Orchestras Canada

On Saturday, May 12, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra gives the long-awaited public premiere of a new work for narrator and orchestra, based on a beloved Canadian story. It’s Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater, with music by Abigail Richardson, and the work (which debuted for school audiences in April) will get its public debut on the TSO’s Young People’s Concert series. The performances include screens that the whole audience will be able to view, projecting Sheldon Cohen’s illustrations from the book and dazzling images of our Canadian landscape. Alain Trudel conducts, Roch Carrier himself narrates, and Ken Dryden will host.

The new work is a joint commission between the TSO, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

AUDITIONS

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Principal Trombone / Trombone solo
Application deadline/Date limite : May 14 mai 2012

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Section Viola / Alto de section
Application deadline/Date limite : May 7 mai 2012

ADMINISTRATIVE / ADMINISTRATIFS

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
TSYO Manager & Education Assistant
Application deadline/Date limite : April 19 avril 2012

AUDITIONS

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Substitute/Extra Violins
Application deadline/Date limite : May 1 mai 2012

Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières
Principal Percussion / Percussion solo
Section Violin I / Violon I de section
Application deadline/Date limite : May 12 mai 2012

Congratulations to Nathan Brock, currently assistant conductor of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, who was awarded the Ontario Arts Council’s Heinz Unger Award at a concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last Saturday evening. Speaking about his unique qualifications for this year’s award, the jury noted “Nathan is at an exciting stage in his career, and exhibits tremendous talent and promise. He has also demonstrated a lifelong interest in orchestral music. His strong commitment to growth and excellence in the art of conducting made him the ideal choice for the Heinz Unger Award.” The award is presented every second year to an outstanding early- or mid-career Canadian conductor, and is administered by the Ontario Arts Council.

We’d also like to convey congratulations to Tricia Baldwin, Managing Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Erika Beatty, CEO of Symphony Nova Scotia. They each won a 2012 John Hobday Award for Arts Administration, through the Canada Council for the Arts. Ms. Baldwin will use her award for professional development to travel to two international conferences and interview world leaders who are bringing music to millions through live, recorded and internet-streamed processes. Afterwards, she will present her findings at an Orchestras Canada conference and apply her new knowledge in her work as Managing Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir. Ms. Beatty will use her award to be mentored by Pierre Lamoureux, owner of Cinemusica / FogoLabs, one of the top concert film producers in the world. Her goal is to explore how digital and emerging technologies can be used to capture and communicate the beauty and intensity of the performing arts to Canadian and international audiences. Mr. Lamoureux has agreed to share the essentials of his successful commercial business model, including planning, filming and post-production work for clients as varied as opera and ballet companies, to touring bands and documentary productions.

AUDITIONS

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
2nd/Associate Principal Trombone (one position)
Application deadline/Date limite : April 6 avril 2012

ADMINISTRATIVE / ADMINISTRATIFS

Concours Musical International de Montréal / Jeunesses Musicales du Canada
Directeur général et artistique
Application deadline/Date limite : April 6 avril 2012

Sistema NB
Center Director / Directeur ou directrice du centre
Application deadline/Date limite : April 15 avril 2012

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Director of Development
Application deadline/Date limite : April 3 avril 2012

TEACHING/ ENSEIGNANT(E)S

Sistema NB
Music Teachers / Professeurs de musique
Application deadline/Date limite : April 15 avril 2012

Last week, the National Arts Centre Orchestra live-streamed its 2012-13 season launch – and by all accounts, it was a stellar affair. The season marks Pinchas Zukerman’s 14th as music director – and it’s action packed! Highlights include a Beethoven festival, a tour of northern Canada, two world premieres by Peter Paul Koprowski and Ana Sokolovic, an all-Strauss program, presented in partnership with Montreal’s L’Orchestre Métropolitain (and led by that orchestra’s popular Maestro, Yannick Nézet-Séguin), chamber concerts, children’s concerts, pops performances, solo recitals, and a pair of guest orchestras: Les Violons du Roy and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. For more information, please visit nac-cna.ca.

