March 10, 2003 -

• Pinchas Zukerman in 15 different programmes as conductor, violinist, violist, chamber musician and in partnership with composers

• Major U.S. and Mexico Tour with Pinchas Zukerman presented by EDC

• Works by three NAC Awards composers including world premiere by Denys Bouliane, plus Canadian premiere of Oliver Knussen Violin Concerto for Pinchas Zukerman

• NACO debuts of Lang Lang, Thomas Hampson, Susan Graham, Piotr Anderszewski

• NACO's first performances of Berlioz's Harold in Italy and R. Strauss's Don Quixote

Ottawa (Canada) -- Music Director Pinchas Zukerman today announced the musical line-up of the 2003-2004 National Arts Centre Orchestra 35^th season - a season which includes a two-week U.S. and Mexico Tour presented by EDC, works by the three NAC Awards Composers under the Orchestra's New Music Programme, major NAC Orchestra debuts of both artists and repertoire, a celebration of Berlioz's 200^th birthday, collaborations with both the NAC English Theatre and NAC Dance Departments, and concerto performances by four of the NAC Orchestra's principal musicians.

Pinchas Zukerman will show his collaborative powers and enormous musical versatility ranging from performing chamber music such as Beethoven's "Ghost Trio", to joining an expanded orchestra for Strauss's Don Quixote; from performing Harold in Italy, one of the major works of the viola repertoire, to the Bruch Violin Concerto; from sharing the stage with NAC English Theatre Artistic Director Marti Maraden for a Brahms tribute, to two collaborations with the Dance Department. Of no less importance is his legendary commitment to the next generation of musical talent - a passion that will be in the forefront of the Orchestra's U.S. and Mexico Tour in November.

Peter Herrndorf, the National Arts Centre's President and CEO, said: "We're delighted that during the 2003-2004 season, the National Arts Centre Orchestra's vision of excellence will resonate not only with our audiences in the nation's capital but also beyond our borders with a tour to the U.S. and Mexico. Pinchas Zukerman's commitment to education continues to be a hallmark of the NAC's focus in Canada and wherever we tour. We're also pleased that our season will allow each of our National Arts Centre Award composers - Denys Bouliane, Gary Kulesha and Alexina Louie - to play a leading role."

Pinchas Zukerman thanked all the people who have made the Orchestra's first 34 years so memorable. "The more I travel and perform with Orchestras around the world, the more I understand how special the National Arts Centre is and how proud our people can be of this Orchestra and its accomplishments, both on stage and in its education and community outreach. Our recent Atlantic Tour was a perfect example of this, and we look forward to much more in the coming season."

The U.S. and Mexico Tour will take place from November 1 to 16, 2003, led by with Pinchas Zukerman and presented by Export Development Canada (EDC). The Tour includes visits to Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington and Symphony Center in Chicago, and three cities in Mexico. More details of the Tour and the extensive education activities associated with it will be announced at a later date. EDC, a Canadian financial institution with a strong tradition of supporting the arts in Canada, is devoted exclusively to providing trade finance services to assist Canadian exporters and investors in some 200 markets worldwide, including the U.S. and Mexico.

The Orchestra with Zukerman will also make a run-out to Potsdam, New York in September to perform at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam (the State University of New York), one of the Orchestra's major education partners. This visit will also include an education programme.

Canadian music includes the world premiere of an NAC-commissioned piece by NAC Awards Composer Denys Bouliane, and works by the other two Awards Composers: Chamber Concerto No. 6 by Gary Kulesha, and O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould by Alexina Louie.

Christopher Deacon, Managing Director of the NAC Orchestra, said: "The Orchestra's commitment to new music continues this season and next, both on and off the subscription series. We will soon be hearing the premieres of a chamber music work by Alexina Louie and a Violin Concerto by Gary Kulesha, two of our Awards Composers under the New Music Programme, and we look forward to the first edition of our Young Composers Programme this summer, as well as a special tribute concert to the music of John Weinzweig. I am also proud to say how tremendously gratifying it is to hear the Orchestra playing at the high level of performance we have grown to expect under Pinchas Zukerman's leadership."

