June 01, 2006 -

Public events give music lovers plenty of chances to observe

Ottawa, Canada -- The National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute (SMI) has expanded yet again for its 2006 edition. A total of 87 instrumentalists, conductors and composers (up from 81 last year) from 11 different countries will assemble in Ottawa from June 12 to July 1 to study with an international faculty led by NAC Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman. This prestigious advanced training institute consists of the Young Artists Programme, now in its eighth year, the Conductors Programme in its sixth, and the Young Composers Programme in its fourth.

New this year is the doubling of the wind instrument component of the Young Artists Programme from 5 to 10 students, and the reintegration of the double bass component with the return of principal double bass Joel Quarrington. The Conductors Programme is under the exciting new leadership of Kenneth Kiesler who takes over from the retired Jorma Panula. NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha returns to lead the Young Composers Programme with guest composer Augusta Read Thomas, Resident Composer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

A number of public masterclasses and concerts will give the public the opportunity to appreciate the talents of participants and their faculty.

The Summer Music Institute is supported by private donations and the NAC’s National Youth and Education Trust (Founding Partner TELUS), including major support from: Scotiabank, TransAlta, Universal, University of Ottawa, and Galaxie – the Continuous Music Network through its Galaxie Rising Stars Program of the CBC

NAC Young Artists Programme (YAP)

The NAC Young Artists Programme (YAP) was created by Pinchas Zukerman in 1999 in order to provide gifted young string players, pianists, and (since 2005) wind players with training at the highest level both through individual instruction and in chamber ensembles. There are 52 students attending this summer – 29 from Victoria, BC, to St. John’s, NL, in Canada, and the rest from Hungary, Korea, Moldova, Spain, Serbia, Sweden, and the USA.

This year’s faculty is headed by Pinchas Zukerman and co-Artistic Director Patinka Kopec of the Manhattan School of Music (violin and viola); and includes Grigory Kalinovsky of the Manhattan School of Music (violin); Hans Jorgen Jensen of Chicago’s Northwestern University (cello); Carole Sirois, of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (cello); Joel Quarrington of the Glenn Gould Professional School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and principal double bass of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and NAC Orchestra (double bass); Tatiana Goncharova of the Manhattan School of Music (piano); Joseph Kalichstein of the Juilliard School of Music (special guest artist, piano); Steven Dann of the Axelrod String Quartet and Toronto’s Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music (Chamber Music Coach); Michael Tree of the Guarneri String Quartet and the Manhattan School of Music (special guest artist, chamber music); and the principal winds of the NAC Orchestra: Joanna G’froerer (flute), Charles Hamann (oboe), Kimball Sykes (clarinet), Christopher Millard (bassoon) and Lawrence Vine (horn).

The Junior Strings Programme from June 21 to July 7 includes 19 young violinists, violists and cellists aged 10 to 18 from Halifax to Calgary in Canada, as well as Korea, Israel and the USA. This programme, is again led by Co-Artistic Director Patinka Kopec, NAC Orchestra violinist Elaine Klimasko and cellist Margaret Munro Tobolowska.

The public can observe the training in progress of participants in Young Artists Programme through a number of public events:

Masterclasses – one-on-one sessions between teacher and student observed by an audience – will take place on June 22 with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec (violin/viola), and on June 24 with Hans Jorgen Jensen (cello), both at 19:30 in Freiman Hall in the Perez Building at the University of Ottawa.

A new free outdoor “Noon Under the Bridge” series presented this summer in collaboration with the National Capital Commission will include three Young Artists Programme chamber music concerts under the Plaza Bridge outside the NAC at noon on June 21, 22 and 27. For detailed information on this acitivity or other site animation projects taking place in the Capital Region, the public may contact the National Capital Commission at (613) 239-5000.

On Tuesday, June 27 at 19:30 members of the Young Artists Programme Faculty including Pinchas Zukerman will present a chamber music concert at Dominion-Chalmers Church at 355 Cooper Street (corner of O’Connor).

