June 22, 2005 -

Ottawa, Canada -- The National Arts Centre’s “Celebration of Future Classics” concert on Wednesday, June 29 at 19:00 will feature four world premieres and one Ottawa premiere by the five participants of the NAC Young Composers Programme together with works by their two teachers – NAC Award Composer Alexina Louie, the Lead Composer for this summer’s programme, and Pulitzer Prize-winning guest composer Joseph Schwantner. The concert will take place in Southam Hall with the audience seated with the musicians on Southam Hall stage. The performers are drawn from both L’Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

There are also composition lectures open to the public on Thursday, June 23 at 19:00 by Alexina Louie and on Saturday, June 25 at 19:00 by Joseph Schwantner in Freiman Hall at the Perez Building, University of Ottawa.

The Young Composers Programme is one component of Pinchas Zukerman’s NAC Summer Music Institute which is supported by scholarships, private donations, the NAC National Youth and Education Trust, and corporate partners including Galaxie – The Continuous Music Network, Scotiabank and TransAlta.

Over the course of ten days, Alexina Louie will lead the five chosen participants in composition workshops to put the finishing touches on their works-in-progress. They will have at their disposal an ensemble of virtuoso musicians from l’Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne (OFC) led by Jean-Philippe Tremblay, the NAC Orchestra’s former Apprentice Conductor and a graduate of the NAC Conductors Programme. The audience will hear these five works on June 29.

On this same concert, an ensemble of musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra led by Alexander Mickelthwate will perform Alexina Louie’s Imaginary Opera with pianist Brigitte Poulin which had its world premiere in Paris in February of this year led by another NAC Award Composer Denys Bouliane. The ensemble from the OFC led again by Mickelthwate will perform Joseph Schwantner’s Music of Amber (with pianist Jean Desmarais).

Here are the five young composers and their works:

David Adamcyk: Les Pampres de la Tonnelle
David Adamcyk has just completed his Master’s degree in composition at McGill University under the supervision of Brian Cherney. He is especially focused on writing music for live instruments and electronics, but is also keen on working with more traditional instrumental formations. His piece for solo cello and tape Harmattan earned him a third prize in the 2003 SOCAN competition.

Emily Doolittle: four pieces about water (2000)
Emily Doolittle was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and educated at Dalhousie University, Indiana University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, and Princeton University.  She is currently living in Montreal, where she is writing a story-telling piece for ensemble Meduse, studying bird and animal songs and their relation to human music, and learning to play Cape Breton fiddle. This year she has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony and the Banff Arts Centre.

Scott Good: Variations for Chamber Orchestra
Toronto native Scott Good is Alexina Louie’s Affiliate Composer under the NAC Young Composer Programme.  An avid composer, he has written for a variety of ensembles and soloists. The rest of the time he is a trombonist who can be found performing in a variety of venues from concert halls, to churches, community centres and bars.

Vincent Ho: Remnants of a Glass Cathedral by Vincent Ho
Born in Ottawa in 1975, Vincent Ho studied at the University of Calgary and University of Toronto and is now at the University of Southern California. He has composed mostly orchestral, chamber and piano works that have been successfully performed in both North America and abroad. His many awards include the Morton Gould Young Composer Award (ASCAP, 2004), four SOCAN Young Composers awards, and USC’s Sadye J. Moss Composition Prize.

Maxime McKinley: Wirkunst – Fellini
Born in 1979 in the Eastern Townships, Quebec, Maxime McKinley trained at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and is now working on his doctorate at the Université de Montréal. He has received several commissions and is the winner of Second Prize (2003) and First Prize (2004) of the SOCAN Competition for Young Composers. In 2005, he won the OUM (Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal) competition. 

NAC Award Composer Alexina Louie is one of three composers named as recipients of the National Arts Centre’s Composer Awards of $75,000 under the National Arts Centre New Music Plan launched in 2002. A two-time Juno Award-winner of international renown, she is one of the most frequently performed Canadian classical composers. Dr. Louie has been widely commissioned and performed by Canada’s leading orchestras, new music ensembles, chamber groups and soloists. She has toured extensively and gained both personal acclaim for her compositions and recognition for Canada’s new music abroad. She joined the NAC Orchestra on its British Columbia Tour in November 2004 where her NAC-commissioned orchestration of Bringing the Tiger Down From the Mountain II was performed at every public concert. She also led composition lectures and masterclasses with high school and university music students, and workshops with young piano students. She is the Lead Composer of this summer’s Young Composers Programme, which was led by Denys Bouliane in 2004 and Gary Kulesha in 2003.

Guest Composer Joseph Schwantner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his orchestral work Aftertones of Infinity, and is now one of the most esteemed, highly visible and frequently performed composers in America. He has won numerous other awards, grants and prizes as well, and has seen his music performed by nearly every major orchestra in North America as well as by many in Europe and Japan. He is regarded as one of the great colorists of contemporary music, and his interest in this aspect of composition can be seen in the very titles of such orchestral works as A Sudden Rainbow, A Play of Shadows, From a Dark Millennium and Toward Light; and also in chamber works like Chronicon (bassoon and piano) and Music of Amber. The National Arts Centre Orchestra with the world-renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie as guest soloist will perform his Concerto for Percussion in May 2006.

The “Celebration of Future Classics” concert takes place on Wednesday, June 29 at 19:00 on the stage of Southam Hall with tickets at $12. Tickets are on sale now at the NAC Box Office or NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca, or through Ticketmaster at (613) 755-1111. For more information about the NAC’s Summer at the Centre programming, which includes the public events of the Summer Music Institute, visit the NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca.

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