the very fabric of society, based on our conviction that the arts are our greatest tools for learning, for fostering creativity and personal fulfillment, and for contributing to stronger and more productive societies.”
For more information about The Royal Conservatory and its programs, please visit rcmusic.ca.

We’d also like to acknowledge the many Orchestras Canada members who are finalists for the 15th annual Prix Opus, presented by the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM). The awards – which recognize outstanding concerts, events, musical works and writing about music during the 2010-11 season – will be presented January 29 at the Salle Bourgie at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. The evening will also include a special tribute to Maestro Yuli Turovsky, founder of I Musici de Montreal.

Finalists of note from our membership include:

Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (multiple categories)
Quatuor Molinari (multiple categories)
Les Violons du Roy
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal (multiple categories)
Orchestre symphonique de Québec (multiple categories)
Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières
Orchestre Métropolitain
Tim Brady/Bradyworks

For more information about the Prix Opus – and to learn more about the nomination categories and nominees – please visit cqm.qc.ca (some pages are available only in French).

At its concert on November 30, Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra will launch its latest recording, Maki Ishii Live. The new recording features the orchestra (led by music director Alex Pauk) and percussionist Ryan Scott – and the concert will include one of the works on the CD, South – Fire – Summer, described as “a colossal multi-percussion and marimba solo with sparse orchestral accompaniment, which mounts to a powerful, climactic finale.”

The program (which takes place at Koerner Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music) will also include Valentin Silvestrov’s Postludium, Ana Sokolovic’s Nine Proverbs, and Rocanã by Unsuk Chin.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra wrote to let us know that they’ve been sending small ensembles from the orchestra to nursery and elementary schools this year, with 41 schools visited in four days in November, and two more weeks set aside in January and April. In all, over 12,500 young people will have the chance to hear ensembles from the WSO through these programs. “Having these programs in the nurseries and schools opens the door to the symphony world, a world that the kids can enjoy for a long time to come,” says Tanya Derksen, director of Education and Outreach at the WSO. “We’re providing them with a great opportunity to start learning early about symphonic music, the instruments and the musicians that play them, when the kids wouldn’t necessarily get that opportunity, especially at those early ages.” www.wso.ca

Meanwhile, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra has partnered with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts program on a collaborative composition project at three different Windsor-area public schools. Working with WSO music director John Morris Russell, singer/guitarist Ted Lamont and cellist Karen McClellan, grade 4 students from the schools will create a composition based on the Renaissance hit tune, L’homme armé, which will then be arranged for the orchestra by WSO Assistant Conductor Peter Wiebe and presented on education concerts later this spring. Learning Through The Arts is a program administered through the Royal Conservatory of Music and designed to bring artists of all disciplines into partnership with classroom teachers to enliven core curriculum. These grade 4 students will receive instruction in the curriculum Music Expectations integrated with the core subjects including Social Studies (Medieval times), Science (of sound), and Language Arts (writing expectations). For more information about the WSO, please visit: www.windsorsymphony.com

For more information about Learning Through the Arts, please visit www.ltta.ca

For Artist-Educators
Ontario-based musicians looking to prepare themselves to work in school and community settings might want to consider the latest offering from the Royal Conservatory of Music:  the 30-hour Artist Educator Foundations Course.  Through the support of the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario artists can enrol in the program for only $60.  The course will be offered this spring in London, Mississauga, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ottawa, North Bay, Peterborough and Toronto.  For more information, and to see if you qualify, please visit the RCM website here.

Free Training Webinars for Charities by CanadaHelps
As part of its commitment to helping charities learn more about social media and online fundraising, CanadaHelps is offering a series of free hour-long training sessions for charities in the first half of 2010. The technical requirements are relatively minor:  all you need is an internet connection and speakers (or headphones) to join in.  Topics include:  Good to Great Emails; Watch It Grow: How To Cultivate Your Email List; The Value of Being Online and How to Get Your Board Onside; Putting Social Media to Good Use: A Case Study of the Salvation Army; Five Free Online Tools Your Charity Could Use;  Measuring the Impact of Social Media and (shades of Christmas in July), Planning for the Holidays … It’s Not Too Early! To learn more and to sign up, visit their website here.