April 22, 2004 -

Ottawa (Canada) – Aproximately 300 young musicians from different parts of Canada will participate in the third Canadian Youth Orchestra Festival concluding in a spectacular free massed concert in the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall on Sunday, May 9 at 14:00. This concert begins with individual performances by the youth orchestras led by their own Music Directors, and concludes with all 300 musicians from seven orchestras performing together under the baton of Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.

Keri-Lynn Wilson will lead the massed orchestra in Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger, Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1, and Saint-Saëns’s “Danse Bacchanale” from Samson et Dalila.

The NAC Café will open at noon featuring a special Mother’s Day table d’hôte. Lunch and a concert: the perfect way to spend a Mother’s Day afternoon! For lunch reservations, call 613-594-5127.

Participating orchestras in the Canadian Youth Orchestra Festival are:

• Victoria District Festival Orchestra (Susan Colonval/Michael Klazek)
• Edmonton “Singing Strings” (Olivia Walsh)
• South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra (Alan Denike)
• Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (Glenn Mallory)
• Ottawa Youth Orchestra (John Gomez)
• Ottawa Junior Orchestra (Angus Armstrong)
• Orchestre De La Salle (Marthe Charlebois/Christian Gort)

Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson made her conducting debut in 1990 at age 23 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in a conducting workshop led by then Music Director Gabriel Chmura. The Winnipeg native became the Associate Conductor of the Dallas Symphony in 1994 shortly after her graduation from Juilliard where she received Masters degrees in conducting and flute.

Keri-Lynn Wilson has gone on to an international career conducting symphony orchestras and opera. This season she conducted several programmes with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, one of which