NAC-commissioned world premieres by Kulesha and Staniland are featured in “Celebration of Future Classics” concert along with masterpieces by Webern and Harbison in U of O's Tabaret Hall on July 6
July 02, 2003 -
Ottawa, Canada -- The fruits of the NAC's New Music Plan will be on display on Sunday, July 6 at 19:30, when the National Arts Centre presents the world premieres of commissioned works by NAC Award Composer Gary Kulesha and Affiliate Composer Andrew Staniland in a “Celebration of Future Classics” in the University of Ottawa's Tabaret Hall. The concert also features Concerto, Op. 24 by Webern, and String Quartet No. 4 by American composer John Harbison, one of the faculty members of the first edition of NAC Young Composers Programme.
Gary Kulesha is the Lead Composer of this summer's Young Composers Programme under the NAC New Music Plan, which concludes on July 6 after ten days during which three Canadian composers workshop works-in-progress on a resident ensemble of musicians. This celebratory concert will feature Gary Kulesha conducting ensembles of musicians of the National Arts Centre Orchestra with special guests Stephen Clarke, piano, and Beverly Johnston, marimba, stars of the Toronto new music scene.
The concert opens with the Webern Concerto, one of the most important and influential works of the 20th century, and also one of the densest, most challenging and most rewarding. Kulesha will intersperse a first run-through with demonstrations and explanations to help unravel its mysteries. It will receive a second uninterrupted performance later in the programme.
John Harbison, one of America's most esteemed, most performed and most recorded classical composers, had his String Quartet No. 4 premiered by the Orion Quartet at the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival in 2002. Known for the lyricism and mysticism of his works, he says the Concerto “chooses as its protagonists the first violin and the cello, and projects them into an instinctive relationship, like encounters between operatic characters.”
Gary Kulesha's Violin Concerto is his first commission as one of the NAC's three Award Composers under the NAC New Music Plan. This pianist, organist, conductor, choir director, teacher, CBC producer, broadcaster, musical journalist and composer has had his works performed across North America as well as in Europe and Australia. As an NAC Award Composer he works closely with the NAC for a four-year period and will create two more commissioned works. The Violin Concerto will be premiered by 23-year-old Donnie Deacon, principal second violin of the NAC Orchestra.
Andrew Staniland is Kulesha's Affiliate Composer under the New Music Plan. He has assisted Kulesha during the Young Composers Programme, and been guided by his mentor through the creation of his NAC commission. Entitled Alchemy, the work is inspired by “the process of turning base metals into gold, and the alchemist's myth that everything was once so simple – that the equation of life could be etched on the surface of a gem.”
The “Celebration of Future Classics” takes place on Sunday, July 6 at 19:30 in the University of Ottawa's Tabaret Hall, at 550 Cumberland Street. All tickets are $12.00 and are on sale now at the NAC Box Office. They can also be purchased at Tabaret Hall the night of the concert.
