Orchestras Canada

A certain pattern has emerged in this week’s media releases from Canadian orchestras and ensembles: a remarkable number are announcing family-friendly, multi-media programs. Here’s a west-to-east round-up of what we’ve seen:

November 19 and 20, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (with guest conductor George Daugherty) is presenting 3 performances of Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.

November 13, the Calgary Philharmonic (led by resident conductor Melanie Leonard) teamed up with Storyfair Productions for a performance of Winter Solstice: A Rocky Mountain Fairy Tale – a family program that incorporates storytelling, dramatic visuals and music.

This month and next, the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (led by their music director, Veronique Lacroix) presents eight performances of André Ristic’s Les Aventures de Madame Merveille, a quasi-operatic event that unites live performance of Ristic’s score by the 7-member ensemble and 4 guest soloists with giant projections of original cartoons by noted graphic artists Michael Cho, Pascal Girard, Scott Hepburn and Cameron Stewart. The tour kicks off with performances in a number of different venues in Montreal, and continues with performances in Lennoxville and Sherbrooke.

Late last week, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announced that Fugitive Colours, its new recording of the orchestral music of Jeffrey Ryan, would inaugurate Naxos Records’ new Naxos Canadian Classics – Classiques Canadiens imprint. The CD celebrates Dr. Ryan’s 5 years as composer in residence with the VSO, and all works on the disc are conducted by VSO music director Bramwell Tovey. The Gryphon Trio is also featured.

Naxos Canadian Classics is modeled on Naxos American Classics, an acclaimed series featuring music by American composers. Naxos’s plan is to release 6 to 8 new CDs per year including composers from across Canada and covering the major areas of classical music: orchestra, large ensemble, vocal, chamber, solo instrumental and wind band music.

The three works on the new disc are Dr. Ryan’s Symphony #1, Fugitive Colours; Equilateral for orchestra and piano trio; and The Linearity of Light.

Speaking about the project, Jeffrey Ryan said, “this project is a thrill for me in so many ways. It is a record, literally, of my long and rewarding collaboration with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony. It is the first CD devoted exclusively to my orchestral music. If that weren’t enough, it inaugurates the new Naxos Canadian Classics series, a visionary undertaking which promises to show the world the depth and richness of the work of Canadian composers throughout our history.”

July 24-30, Vancouver plays host to the World Harp Congress & Festival – and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will be there. During this week-long event, more than one hundred of the world’s top harpists (adept in the broadest possible array of musical genres) will perform, and approximately 800 delegates from 40 different countries will also take part.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will perform in three concerts during the Congress and Festival. On Tuesday, July 26th at the Orpheum, Evan Mitchell conducts “World of Harp Concertos, Blues and Techno Harp!” featuring music and musicians from Germany, Turkey, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and the United States. On Friday, July 29th at the Orpheum, Mr. Mitchell conducts “Gala Harp Concertos and Spindrift” featuring Michael Conway-Baker’s Harp Concerto. And the orchestra performs at the festival finale, Saturday, July 30th (led by conductor Ken Hsieh) in a program that features harpists from Vancouver, Japan, Norway, and Serbia – and is followed by fireworks on English Bay.

For more information about the congress and festival, please visit: worldharpcongress2011.com.

Representatives from Canadian orchestras from coast to coast – St. John’s NF to Nanaimo BC – gathered in Vancouver earlier this week for the 6th annual National Orchestras Meeting, hosted by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the VSO School of Music.

The meeting had a number of components, including:

• A tour and inaugural performance at the brand new VSO School of Music;
• A gracious welcome from Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director Bramwell Tovey and Board Chair Art Willms;
• Reports and presentations by key partners and funders, including the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians, the Canadian Federation of Musicians, Musicians’ Pension Fund of Canada, CBC English Radio and Radio Music, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage;
• Presentations on game-changing initiatives by Tricia Baldwin and Randy Barnard for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Gilbert Brault from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; and Joanne Harada, Scott Good and Pierre Simard from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra;
• The season closing concert of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, featuring a new work by Scott Good, violinist James Ehnes, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1;
• An entire day devoted to the latest thinking on fundraising and audience growth initiatives, with presentations by Douglas Kinzey (Audience Strategies for the Arts); Simon Trevelyan (ST Legacy Group); Rob Gloor and Rob Severin (GSI Management); Andrea McManus (AFP International); Jack McAuliffe, Kate Prescott and David Snead (Patron Growth Initiative); Luce Moreau and Krista Thompson; and Ken Macleod and Larry Matthews (KMA Consultants);
• A sunset harbour cruise that showcased Vancouver in all its beauty;
• A thoughtful summary by rapporteur Wendy Reid (HEC Montréal);
• A plenary discussion on next steps for our national association, facilitated by new OC board chair Thérèse Boutin.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting resources from many of these sessions on our website. Watch upcoming issues of Orchestra News for more details.

