March 01, 2005 -

• Pinchas Zukerman in 14 different programmes as conductor and/or violinist including a recital with Itzhak Perlman

• Tour of Alberta and Saskatchewan with Pinchas Zukerman and NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha

• NACO debuts including Bernadette Peters, Hilary Hahn, Eri Klas, Yannick Nézet-Séguin

• World premieres by Alexina Louie and Gary Kulesha, and NACO first performances of works by Mahler, Knussen, Schwantner, Pärt

Ottawa (Canada) -- Today on the Internet, the National Arts Centre Orchestra unveiled details of its 2005-2006 subscription season featuring Music Director Pinchas Zukerman giving highlights of the season together with Principal Youth and Family Conductor Boris Brott and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly. The season includes a tour of Alberta and Saskatchewan led by Pinchas Zukerman with NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha; a continuation of Zukerman’s Brahms cycle, stellar guest artists from Itzhak Perlman to Bernadette Peters, and exciting debuts including Hilary Hahn, Eri Klas and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; world premieres of commissions by Alexina Louie and Gary Kulesha, plus works by Oliver Knussen, Arvo Pärt, Joseph Schwantner and Toru Takemitsu.

Musicians making their NAC Orchestra debuts include violinists Hilary Hahn from the U.S.A. and Vadim Repin from Russia, pianists Jean-Philippe Collard from France and Jonathan Gilad also from France, soprano Sibylla Rubens and bass Markus Eiche both from Germany, along with conductors Eri Klas from Estonia, Yannick Nézet-Séguin from Canada, German-American Stefan Sanderling, American Julian Wachner and Frank McNamara from Ireland. Legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar appears in a special concert. The CJOH Pops Series features debuts by Broadway and film superstar Bernadette Peters, singer Ann Hampton Callaway and John Mauceri Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. CBC star Barbara Budd makes her NAC Orchestra debut on the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts.

Returning artists include pianists Jon Kimura Parker, Lang Lang, Anton Kuerti, Garrick Ohlsson, Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough, Stewart Goodyear, Janina Fialkowska, Louise Bessette, Benjamin Hochman, and; violinist James Ehnes; cellist Lynn Harrell; soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, contralto Susan Platts and tenor James Taylor; and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. On the CJOH Pops Series rising superstar Hayley Westenra and piano legend Peter Nero return.

NAC Orchestra principals appearing as soloists are Amanda Forsyth (cello), Joanna G’froerer (flute) and Christopher Millard (bassoon).

The Bombardier Great Performers Series features the NAC’s first-ever recital pairing of the legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman with his close friend and colleague Pinchas Zukerman. The series also includes Romanian pianist Radu Lupu, Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti and a joint recital by Canadian soprano Donna Brown and Canadian baritone Russell Braun.

Jessye Norman is the special guest for the NAC Fall Gala together with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra and a special appearance by Miss Norman’s protegee Susan Platts.

In a continuation of exchange visits between Ottawa and Toronto, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will return with Music Director Peter Oundjian on the podium and Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky as guest soloist.

Pinchas Zukerman will conduct eleven of the eighteen Mark Motors Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series concerts. As violin soloist, audiences will also have the pleasure of hearing the world renowned artist in the Berg Violin Concerto and the Beethoven Violin Concerto; the Beethoven Triple Concerto; Mozart’s Adagio for Violin and Orchestra, and Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

Zukerman is also featured in the Bombardier Great Performers recital with Itzhak Perlman, plus the NAC Gala with Jessye Norman, one of the Music for a Sunday Afternoon chamber concerts, and a TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concert.

Boris Brott, the Orchestra’s Principal Youth and Family Conductor returns to lead all four “Musical Parties” in the popular TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts, and the dynamic Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor, will be on the podium for three of the six concerts on the CJOH Pops Series.

Pinchas Zukerman said, “I’m very excited and happy about our upcoming 05-06 season, my eighth full season as Music Director. The Orchestra is playing beautifully; we have achieved tremendous success in our educational outreach programs, and we’re very excited about what the future holds for music-making in Ottawa and Canada.