Two chamber music evenings on June 28 and 30 at 19:30 will offer the opportunity to see all of the chamber ensembles of the Young Artists Programme in their final recitals. These take place at Dominion-Chalmers Church at 355 Cooper Street (corner of O’Connor).

Young Artists Programme members will also participate in the free Canada Day concerts with the NAC Orchestra in Southam Hall on July 1 at 14:30 and 19:30 sponsored by Rogers Wireless.

The Junior Strings will hold their final chamber music concert on Friday, July 7 at 10:00 a.m. in Freiman Hall in the University of Ottawa’s Perez Music Building.

NAC Conductors Programme

The NAC Conductors Programme will be headed for the first year by conductor and mentor to conductors Kenneth Keisler together with Pinchas Zukerman. Keisler takes over from Jorma Panula who led the Programme for its first five years. Maestro Kiesler has been Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music since 1995. In September 2006 he will also become the visiting artist and advisor in orchestral studies of the Manhattan School of Music. Kiesler is Music Director of the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, founder and director of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, and Conductor Laureate of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.

The goal of the Conductors Programme is to provide a valuable opportunity in Canada for conductors to develop under the expert guidance of accomplished orchestra leaders. Five participants – with origins in Canada, Israel, Japan, Mexico and the USA – have been chosen for full participation in ten days of intensive study in a masterclass format conducting a string quintet of musicians from l’Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne plus piano and augmented by wind musicians of the Young Artists Programme. An additional five from Canada will audit the programme. Conducting sessions for each participant will be videotaped, and these videos used as the basis for detailed discussion.

In the final two days of the programme the five active participants will rehearse and conduct the National Arts Centre Orchestra culminating in a free public concert on June 29 at 19:30 in the NAC’s Southam Hall, for which free tickets may be picked up in person at the NAC Box Office.

NAC Young Composers Programme (YCP)

The fourth annual NAC Young Composers Programme (YCP) will take place from June 20 to 29 under the leadership of NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha, with Augusta Read Thomas, Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as guest international faculty member for the final three days. Five talented composers – Brian Harman (Canadian, McGill University); Fuhong Shi (Chinese, University of Toronto); Alex Eddington (Canadian, University of Alberta); Christopher William Pierce, American (University of Toronto) and Jim O’Leary (Canadian, University of Cambridge, England) – have accepted the NAC’s invitation to participate in the programme.

Conductor Jean-Philippe Tremblay, Music Director of the Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne and former NAC Orchestra Apprentice Conductor, will lead a 12-member ensemble of musicians from l’Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne. The ensemble will perform works in progress by the participating composers for the entire duration of the Programme.

There will be several joint workshops and lectures for members of both the Conductors Programme and the Young Composers Programme to create a strong interaction between these two components. Each composer will be paired with a conductor who will conduct that composer’s work at one of the workshops.

Two “Celebration of Future Classics” concerts will take place in connection with the YCP. Celebration of Future Classics I on June 21 at 19:30 will feature works by YCP graduates Andrew Staniland and Maxim McKinley as well as by Gary Kulesha and Oliver Knussen, and will take place in the NAC Fourth stage. Celebration of Future Classics II on June 28 at 19:30 will showcase works by the 2006 participating composers as well as by Augusta Read Thomas for an audience seated on the Southam Hall stage at the National Arts Centre.

2006 NAC Summer Music Institute Participants

NAC Young Artists Programme:
Violin: Adrian Anantawan (22, Ottawa, ON), Sergej Bolkhovets (23, Stockholm, Sweden), Francesca de Pasquale (16, Philadelphia, U.S.A.), Jeffery Dyrda (19, Oakbank, MB, Canada), JoAnna Farrer (23, Houston, TX, U.S.A.), Bela Horvath (23, Budapest, Hungary), Tami Iskenderian (21, Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.), Hwi-Eun Kim (16, Daegu, Korea), Daniel Lee (24, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.), David Lisker (20, Aliso Viejo, CA, U.S.A.), Yuri Namkung (23, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.), Emily Nenniger (19, Calgary, AB, Canada), Cecee Pantikian (23, Middle Village, NY, U.S.A.), Marie-Ève Poupart (19, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, Canada), Jésus Reina (19, Malaga, Spain), Roman Simovitz (24, Kemerovo, Serbia and Montenegro), Anna Williams (20, Boston, MA, U.S.A.)