In hindsight, it’s a daunting list: and none of these things would have been possible with the support, encouragement and enthusiastic participation of

• our hosts at the VSO School of Music and Vancouver Symphony – with particular thanks to VSO President and CEO Jeff Alexander and VSO School of Music Executive Director Shaun Taylor;
• our donors and sponsors, including Dr. George Freundlich and Great West Life/London Life/Canada Life;
• the Canada Council for the Arts, whose support of travel bursaries for people from smaller-budget orchestras was integral to ensuring a truly national dialogue;
• coffee break sponsors Soccer Mom Records, Cowan Insurance, and Long & McQuade;
• the planning committee: Jeff Alexander, Annemarie Petrov and Françoise Henri;
• the team of onsite volunteers, with particular thanks to C. Stephen Smith, Rob Severin, Rob Gloor, and the devoted volunteers from the Vancouver Symphony Society;
• our team of presenters, who gave generously of what they know, and were lots of fun, to boot!

This Sunday, May 22, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra continues its Symphony at the Roundhouse series in a program led by VSO Music Director Bramwell Tovey. The concert features soprano Janice Jackson and four works by Canadian composers, including a world premiere of  Hardcore by Tim Brady, set to lyrics by Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip. Other works on the program? VSO resident composer Scott Good’s Etudes for Chamber Orchestra, Emily Doolittle’s Four Pieces About Water and UBC Assistant Professor Dorothy Chang’s Chamber Variations.

This Thursday, May 26, Montreal’s Ensemble Appassionata (led by music director Daniel Myssyk) gives the Montreal premiere of a new version of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony in B minor – but this time, finished. The edition has been prepared by Schubert scholar Brian Newbould, and includes the two movements we know so well, along with Newbould’s orchestration of a scherzo that the musicologist believes was destined for the symphony (but never completed) and, as finale, the Entr’acte No. 1 from Rosamunde (also in B minor).

AUDITIONS
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Principal Cello / Violoncelle solo
Application Deadline/Date limite : May 15 mai 2011

The Vancouver Symphony has announced its 2011-12 season, its twelfth under the leadership of music director Bramwell Tovey. It’s a busy season that sees the orchestra performing in fourteen different venues in the Lower Mainland, including its home at the Orpheum. New or unusual works on the season include performances of Korngold’s violin concerto, a concert version of Bramwell Tovey and John Murrell’s new opera, The Inventor, and John Ireland’s Piano Concerto – along with a full array of standard orchestral classics, pops, family and educational programs. Featured soloists on the season include soprano Renee Fleming, pianists Lang Lang and Peter Serkin, and young Canadians Jan Lisiecki and Nicki Yanovsky. For more information, please visit www.vancouversymphony.ca.

Quebec’s intrepid Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec has launched its 2011-12 season under the leadership of music director Bernard Labadie and principal guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni. The season features twenty-seven different programs, to be performed at home in Quebec and Montreal, nationally and internationally. Highlights include a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion, with Ian Bostridge as the Evangelist, a program featuring soprano Karina Gauvin in arias by Porpora and Mozart, and a visit by guest leader Jeanne Lamon, music director of Toronto’s Tafelmusik. In the fall, the orchestra will undertake a two week European tour, with performances in the Netherlands, Switzerland and France; in early 2012, they will perform a 10-concert North American tour with recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger, and in the spring, the orchestra and choir will travel to New York’s Carnegie Hall for a repeat performance of the St. John Passion. As well, the orchestra will release a pair of recordings – one with pianist Alexandre Tharaud (who is, not coincidentally, soloist for this year’s European tour), and the second with contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux. The latter recording represents the orchestra’s first collaboration with the Naïve label of France. www.violonsduroy.com

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony announced its 11-12 season recently, its fifth under the direction of Edwin Outwater. Highlights range from a Mozart Festival to the Canadian premiere of a co-commissioned work by Nico Muhly, and the program also includes creative collaborations with the Institute for Quantum Computing, such soloists as André Laplante, Sara Davis Buechner, the Canadian Brass, Gryphon Trio, and Sultans of String. As well, the orchestra will return to the SONY Centre for several performances next season, and will introduce a weekend Matinée Series which features repeat performances of outstanding classical and pops programs. kwsymphony.ca