“I hope you will enjoy composers such as Shostakovich and Mozart and Brahms, as well as all the great artists who are coming to make music here in our Capital City. Please go to www.nac-cna.ca and connect to your favourite series – and sign up to join us!”

Peter Herrndorf declared, “Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra will once again dazzle audiences with its playing, but that is only the beginning of the excitement we have planned for next season. The Orchestra’s Tour to Alberta and Saskatchewan will bring great music to both provinces during their Centennial celebrations, but just as important, a comprehensive and interactive programme of education for young artists and audiences that is second to none in the world.”

The Alberta and Saskatchewan Tour, in honour of the centennial of these two provinces, is Pinchas Zukerman’s sixth tour since becoming Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. It will take place from November 7 to 20, 2005. Claire Speed, the Orchestra’s Director of Music Education has already made her first trip to the two provinces to begin arrangements for the extensive education activities that will take place alongside the concerts. Details will be announced at a later date.

Works receiving their first NAC Orchestra performances are: NAC-commissioned world premieres by NAC Award Composers Alexina Louie and Gary Kulesha, Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, a work by the famed British composer Oliver Knussen, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan”, Toru Takemitsu’s Tree Line and American composer Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto to be performed by the amazing Evelyn Glennie.

Mozart’s 250^th birthday will be celebrated in a series of concerts in the month of January as well as additional works at other times. In all the NAC Orchestra will perform over a dozen works by this musical genius in this anniversary season. A second birthday will be recognized: Shostakovich’s 100^th. In honour of this centennial, the Orchestra will perform the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Symphony No. 9.

Christopher Deacon, Managing Director of the NAC Orchestra, said: “Pinchas Zukerman continues to lead a stunning artistic revival. The ongoing improvement in the Orchestra’s performance standards, the fascinating breadth of programming variety, and the championing of new music by Alexina Louie and Gary Kulesha all attest to the Zukerman revolution.”

Subscribers to the 2005-06 season along with members of the NAC Donors Circle have first chance at getting tickets to the annual fall NAC Fall Gala featuring the illustrious soprano Jessye Norman united with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra on October 1, 2005. The Gala is presented by TELUS, Founding Partner of the National Youth and Education Trust. These tickets go on sale on March 7 to donors and subscribers. Box Office opens on May 9 to the general public.

The season again consists of the two-night, six-concert Mark Motors Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series; the three-night, six-concert CJOH Pops Series; the four single-night Bombardier Great Performers recitals; the TD Bank Financial Group 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 Christmas with the NAC Orchestra, as well as the return of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a special concert by legendary Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar.

National Arts Centre Orchestra sponsors include Mark Motors of Ottawa returning to present the Mark Motors Audi Signature Series as well as providing the official car (Audi) of the National Arts Centre Orchestra; Bostonian Executive Suites, sponsor of the Bostonian Bravo Series; Bombardier, sponsor of the Bombardier Great Performers Series; the TD Bank Financial Group presenting the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts; and CJOH CTV, media sponsor of the CJOH Pops Series. Partners include Rogers Television 22, providers of NACOtron for the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts; the Ottawa Citizen, media partner for the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts, and the National Gallery of Canada where the Music for a Sunday Afternoon series takes place.

The NAC’s National Youth and Education Trust provides funding for youth programming. The Trust is supported by TELUS (founding partner of the Trust), CGI, SunLife Financial, Bruce Power, Forest Products Association of Canada, Michael Potter and Véronique Dhieux, supporters and patrons of the National Arts Centre Gala, and the National Arts Centre Foundation Donors' Circle.

Highlights of the Mark Motors Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series

Pinchas Zukerman will open the season on Sept. 21-22 with an all-Beethoven concert on the Ovation Series in honour of Her Excellency Adrienne Clarkson, the Governor General of Canada, for her support of the arts throughout her term. The concert features the mighty Beethoven Triple Concerto featuring NACO principal cello Amanda Forsyth together Zukerman on violin and Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska returning for the first time since undergoing career-threatening surgery.

