December 19, 2005 -

Ottawa (Canada) -- The National Arts Centre (NAC) today announced that its conductor, violinist and educator Pinchas Zukerman will be taking a sabbatical starting in January for five and a half months to rest, plan and re-energize. While on sabbatical, Zukerman will prepare for the NAC’s Summer Music Institute, as well plan for the 07-08 season of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Zukerman will return to his duties as Music Director in time to lead the Summer Music Institute in June.

“After more than seven years at a breakneck pace leading the NAC Orchestra (NACO) to new heights of artistic excellence, Pinchas Zukerman is taking a well-deserved and much-needed break to rest and plan for the next exciting phase of the Orchestra’s development,” said NAC President and CEO Peter Herrndorf. “Pinchas is a triple threat: violinist, conductor and educator. There is no one in the world that has devoted themselves with such passion to the heavy demands of performing, conducting and teaching at such a high and sustained level. We look forward to welcoming him back re-energized for an exciting future at the NAC.”

Since joining the NAC, Zukerman has had a tremendous impact on the cultural life of both the national capital region and Canada as a whole. He has led major tours - Canada (1999), the Middle East and Europe (2000), Atlantic Canada (2002), United States and Mexico (2003), British Columbia (2004), Alberta and Saskatchewan (2005) with plans well underway for  Quebec (2006) and Asia (2007) - which have created a new paradigm for orchestra tours that place education on an equal footing with performance. As noted in a Globe and Mail feature on the Alberta-Saskatchewan tour last month: “Zukerman is on a mission to expose children to classical music.”

In 1999 Zukerman created the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute, which brings young musicians, conductors and composers from across Canada and abroad to participate in master classes, chamber music rehearsals and concerts with Mr. Zukerman and an international faculty. Zukerman was also behind the launch of the NAC’s New Music Programme in 2002. Other important milestones in Zukerman’s first six years at the NAC include:  more than $4 million raised for the National Youth and Education Trust from proceeds of the NAC’s fundraising Galas; the highest-ever Music series subscription figures in the 03-04 season; acoustical improvements in Southam Hall; more than 30,000 teacher study guides distributed  across Canada to every elementary school; and five CD recordings with NACO.

Zukerman was scheduled to conduct five programmes from January until the end of the 2005-2006 season; the NAC will announce new conductors in the coming weeks. Zukerman will play the violin, however, in a special recital at the NAC on May 10 with his esteemed colleague Itzhak Perlman.

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For more information, please contact:
Jayne Watson
Director of Communications
(613) 947-7000, ext. 260
jwatson@nac-cna.ca