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 Toronto Symphony Orchestra recently announced its 91st season – a typically varied and busy season for the orchestra under music director Peter Oundjian. Highlights include an all-Spanish cast performing in-concert Falla’s opera La vida breve; Peter Lieberson’s song cycles setting to music poems by Pablo Neruda; and the world premiere of an explicitly “Toronto” symphony by MIT composer Todd Machover, crowd-sourced and inspired by Toronto sounds. In addition, the TSO welcomes Steven Reineke as Principal Pops Conductor and opened a call for applications for a Resident Conductor and Affiliate Composer.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir recently announced its 2012-13 season. Highlights include North American tours for the multi-media creations The Galileo Project and House of Dreams, a number of debuting guest artists, an extended reach through the Tafelmusik Media, and a consistent presence in the greater Toronto area through performance and education initiatives. Speaking about the season, Music Director Jeanne Lamon said, “I feel we are at an all-time high with the new projects and artistic collaborations we have been creating. The orchestra is enjoying tremendous success on the national and international stage. Our recording projects have been creative and stimulating, as has our exploration of broader repertoire. The recent explosion of activity has created a number of fascinating opportunities for our orchestra and choir, and ones that we are all thoroughly enjoying!”

As living proof that there’s no rest for the wicked, we’ve been busy at Orchestras Canada in recent weeks! Here’s a quick update on a few of the things that we’ve been working on.

Youth Orchestra Task Force: Recruitment is complete, and we’re now working on scheduling the first meeting of a new task force that will study the current state and needs of Canadian youth orchestras. We are grateful to the following people for stepping forward to serve on the task force, east to west:
Ken MacLeod, New Brunswick Youth Orchestra (chair)
Louise Richard, Association des orchestres de jeunes du Quebec
John Gomez, Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy
Diana Weir, Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
Paul Dornian, Mount Royal Conservatory
Sheila Redhead, Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra

Comparative Reports for 2010-11: Do you love orchestra data? If so, we have a treat for you. With the co-operation of 65 Canadian orchestras, from small to huge, OC’s intrepid statistician, C. Stephen Smith, has completed work on this year’s Comparative Report – a compendium of contextual, financial and audience data from the 2010-11 season. While the detailed report is only available to participating orchestras, we’ve published two summary reports (by region of the country and budget size) on our website – and you can view them here.

Final touches are being put on a brand-new report by Kelly Hill of Hill Strategies Research, commissioned by Orchestras Canada with support from the Ontario Arts Endowment Fund. To complement our annual Comparative Report study, we’ve asked Kelly to report on the observable trends from six years of data from fifty consistently-participating Canadian orchestras, 2004-05 to 2009-10. Watch this space: we’ll let you know when it’s posted (in both languages, bien sûr!) on our website.

Planning for the National Orchestras Meetings in Montréal: The full program for the 2012 national orchestras meeting will start at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 27 and it will wrap up at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 29. Confirmed program highlights include presentations by Professor Robert Flanagan, author of the recently-published The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras; key staff at HEC Montreal; Kent Nagano, music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; and Robert Sirman, director of the Canada Council for the Arts. Delegates will also be attending a SOLD OUT concert by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, led by Maestro Nagano and featuring Cirque Eloize, in a new “imagining” of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. We are also planning a parallel program for symphony education and community engagement staff, May 28-29. For more information, click here.

This past weekend, members of the Orchestras Canada board of directors met in Toronto to kick off the development of a new strategic plan for OC. Working with Peter O’Donnell and Linda Spence of Healthy Futures Group, the OC board engaged in 1.5 days of intense discussion, attended performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and re-affirmed our belief that Canadian orchestras have an intelligent and brave group of directors working on their behalf. While the plan itself will not be complete for a number of months, we can hint that the following themes will almost surely be explored in it:

Smart positioning of Canadian orchestras – with government bodies, the Canadian public and businesses and philanthropic funders
Collective action – enhancing and expanding partnerships and collaborations
Network building – providing the tools and venues to Canadian orchestras to learn together, build common cause, and better support one another