Orchestras Canada

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 65th season with a summer solstice concert on June 19 at the Centennial Concert Hall. The program, led by music director Alexander Mickelthwate, features an array of celebrity soloists, lighter classics, incentives for the audience to dress up in 40s and 50s attire, and $6.50 tickets.

The summer season continues with full orchestra concerts at a range of venues in Winnipeg (from the Forks to Assiniboine Park), and a pre-Canada Day trip to Kenora ON, as well.

For more information on the WSO’s summer concert, please visit wso.ca.

From May 19-26, the members of I Musici de Montréal will embark on their third international tour of the season with a journey to Mexico for the Festival Cultural de Mayo. They’ll be led by Richard Lee (currently resident conductor with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) and they’ll present a program of music by Tchaikovksy and Mussorgsky (in an arrangement made for I Musici by founding music director Yuli Turovsky). The Festival Cultural de Mayo facilitates exchange between Mexican artists and international colleagues, and this year, the focus is on Quebec – with over twenty artists and organizations from Quebec representing music, film, dance, circus arts and visual arts.

Meanwhile, members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra have joined their long-time collaborators at Opera Atelier to accompany OA’s production of Lully’s Armide at the “spiritual home” of Baroque opera – the Royal Opera House at Versailles. You can read more about just what it took to make these performances happen, here.

Late last week, the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec presented Maestro Kent Nagano (music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal) with the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly. The distinction is awarded to people from varied backgrounds whoare deemed to merit the recognition of all members of the National Assembly and of Québec society.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has announced the identity of this year’s WSO Golden Baton Awards, given annually to those who have made a significant contribution to the musical life of the community through their excellence or their special support and contribution to the WSO. They are celebrated coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl (artistic achievement) and former WSO board chair (and now Auditor General for the Province of Manitoba) Carol Bellringer (community leadership).

Congratulations to clarinetist Emmy Munger and flutist Étienne Morissette, recent winners of the Orchestre des jeunes du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean’s recent Young Soloists competition. Both winners are students at the Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay and have been members of the youth orchestra for a number of years. They will be featured as soloists with the youth orchestra in 2012-13.

Best wishes to Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra clarinettist Rick Klassen, retiring this season after an amazing 39 seasons with the orchestra.

Calgary’s Rosza Foundation presents an annual award for excellence in arts management to an outstanding Alberta arts administrator – and we offer hearty congratulations to Stephen McHolm, CEO of the Honens International Piano Competition for being nominated in 2012. The award winners will be announced in June.

AUDITIONS

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Second Bassoon – International
Application deadline/Date limite : May 1 mai 2012

ADMINISTRATIVE / ADMINISTRATIFS

Jeunesses Musicales du Canada
Directeur général et artistique
Application deadline/Date limite : April 20 avril 2012

The Orchestre symphonique de Québec has just announced its 2012-13 season, its first under new Music Director Fabien Gabel. The program reflects the full breadth of orchestral repertoire and colour, and includes 43 programs, most packaged into one of 8 different series. As well, the OSQ will continue in its use of pictograms to help music lovers identify the programs most likely to delight them – a helpful initiative launched last season.

Symphony Nova Scotia launched its 2012-13 season last week, its . It’s the orchestra’s 30th anniversary season, and its tenth under the leadership of Music Director Bernhard Gueller. The intrepid 37-player orchestra presents a diverse season that celebrates the cornerstones of the classical repertoire, outstanding Canadian soloists, and gifted Nova Scotian and Canadian singer-songwriters.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra announced its 65th season late last week, incorporating 7 series, 37 different programs, and 63 performances. Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate is featured, along with guest soloists Yuja Wang, Measha Brueggergosman, Ben Heppner and the Barenaked Ladies. As well, we get a tantalizing glimpse of the 2013 New Music Festival, with the news that Steve Reich’s music will be featured in early February.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announced its busy 2012-13 season, its 13th under the leadership of Bramwell Tovey. It’s far too large to summarize in a single paragraph, so we’ll borrow from the VSO’s own media release! “A long list of internationally-renowned guest soloists and conductors join the GRAMMY and Juno Award-winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in a season that features over one hundred performances of the best in classics, Symphony Pops, concerts for children and families, and special crossover concerts. In addition to core series performances in downtown Vancouver, the VSO once again visits venues around the Lower Mainland, performing in North Vancouver, Surrey, South Delta, West Vancouver, Coquitlam and Burnaby.”

Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec have announced the programs they’ll be presenting in Québec and Montréal in 2012-13, under the leadership of Bernard Labadie. Featured soloists include soprano Sandrine Piau, pianist Alexandre Tharaud and flutist Emmanuel Pahud – the latter featured with the orchestra in a return visit to New York’s Carnegie Hall. A special feature of the season will be Les Violons du Roy’s first-ever joint performance with I Musici de Montréal, led by that orchestra’s music director (and protege of Maestro Labadie), Jean-Marie Zeitouni.