The Mark Motors Audi Signature Series opens on Sept. 28-29 with the return of world-renowned cellist Lynn Harrell for the Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante led by his good friend Pinchas Zukerman – a work requiring such strength and dexterity that Harrell is one of the few cellists who can do it full justice. This programme also continues Zukerman’s cycle of all the great works of Brahms with the Symphony No. 3 in F major. The expanded orchestra for these two large works is made possible in part through the NAC Orchestra Association Kilpatrick Fund.

The opening Bostonian Bravo Series concerts on Oct. 6-7 feature the NAC Orchestra’s dazzling principal flute Joanna G’froerer in Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1, and the world premiere of a commission by NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha. Pinchas Zukerman will also be taking the new Kulesha piece on the November Alberta-Saskatchewan Tour.

On Oct. 26-27, Zukerman will give his first NAC performance of the Berg Violin Concerto, which he considers to be one of the most brilliant pieces of music ever written. On the podium to conduct the Berg will be another renowned composer and close friend of Zukerman – Oliver Knussen – who is guaranteed to bring a keen insight to the masterpiece. Knussen will also conduct one of his own compositions.

The NAC Orchestra will feature double debuts on Jan. 12-13 when Estonian conductor Eri Klas, famed for his interpretation of Russian and Slovak repertoire, teams up with French pianist Jean-Philippe Collard. Klas will conduct Fratres by his countryman, the world-renowned composer Arvo Pärt, while Collard will chase the winter blues away with Rachmaninov’s rousing and romantic Piano Concerto No. 2.

Pinchas Zukerman “discovered” Russian violinist Vadim Repin when he was in San Francisco on a recital tour a decade ago and happened to overhear the young man practising in a neighbouring hotel room. Zukerman will conduct Repin in his NAC Orchestra debut on Feb. 9-10 in the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1, a work for which the Russian has a special affinity.

The legendary German choral conductor Helmuth Rilling will return to lead the great Bach B-minor Mass on March 15-16 with a hand-picked set of soloists and a stellar choral ensemble combining the Vancouver Chamber Choir and the University of Ottawa’s Calixa Lavallée Choir.

Canadian double Grammy-nominee Marc-André Hamelin will perform the monumental romantic Second Piano Concerto by Brahms on March 29-30 conducted by Stefan Sanderling, son of great European conductor Kurt Sanderling, in his NAC debut.

Hilary Hahn, one of the current young stars in the firmament of violin soloists will make her NAC debut on April 19-20 with Pinchas Zukerman on the podium in the rarely performed Glazunov Violin Concerto. This programme also includes the spirited Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 in honour of the composer’s 100^th birthday.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who made a sensational NAC debut in 2003, returns on May 17-18 with the shimmering Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, with Pinchas Zukerman also conducting Tree Line by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, an artist especially admired by Zukerman.

The world’s most famous percussion soloist Evelyn Glennie makes her long-awaited return to the NAC on May 24-25 in Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto, which Glennie has recorded. Classified as “profoundly” deaf, Glennie feels the vibrations of the music through her bare feet. Schwantner will be the guest composer together with NAC Award Composer Alexina Louie on this summer’s Young Composers Programme. This spectacular programme will be led by one of Canada’s most exciting young conductors now making his NAC Orchestra debut – Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal.

The season-closer on June 15-16 is a huge thrilling programme featuring an expanded NAC Orchestra in its first-ever performance of the mighty Mahler Symphony No. 1. Ottawa favourite Jon Kimura Parker is the guest soloist bringing vibrancy and power to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20.

Bombardier Great Performers Series

The all-star four-concert Bombardier Great Performer Series of recitals features the rare chance to see one of the most magical string pairings in the world – Pinchas Zukerman with his close friend and colleague Itzhak Perlman. The two superstars have collaborated on two Galas at the NAC; they will now appear in recital here for the first time on May 10.

