July 12, 2004 -

Ottawa, Canada -- The Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne led by its Music Director, Jean-Philippe Tremblay, will make its third annual summer visit to the National Arts Centre in a free concert on Saturday, July 17 at 19:30 in Southam Hall. Tremblay is a graduate of the first edition of the NAC Conductors Programme and the former Apprentice Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He returned to the NAC this June to assist with the NAC Young Composers Programme, leading an ensemble of musicians from his Orchestra in new works by the young composers.

The Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne will perform the world premiere of Myriades (Quasi Concerto for Orchestra on the Occasion of the 400^th Anniversary of Acadia) by Canadian composer Julien Bilodeau; Poul Ruders’ Fairytale, and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor. Jonathan Crow, the concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, will perform Waxman’s Carmen Fantaisie as well as the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saëns.

The Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne was created specially for the IVth Games of La Francophonie, which took place in the National Capital Region in July 2001. In the following years, the OFC has gained even greater acclaim performing before tens of thousands of spectators in various venues including the Festival International du Domaine Forget, the Festival d’été de Québec, and the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, as well as returning to the NAC each summer.

Now in its fourth summer, the Orchestre de la francophonie has recruited approximately 70 young Canadian professional musicians, Francophone or Francophile, with classical training, aged 30 or less, who have completed or are about to complete their university studies, or are members of a Canadian professional orchestra. They are in residence in Montreal preparing for this year’s tour which, after the NAC concerts, takes them to Basilique Notre-Dame in Montreal on July 26; Domaine Forget on July 31 and August 1; Rivière-du-Loup on August 3; Caraquet on August 7 and 8, Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre of the Arts on August 10; the Capitol Theatre in Moncton on August 12, and Grand-Pré on August 15.

Chicoutimi-born Jean-Philippe Tremblay was one of eight conductors chosen from Canada and abroad to participate in the National Arts Centre’s first annual Conductors Programme in 2001 led by maestros Jorma Panula and Pinchas Zukerman.  This led to a two-year appointment as Apprentice Conductor of the NAC Orchestra. In November 2002, he was the only Canadian from 250 contestants to reach the finals of the Dmitris Mitropoulos International Competition for Orchestral Conducting in Athens, Greece, where he received the Orchestra's Preference Award as well as an Honorable Mention for Excellence from the jury. He was also the 2002 winner of the Joyce Conger Award for the Arts valued at $10,000. Tremblay has conducted, among others, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the National Ballet of Canada as well as the NAC Orchestra. Next season, he conducts the Wiener KammerOrchester in Vienna, le Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall in London and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He is one of three conductors chosen from around the world to take part in the Allianz International Conductors Academy, where he will be assistant conductor to Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnanyi for eight weeks with different European orchestras.

Jonathan Crow, at age 27, is the concertmaster and youngest member of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Born in Prince George in 1977, he studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and then McGill University. He joined the OSM in 1998 and became assistant concertmaster the next year. A winner of numerous awards and distinctions in British Columbia and Montreal, Jonathan Crow received the Doris Schine Maxwell Scholarship at the Ravinia Festival in June 1996 and 1997. He was also a winner of the OSM Competition in 1996.

He continues to play solo repertoire in North America, having performed with the Victoria, Vancouver, Kingston, National Arts Centre, Montreal, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras, among others, and is often heard on CBC broadcasts.

Tickets to this concert by l’Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne on Saturday, July 17 at 19:30 are free and may be picked up in person at the National Arts Centre Box Office.

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