Mentor: Tali Kravitz ( 22, Petach-Tikva, Israel)

Viola: Jonathan Bregman (18, Short Hills, NJ, U.S.A.), Molly Carr (19, Gastonia, NC, U.S.A.), Corina Golomoz (21, Chisinau, Moldova), Crista Kende (20, Long Island, NY, U.S.A.), Aleksandr Khutoryansky (24, Flushing, NY, U.S.A.), Janice LaMarre (23, Newmarket, ON, Canada), Carmen Moggach (23, Kitchener, ON, Canada)

Cello: Yves Dharamraj (25, Royal Oak, MI, U.S.A.), Raphaël Dubé (21, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC, Canada), Philippe Fleming (23, Montreal, QC, Canada), Julie Hereish (19, Montreal, QC, Canada), Loewi Lin (23, Ottawa, ON, Canada), Judith Manger (21, Toronto, ON, Canada), Denise Ro (18, Bedford, NS, Canada), Christoph Sassmannshaus (17, Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.), Alice Yoo (21, Syoset, NY, U.S.A.)

Double Bass: Richard Carnegie (24, Mississauga, ON, Canada), Jonathan Cegys ( 24, Hamilton, ON, Canada), Nicholas Chalk (20, Vancouver, BC, Canada), François Péloquin (23, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada)

Piano: Audrey Bild (19, Victoria, BC, Canada), Jennifer Douville (24, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada), Michael Mizrahi (27, Virginia, U.S.A.), Avan Yu (18, Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Flute: Karyne Belanger (19, Sault Ste Marie, ON, Canada), Ahilya Ramharry (24, Montreal, QC, Canada)

Oboe: Daniel Lanthier (20, Montreal, QC, Canada), Karin Walsh (21, Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Clarinet: Christine Carter (23, Toronto, ON, Canada), Sean Rice (22, St. John’s NL, Canada)

Bassoon: Catherine Carignan (22, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, QC, Canada), Michael Siu (23, Vancouver, BC, Canada)

French Horn: Megan Evans (23, Langley, BC, Canada), Laure Valiquette-Talbot (23, Montreal, QC, Canada)

Junior Strings:

Violins: Zubaida Azezi (16, Etobicoke, ON, Canada), Benjamin Bregman (15, Short Hills, NJ, U.S.A.), Mitchell Gibbens-Schneider (12, Ottawa, ON, Canada), Hannah Ji (15, Seoul, Korea), Victoria Lee (13, Calgary, AB, Canada), Hannah Tarley (14, San Jose, CA, U.S.A.), Ori Wissner-Levy (16, Israel / New York, U.S.A ), Sarah-Hadley Yakir (12, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.), Tristan Zeman (11, Canada / Norwalk, CT, U.S.A.)

Violas: Eric Burge (13, Kingston, ON, Canada), Keith Hamm (18 Canada / U.S.A.), Won-Hee Lee (17, Ottawa, ON, Canada), Morgan Ostrander (15, Almonte, ON, Canada), David Lakirovich (16, Brisbane, Australia / Toronto, Canada),

Cellos: Kloé Bolduc Campeau (16, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada), Maia Bruce (13, Halifax, NS, Canada), Carmen Bruno (14, Ottawa, ON, Canada), Noémie Raymond (14, Longueil, QC, Canada), Diana Robinson (15, Calgary, AB, Canada).

NAC Conductors Programme:
Darko Butorac, Toronto, ON, Canada
Alondra de la Parra, Mexico / New York, NY, U.S.A.
Yaniv Dinur, Jerusalem, Israel
Akiko Fujimoto, Chiba, Japan
Vladimir Kulenovic, Watertown, MA, U.S.A.