Ottawa’s own internationally renowned soprano Donna Brown teams up with another Canadian star, baritone Russell Braun, on Jan. 9 for a joint recital that will include music by Mozart in honour of the composer’s 250th birthday.

Two great pianists make return visits to the recital series: Radu Lupu, a true colossus in the world of music in works by Schubert and Schumann on Feb. 8, and Viennese-Canadian pianist and Ottawa favourite Anton Kuerti on April 11.

CJOH Pops Series

Jack Everly, who has dazzled Ottawa audiences in his debut season as Principal Pops Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, will be on the podium for three of the six CJOH Pops Series concerts in 2005-06. He will conduct The 1950s: The Golden Age of Black and White a tribute to the birth of television on Oct. 13-15. He will also be joined on March 2-4 by one of the most amazingly pure young voices of today – New Zealand’s Hayley Westenra who has broken CD sales records in both New Zealand and the UK. And he will lead Ann Hampton Callaway, an enormously versatile singer-composer, in Swing! Swing! Swing! on June 8-10.

The series also features the NAC Orchestra debut on April 27-29 of Broadway and film legend Bernadette Peters, one of the most entertaining and charismatic performers of all time. Piano dynamo Peter Nero returns to the NAC stage on Jan. 5-7 for the first time since 1977 (after having to cancel a 2004 appearance due to illness) to conduct and perform in inspired improvisations of classical, Broadway and film music. And the Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, John Mauceri, makes his NAC Orchestra debut on Nov. 24-26 in music he knows and loves so well – Spellbound: Classics of the Silver Screen, including the famous “Spellbound” concerto by Rosza performed by Stewart Goodyear.

TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts

Boris Brott, in his new role as Principal Youth and Family Conductor, will lead four “Musical Parties on the bilingual TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts, each performed twice on a Saturday afternoon starting with a special Hallowe’en celebration on Oct. 29, Trick or Treat to a Wicked Beat. Special guests include Music Director Pinchas Zukerman as violinist in Happy Birthday Mozart! on Jan. 21, CBC Radio personality Barbara Budd in Bones Buttons Borscht on March 18, and celebrated percussionist Evelyn Glennie with NACO’s own Bangers and Smash in Bang Goes the Orchestra! on May 27.

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, presented in collaboration with Rogers Television 22. And the season features the continuation of the NAC recorder programme. Patrons have the opportunity to buy excellent recorders in the Foyer at a reasonable price and sign up for recorder clinics to learn how to play the instrument. Then at each concert they have the chance to perform as “guest artists” with the NAC Orchestra.

Music for a Sunday Afternoon

The Sunday afternoon chamber music series at the National Gallery of Canada features four concerts with guest artists Pinchas Zukerman on Oct. 9, French pianist Jean-Philippe Collard on Jan. 15, Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin on April 2 and Canadian pianist Louise Bessette on April 23, all performing with ensembles of musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Specials

In addition to the NAC Fall Gala on October 1 with Jessye Norman, NAC Orchestra subscribers have priority on purchasing tickets to additional special concerts:

The Godfather of World Music himself, influential sitar player Ravi Shankar, will bring his own ensemble of traditional Indian instrumentalists for Festival of India II on Oct. 11. This concert is in celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.

The Orchestra’s annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah will be led on Dec. 14 by Baroque specialist Julian Wachner, the Principal Conductor of Opera McGill, and a stellar set of four soloists together with the Ottawa Choral Society prepared by Iwan Edwards.

Christmas with the NAC Orchestra will be led on Dec. 17 by Irish conductor Frank McNamara in a winning combination of vocal, choral and orchestral works in celebration of the yuletide season. The concert features the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, the Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus and the Ottawa Regional Youth Choir prepared by Laurence Ewashko and Barbara Clark.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra returns on Nov. 16 under Music Director Peter Oundjian with Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky making his NAC debut in a huge programme of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4.

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 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 Mark Motors Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo series.

Patrons can subscribe online www.nac-cna.ca/subscribe; by phone (613) 947-7000, ext 620; 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