Artists making their NAC Orchestra debuts include pianists Piotr Anderszewski and Lang Lang; violinist Nikolaj Znaider; mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; Ottawa countertenor Matthew White; and, in a special evening of Brahms, English Theatre Artistic Director Marti Maraden, and actor Tom McCamus. The leading American baritone Thomas Hampson makes his NAC debut in recital. Other guest artists include pianists Angela Hewitt, Anton Kuerti, Garrick Ohlsson, and Pascal Rogé, the latter returning for the first time since 1979; violinist James Ehnes, soprano Donna Brown, cellist Lynn Harrell, and, in recital, pianists Louis Lortie and András Schiff.

On the podium, the season marks the returns of Helmuth Rilling leading Haydn's Die Schöpfung (The Creation); former NAC Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor Franz-Paul Decker in a Spanish programme; conductor/composer Oliver Knussen leading Pinchas Zukerman in the Canadian premiere of the Violin Concerto he wrote for Zukerman; Bramwell Tovey celebrating the 20^th anniversary of his North American debut which took place at the NAC; and Raymond Leppard, Lawrence Foster, and James Judd. Two British conductors - Rumon Gamba and Thierry Fischer, the latter leading Messiah - make their NAC Orchestra debuts.

NAC Orchestra musicians performing as soloists include principal cello Amanda Forsyth, principal flute Joanna G'froerer, principal oboe Charles Hamann, and principal horn Lawrence Vine, in his NACO solo debut.

The CJOH Pops Series includes singer Glen Campbell in his NACO debut, prima ballerina Evelyn Hart in an evening of dance music and performance, jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli in a tribute to the Beatles, and Charlie Chaplin's silent film classic The Gold Rush with Chaplin's own score performed live by the NAC Orchestra.

Musical highlights include Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été sung by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; the NAC Orchestra's first performance of Berlioz's Harold in Italy, one of the major works in the viola repertoire to be performed by Pinchas Zukerman (both works part of an all-Berlioz evening in honour of the 200^th anniversary of the composer's birth); the NACO debut of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2 performed by the masterful Lynn Harrell; Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 last performed by NACO in 1981; Haydn's Die Schöpfung (The Creation) led by Helmuth Rilling; an evening of Spanish music led by Franz-Paul Decker, and the NAC Orchestra's first-ever performance of Richard Strauss's Don Quixote with Amanda Forsyth and Pinchas Zukerman.

20^th and 21^st century music in the 2002-2003 season, in addition to the Canadian works, includes the Barber Violin Concerto, the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3, Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre, Falla's Suite from El Amor brujo, Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, Rodrigo's Fantasía para un gentilhombre in its NACO debut in an arrangement for flute by James Galway, the two previously mentioned Shostakovich concertos, Stravinsky's Scènes de ballet, and the Canadian premiere of Oliver Knussen's Violin Concerto, which Pinchas Zukerman has just performed this month at Carnegie Hall.

Pinchas Zukerman will participate as conductor and/or violin and viola soloist in twelve of the eighteen Connoisseur concerts as well as one of the Great Performers concerts, one of the Music for a Sunday Afternoon concerts, and a Young People's Concert.

January 2004 will see the second edition of the Orchestra's Mozart Plus Festival which includes two main series concerts, a Young People's Concert, a Great Performers concert of recital and chamber music, and a collaboration with the NAC Dance Department which will be announced at the Dance Season launch on April 9. Additional events will be announced at a later date.

The Young People's Concert series led by Boris Brott continues to be a fantastic success story. A second matinee was added to each afternoon of this four-part series in the 2002-2003 season, and the series still played to almost sold-out houses at this doubled capacity. Each Saturday afternoon concert includes Pre-Concert Activities organized by the NAC Orchestra Association.

The season again includes the two-night, six-concert Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series, the eighteen programmes of which are combined under the umbrella title Connoisseur Series; the three-night, six-concert CJOH Pops Series; the four single-night Great Performers recitals and chamber music; the Young People's Concerts twice a day over four afternoons; plus the four-concert Music for a Sunday Afternoon chamber music series presented at the National Gallery of Canada. Special concerts include Messiah and a new Christmas with the NAC Orchestra, as well a special concert by popular composer Burt Bacharach returning with his own ensemble.

National Arts Centre Orchestra sponsors include Audi Canada returning to sponsor the Audi Signature Series; Bostonian Executive Suites, sponsor of the Bostonian Bravo Series; Borden Ladner Gervais LLP sponsoring the season-opening concert; Mark Motors of Ottawa, providers of the official car (Audi) of the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and CJOH TV, media sponsor of the CJOH Pops Series. Partners include Rogers Television 22 providers of NACOtron for the Young People's Concerts; and the National Gallery of Canada where the Music for a Sunday Afternoon series takes place.