Last week, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra celebrated the conclusion of this year’s Music Connections program with a pair of community concerts at Thunderbird House, featuring over 150 students in grades 4-6 and five brass musicians from the orchestra.

The concerts are the culmination of an eight-week program that integrates Aboriginal and Western cultural traditions, engaging the students in music and visual art practice, through performance and careful listening. The students will perform throughout the concert, which will feature a performance of Manitoba Fanfare, commissioned by the WSO by composer Andrew Balfour and performed by student singers and flute players alongside five WSO brass musicians.

The program began on January 18 when students created their own Native American style flutes. Subsequent workshops included special visits from WSO musicians and staff. Speaking about the program, Tanya Derksen (the WSO’s Director of Education and Outreach) said, “the program is meant to encourage students to explore and listen to different kinds of music from their own and other cultures. By the end, they are teaching others about their journey and insights into how music and culture interact.”

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has just kicked off its annual Adventures in Music program, through which over 15,000 Manitoba students in grades 4-6 are introduced to the orchestra. The program spans 10 concerts on six different days between February and May, and runs in Winnipeg and Brandon.

It’s a logistical feat: over 450 students perform on-stage with the WSO, in movement, recorder and string groups. Other guest artists include the Romenetz Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, RWB Aspirant Program, McConnell School of Dance and Momentum Aerial.

The Adventures in Music program has been around for over 20 years and is planned with the elementary school curriculum in mind. A comprehensive Study Guide is prepared for teachers to introduce the concert repertoire to students in the classroom while they also participate in various activities throughout the school year. Activities include creating artwork inspired by Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, which will be displayed as the orchestra plays the piece.

“The students attending these concerts have listened and learned about the music more than most patrons do before they come to a concert,” says WSO Director of Education Tanya Derksen. “They know the composers, themes, and the stories behind the music. When they come to the Concert Hall and hear the orchestra right in front of them, it all comes alive for them in a very special way.”

Last week, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra learned that it had been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, as one of six North American orchestras performing at the 2014 Spring for Music Festival. The WSO will give its first performance in Carnegie Hall since 1979 on May 8, 2014.

S4M began in 2011, and is designed as a celebration of the quality and creativity of North American orchestras. Orchestras are invited to participate on the basis of the imagination and boldness of their proposed programs, as judged by an expert panel of evaluators. The Orchestre symphonique de Montreal closed out the 2011 festival, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will be featured in 2012.

The WSO will perform three works that have also been featured at its annual New Music Festival: Derek Charke’s 13 Inuit Throat Song Games featuring throat singer Tanya Tagaq, WSO Composer-in-Residence Vincent Ho’s The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie as well as R. Murray Schafer’s Symphony No. 1. And, of course, WSO music director Alexander Mickelthwate will conduct.

For more information, please visit springformusic.com.

Late last week, the Ontario Arts Council announced the winner of the 2012 Oscar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance: Toronto-based cellist Shauna Rolston. The $20,000 award was presented on January 30 at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival, where Ms Rolston performed the world premiere of a new cello concert by WSO resident composer Vincent Ho. Widely recognized as one of Canada’s most unique musical talents, Ms Rolston has commissioned more than 50 new works for cello, performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and was the featured artist at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. In addition to her touring and performance schedule, Shauna is also Professor of Cello and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at The Banff Centre.

January 28 to February 3, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presents its 21st annual New Music Festival (NMF) – this year focusing on music from Nordic cultures, particularly Iceland.

The festival is a typically intrepid NMF mix, marrying outstanding local and Canadian artists with distinguished international visitors. Here’s a quick rundown:

Local stars: the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, led by Alexander Mickelthwate; the Canadian Mennonite University Chorus; Prairie Voices; WSO principal violist Daniel Scholz (featured in Giya Kancheli’s Styx); Groundswell Ensemble; and composers Vincent Ho, Jim Hiscott, Gordon Fitzell, Michael Matthews, Diana Macintosh, and Jesse Plessis (a student at Brandon University who recently won the Canadian Music Centre’s Emerging Composer award).

Canadian guests: cellist Shauna Rolston (performing a new concerto by Vincent Ho for carbon fibre cello and orchestra), dance troupe La La La Human Steps, composers Alexina Louie and Tim Hecker.

International visitors: violinist Jennifer Koh, composers Kaija Saariaho, Daniel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Gavin Bryars, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson

Venues: Centennial Concert Hall, Westminster United Church, Winnipeg Art Gallery

In line with Glenn Buhr’s long ago comment that “the New Music Festival is better than Christmas: it lasts longer, and it’s way cheaper”, Festival passes are a distinct bargain: $99 (regular) $89 (senior) $59 (student). For more information please visit newmusicfestival.ca.