June 22, 2006 -

Ottawa, Canada -- The public can enjoy a free concert of classical music performed by the National Arts Centre Orchestra on Thursday, June 29 in the NAC’s Southam Hall at 19:30 led by the five participants in the NAC’s sixth annual Conductors Programme. The 2006 Conductors Programme, which began on June 20 as part of the NAC Summer Music Institute (SMI), is headed this year for the first time by conductor and mentor-to-conductors Kenneth Kiesler together with Pinchas Zukerman, Artistic Director of the SMI.

For 10 days the five Conductors Programme participants, who this year come from Canada, Israel, Japan, Mexico and the USA, undergo intensive study in a masterclass format conducting an elite ensemble of musicians. These are drawn from l’Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne plus piano, augmented by wind musicians of the NAC Young Artists Programme and, for the first time this year, two singers. Conducting sessions for each participant are videotaped, and used as the basis for detailed discussion. In the final two days of the programme these five full participants (there are also six auditors) have the thrill of rehearsing the pieces they have been preparing with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The grand finale is the concert on June 29 in front of a live audience.

The goal of the Conductors Programme is to provide a valuable opportunity in Canada for conductors to develop under the expert guidance of accomplished orchestra leaders. This year there is also a strong interaction between the Conductors Programme and the NAC Young Composers Programme, another component of the SMI. There will be several joint workshops and lectures for members of both programmes. Each conductor will be paired with one of the five young composers, and will conduct that composer’s work at one of the workshops.

The Summer Music Institute is supported by private donations and the NAC’s National Youth and Education Trust (Founding Partner TELUS), including major support from: Scotiabank, TransAlta, Universal, University of Ottawa, and Galaxie – the Continuous Music Network through its Galaxie Rising Stars Program of the CBC Kenneth Kiesler takes over from Jorma Panula who led the Programme for its first five years. Maestro Kiesler has been Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music since 1995. In September 2006 he will also become the visiting artist and advisor in orchestral studies of the Manhattan School of Music. Kiesler is Music Director of the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, founder and director of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, and Conductor Laureate of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, where, as Music Director from 1980 to 2000, he founded the Illinois Symphony Chorus and Illinois Chamber Orchestra, led debuts at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and won several awards.

Kiesler’s students have won major international competitions, such as the Maazel/Vilar and Nicolai Malko Competitions, and hold positions with major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, and Detroit Symphony, as well as opera companies and music schools. Mr. Kiesler has led many master classes for the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors’ Guild, at Oxford University and at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He received the 1988 Helen M. Thompson Award presented by the American Symphony Orchestra League to the outstanding American music director under the age of 35.

These are the five full participants in the 2006 Conductors Programme:

Darko Butorac, a 28-year-old Serbian-born Canadian from Toronto, is the Director of Orchestras at Northern Arizona University, where he conducts all of the school’s orchestra concerts and opera productions. He won the Gold Medal and Audience Favourite Prize at the Fourth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition in 2004, and as grand prize winner conducted concerts with orchestras across three continents in the 2005-06 season. He has a BM in cello performance from the University of Toronto and a MM in conducting from Indiana University, where he conducted over 30 concerts with the school’s five major ensembles. He has studied with David Zinman, David Effron and Imre Pallo, and was a participant in the NAC Conductors Programme in 2005.

Alondra de la Parra, from Mexico now based in New York, is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, the Music Director of the Stowe Spring Music Festival, the Principal Guest Conductor of the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and is a cover conductor at the Manhattan School of Music Symphony. She has a BA in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and has studied orchestral conducting at Juilliard. Awards include El Microfono de Oro” (highest prize given by the Mexican Broadcasting Association), and the Presser Merit Scholarship Award from the MSM where she appeared on the Dean’s List from 2001 to 2005.

Yaniv Dinur, a 25-year-old Israeli pianist born in Jerusalem, has been a participant in the 2002 and 2005 NAC Conductors Programmes. He has his Artists Diploma from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and has studied with Mendi Rodan and Evgeny Zirlin, as well as with Gerhard Markson in Dublin. In 2000 he became the youngest ever invited to conduct an orchestra in Israel when he made his professional debut leading the Israeli Camerata Orchestra. He was the 2005 winner of the Yuri Ahronovich Conducting Prize. Yaniv Dinur has also conducted the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Sinfonietta Cracovia in Poland and the Portugal Symphony Orchestra in Lisbon.

Akiko Fujimoto, from Chiba, Japan, is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard University after being Interim Music Director of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, and co-founding Director/Conductor/Vocalist/Keyboardist of the New Music Ensemble Boston. She received her MM in Orchestra Conducting at the Boston University School for the Arts and her MM in Choral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music. Awards include the Carriuolo Scholarship and the Departmental Award in Orchestral Conducting from Boston University and the Ike Watanabe Scholarship from Eastman School of Music.

Vladimir Kulenovic, from Watertown, MA, is currently a Masters Candidate in Orchestral Conducting at the Boston Conservatory, where he graduated summa cum laude and first in his class in Piano Performance. He previously received a BM in Piano Performance from the University of Belgrade School of Music. He was Assistant Conductor of the Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra and has conducted at the Boston Conservatory and Trinity Episcopal Church.

The six auditors are : Marthe Charlebois (Quebec, QC, Canada); Georges-Étienne d’Entremont (Montreal, QC, Canada); Geneviève Leclair (Sherbrooke, QC, Canada); Eric Paetkau (Edmonton, AB, Canada);and John Trotter (Comox, BC, Canada).

Free tickets to the final concert of the NAC Conductors Programme on Thursday, June 29, at 19:30 in Southam Hall are available in person at the NAC Box Office.

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