Highlights from Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series (Connoisseur Series)

Pinchas Zukerman will open the season on the Bostonian Bravo series with an all-Brahms programme featuring Symphony No. 1 in C minor, and the Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) sung by the Ottawa Choral Society and two University of Ottawa Choirs - the Choral Ensemble and the Calixa Lavallée Ensemble - both making their NAC Orchestra debuts. This programme, sponsored by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, includes readings of the intimate correspondence between Johannes Brahms and his muse Clara Schumann by NAC English Theatre Artistic Director Marti Maraden, and renowned Canadian stage actor Tom McCamus.

The Audi Signature Series opens with a piece by Awards Composer Alexina Louie, O Magnum Mysterium: In Memorium Glenn Gould, conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. The concert also includes the brilliant 20-year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang in his NACO debut performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24.

The American piano giant Garrick Ohlsson will perform Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 on a concert which opens with a major work of the chamber music repertoire - Beethoven's "Ghost" Trio performed by Ohlsson, Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth.

Ottawa's own pianist Angela Hewitt, renowned for her performances of Bach, will perform Beethoven with the NAC Orchestra for the first time - the composer's Piano Concerto No. 1 - with British conductor Raymond Leppard returning to the NAC Orchestra podium for the first time since 1991. Leppard will also lead the Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 "Reformation".

The world premiere of a commission for the full NAC Orchestra by NAC Awards composer Denys Bouliane will take place on a concert which includes Zukerman's performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 "Turkish". Bouliane will subsequently join the Orchestra on its U.S. and Mexico Tour during which his work will be performed at every concert.

Pinchas Zukerman will lead the Orchestra's in its first performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 since 1981 on a programme which also features the NACO debut of Polish pianist and Gilmore Prize-winner Piotr Anderszewski performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20. This concert is part of the Mozart Plus Festival.

Another Mozart Plus concert features the composer's Symphony No. 40 on a concert featuring world-renowned cellist Lynn Harrell in the NAC Orchestra's debut performance of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2. Conductor Pinchas Zukerman will also take up the viola to perform Beethoven's witty "Eyeglass" Duo with Harrell.

The 200^th anniversary of the birth of Berlioz will be celebrated in an all-Berlioz programme that features the NACO debut of the luminous American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham singing Les Nuits d'été. The programme also includes the unparalleled viola playing of Zukerman in one of the major works of the viola repertoire - Berlioz's Harold in Italy.

The legendary German conductor Helmuth Rilling, especially celebrated for his choral conducting, will lead the Orchestra, and members of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, the Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus and the Ottawa Choral Society in Haydn's Die Schöpfung (The Creation) with soprano Donna Brown, tenor James Taylor and baritone Nathan Berg

Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Quixote, with Pinchas Zukerman playing the Sancho Panza sidekick on viola to Amanda Forsyth's Don Quixote on cello, is another NACO debut featuring an expanded orchestra. This concert also features Zukerman as violin soloist for the Bruch Violin Concerto. The expanded orchestral forces for this concert are made possible in part by the NAC Orchestra Association Kilpatrick Fund.

Juno Award-winning violinist James Ehnes returns to perform the Barber Violin Concerto with British conductor Rumon Gamba making his NACO podium debut conducting Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre and Schubert's Symphony No. 5.

Pinchas Zukerman on violin is united with British conductor and composer Oliver Knussen to perform the Canadian premiere of Knussen's Violin Concerto written especially for Zukerman. Knussen will also conduct Stravinsky's Scènes de ballet and Ravel's Mother Goose Suite while Zukerman will be joined by a young artist to perform Vivaldi's music for two violins.

Franz-Paul Decker, the NAC Orchestra's former Principal Guest Conductor, makes a welcome return in an all-Spanish programme featuring NACO principal flute Joanna G'froerer performing the Rodrigo Fantasia para un gentilhombre, part of a soon-to-be-released CD she recorded in Spain at the invitation of Maestro Maximiano Valdés and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias. The concert also includes Albéniz's Suite Española, de Falla's El Amor brujo, and the legendary Lucero Tena on castanets.

Other principal musicians from the NAC Orchestra performing as soloists are principal horn Lawrence Vine performing Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2, and principal oboe Charles Hamann in Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major.