NAC Conductors Programme Auditors:
Marthe Charlebois (Quebec, QC, Canada)
Georges-Etienne d’Entremont (Montreal, QC, Canada)
Geneviève Leclair (Sherbrooke, QC, Canada)
Eric Paetkau (Edmonton, AB, Canada)
John Trotter (Comox, BC, Canada)

NAC Young Composers Programme:
Brian Harman (24, Canada, studying at McGill University)
Fuhong Shi (30, China, studying at the University of Toronto)
Alex Eddington (26, Toronto, ON, Canada, studying at the University of Alberta)
Christopher William Pierce (31, U.S., studying at the University of Toronto)
Jim O’Leary (34, Windsor, NL, Canada, studying at the University of Cambridge, England)

Full Chronological Schedule of Public Events:

June 21 at 12:00 (Free)
“Noon Under the Bridge” concert
Chamber music with members of the NAC Young Artists Programme
Plaza Bridge outside the NAC
No tickets required

June 21 at 19:30
Celebration of Future Classics I
NAC Fourth Stage
Ensembles from NAC Orchestra
Ensembles from Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne
Jean-Philippe Tremblay, conductor
Gary Kulesha, conductor
ANDREW STANILAND Protestmusik (ensemble version)
MAXIME McKINLEY Wirkunst – Fellini
GARY KULESHA Variations on a theme by Benjamin Britten
OLIVER KNUSSEN Songs Without Voice
Tickets: $12 NAC Box Office and Ticketmaster

June 22 at 12:00 (Free)
“Noon Under the Bridge” concert
Chamber music with members of the NAC Young Artists Programme
Plaza Bridge outside the NAC
No tickets required

June 22 at 19:30
Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec masterclass (violin and viola)
University of Ottawa, Perez Music Building, Freiman Hall
Tickets: $5 at the door

June 24 at 19:30
Hans Jorgen Jensen masterclass (cello)
University of Ottawa, Perez Music Building, Freiman Hall
Tickets: $5 at the door

June 27 at 12:00 (Free)
“Noon Under the Bridge” concert
Chamber music with members of the NAC Young Artists Programme
Plaza Bridge outside the NAC
No tickets required

June 27 at 19:30
Young Artists Programme Faculty Chamber Music Concert
Dominion-Chalmers Church
including:
Pinchas Zukerman, violin / viola
Michael Tree, viola
Joseph Kalichstein, piano
Tickets: $15 NAC Box Office and Ticketmaster

June 28 at 19:30
Celebration of Future Classics II
Final Concert of the Young Composers Programme
Southam Hall (onstage seating)
Ensembles from the National Arts Centre Orchestra
Ensembles from l’Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne
Jean-Philippe Tremblay, conductor
Gary Kulesha, conductor
CHRISTOPHER PIERCE Melody with Gesture
BRIAN HARMAN sink
FUHONG SHI In the Timeless Air (for Chamber Ensemble)
JIM O’LEARY Music by a Living Composer
ALEX EDDINGTON Sin Mar a Bha
AUGUSTA READ THOMAS (TBA)
Tickets: $12 NAC Box Office and Ticketmaster

June 28 at 19:30
Young Artists Programme Chamber Music Concert I
Dominion-Chalmers Church
featuring participating members of the YAP in their chamber music ensembles
Tickets: $10 NAC Box Office and Ticketmaster

June 29 at 19:30 (Free)
Conductors Programme Final Concert
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Southam Hall
featuring the five participants in the Conductors Programme leading the NAC Orchestra in classical favourites.
Free tickets in person at NAC Box Office

June 30 at 19:30
Young Artists Programme Chamber Music Concert II
Dominion-Chalmers Church
featuring participating members of the YAP in their chamber music ensembles
Tickets: $10 NAC Box Office and Ticketmaster

July 1 CANADA DAY (Free)
10:00: Unisong Massed Choir concert
14:30 and 19:30: NAC Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman conductor
No tickets required

July 7 at 10:00 (Free)
Junior Strings final Chamber Music Concert
Freiman Hall, University of Ottawa Perez Music Building
featuring participating members of the Junior Strings in their chamber music ensembles.
No tickets required

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For more information:
Jane Morris, Marketing Officer,
National Arts Centre Orchestra
(613) 947-7000, 335
jmorris@nac-cna.ca