The National Arts Centre has released details of its summer 2010 music season, featuring “something for everyone – from big names to small ensembles – as well as orchestral, choral, and chamber music concerts, opera, pops, and jazz.” The program runs from June 12 to July 28 at the NAC and a number of other venues across the city. Featured artists include jazz phenom Nikki Yanovsky, opera stars Michael Schade and Isabel Bayrakdarian, pianist Stewart Goodyear, and a host of young artists from across the country. The program includes the fourth season of ‘Orchestras in the Park’, which encompasses four free outdoor classical, opera, and pop music concerts. The concerts are presented by the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the National Capital Commission at Lebreton Flats Park at 7:30 p.m. on July 22-25. Other Summer Music highlights include Canada Day celebrations, public concerts which are part of the NAC’s Summer Music Institute (SMI), public readings of new works by Canadian composers, masterclasses, and a jazz concert. All the concerts are open to the public and many of them are free. Summer Music at the National Arts Centre is under the artistic direction of Pinchas Zukerman, Music Director of the NAC Orchestra. In addition to Maestro Zukerman, guest conductors include Jean-Philippe Tremblay, Jacques Lacombe, and Edwin Outwater. The NAC program also includes highlight performances from the Summer Music Institute, which this year brings together 71 young musicians (ages 12 to 28), 10 young conductors and 11 young composers to work with an exceptional faculty led by Maestro Pinchas Zukerman; Co-Artistic Director Patinka Kopec; Maestro Kenneth Kiesler, Director, Conductors Program; and NAC Award-winning composer Gary Kulesha, Director, Composers Program. For more information, please visit the NAC’s website here.
The Orchestre symphonique de Quebec has launched its summer 2010 season as well, and it sees the full orchestra (as well as small ensembles from its membership) performing throughout its home city, at the Port of Quebec, afloat on the St. Lawrence River, and at some of the province’s major summer music festivals. The program includes parks concerts (by the full orchestra, as well as its brass quintet), a pair of programs at the Agora of the Port of Quebec, an opera-inspired program at the Festival de Lanaudière, a performance at the Inaugural Le Festival d’été de Québec à New Richmond featuring legendary chanteuse Ginette Reno, a pair of programs at Domaine Forget (including its gala opening performance), and participation in a series of Sunday evening dinner cruises throughout July and August. Conductors for the summer concerts include former OSQ resident conductor Richard Lee (now resident conductor with the Winnipeg Symphony), current resident conductor Airat Ichmouratov, Stephane Laforest, Emmanuel Vilaume, and – of course – OSQ music director Yoav Talmi. For more information about the program, please visit the OSQ’s website here.
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has announced its 9th annual Baroque Summer Institute and 2nd annual Baroque Summer Festival, running from May 28 to June 20. The Institute sees pre-professional and professional musicians from around the world gathering in Toronto for an advanced training program led by some of the world’s best musicians in the field of baroque performance, and the Festival includes a number of free concerts in different venues around Toronto, visits to local schools, and family-friendly workshops at the Ontario Science Centre. For more information about the Festival and the Institute, please visit the orchestra’s website here.