Great Performers

The stellar four-concert Great Performer recital series includes the Ottawa debut of the leading baritone of his generation, Thomas Hampson, in a tribute to the great Austrian lieder composer Hugo Wolf in recognition of the 100^th anniversary of his death. This concert is part of the Austro-Canadian Hugo Wolf Centenary Celebration, an international academic and musical symposium spear-headed by the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and presented in cooperation with the NAC and universities in Vienna and Graz, Austria.

Canadian pianist Louis Lortie returns in a new recital programme including the works of Schumann, and András Schiff, one of the foremost pianists of today returns to the NAC for the first time since 1990 in his recital debut.

Pinchas Zukerman's annual appearance on the Great Performers series expands to include not only recital repertoire, but chamber music with cellist Lynn Harrell and musicians from the NAC Orchestra.

CJOH Pops Series

The CJOH Pops Series includes another silent film classic by Charlie Chaplin following the success of City Lights in 1995. This time it is the Little Tramp's immortal masterpiece The Gold Rush that will be screened with Chaplin's own score performed live by the NAC Orchestra. Guest stars include superstar singer Glen Campbell in his NAC Orchestra debut, and the return of jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli in his tribute to the Beatles. The series also includes a special evening of ballet and dance music in honour of Canada's beloved prima ballerina Evelyn Hart who will take centre stage. Conductor Jack Everly returns for two programmes - an Evening with George Gershwin® and Pops Goes British.

Young People's Concerts

The overwhelming popularity of the NAC Orchestra's Young People's Concerts led to the addition of an extra concert each Saturday afternoon this season. Almost sold out at this expanded capacity, the series continues in 2003-2004 with Boris Brott, the NAC Orchestra's youth programme conductor, on the podium for all four of these bilingual programmes.

This season the theme of the series for 7-to-11-year olds and their grown-up friends is "The Music-Makers" with the first focussing on the Human Voice; the second on the Virtuoso, featuring a guest appearance by violinist Pinchas Zukerman; the third on the Creative Composer, featuring NAC Awards Composer Denys Bouliane; and the final one on the Conductor. Each concert at 13:30 and 15:30 is preceded by activities in the Foyer organized by volunteers of the NAC Orchestra Association. Each concert features NACOtron, the NAC's giant-screen video system showing the musicians up close while they perform. NACOtron is presented in collaboration with Rogers Television 22.

Music for a Sunday Afternoon

The Sunday afternoon chamber music series at the National Gallery of Canada features four concerts in the coming season including guest artists Pinchas Zukerman, internationally acclaimed Ottawa soprano Donna Brown, and French pianist Pascal Rogé performing with ensembles of musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Specials

The Orchestra's annual presentation of Handel's Messiah will be conducted by British conductor Thierry Fischer in his NACO debut, and will feature Canadian soprano Nathalie Paulin, Ottawa countertenor Matthew White, British tenor Rufus Mueller, and Canadian baritone Daniel Lichti. Audiences are also invited to celebrate Christmas with the NAC Orchestra, and there will also be a special return visit by the legendary popular music composer, conductor and pianist Burt Bacharach, this time with his own ensemble.

Benefits

Subscribers benefit from a number of privileges including: up to 20% off regular ticket prices (50% for students); subscriber preferred discounts off additional Orchestra, Theatre and Dance tickets; 10% off lunch at Le Café; first choice of the best seats in Southam Hall; a subscriber-friendly exchange policy; priority on purchases of additional Orchestra tickets before the Box Office opens to the general public; advance notice of special events; a free subscription to Presto! the NACO newsletter; and special discounts at CD Warehouse and Nicholas Hoare, Bookseller.

Subscribers who sign up for all 18 concerts of the three classical series (Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo) will receive an autographed CD of a Pinchas Zukerman recording, an invitation to a reception with Pinchas Zukerman, and an invitation to a rehearsal and backstage tour.

Subscribers with specific tastes in music or with schedules that make it hard to decide
on a series, may prefer the popular Pick-Six option. They can put together their own package of six concerts from the eighteen concerts of the Connoisseur Series (Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo).

Patrons can subscribe by phone (613-947-7000, ext 620); online (www.nac-cna.ca/subscribe); by fax (613-995-4343); by mail (NAC Subscription, P.O. Box 1534, Station B, Ottawa K1P 5W1), or in person at the NAC.

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