National Youth Orchestra returns to NAC for free concert under the baton of Kazuyoshi Akiyama on July 26
July 16, 2002 -
Ottawa, Canada -- The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYOC)
will return to the National Arts Centre's Southam Hall on
Friday, July 26 at 19:30, for a free concert under the baton of
Kazuyoshi Akiyama. The 96-member ensemble of elite young musicians
from across Canada will perform Richard Strauss's Don
Juan, Respighi's Pines of Rome, and Prokofiev's
Symphony No. 6.
The Ottawa concert is part of the NYOC's 42nd
summer tour, which this year takes the musicians to Japan and China
as well as Canada. The tour begins on July 23 in Kingston, continuing
after Ottawa to Stratford and Toronto in Ontario, Niigata and Chiba
City in Japan, Hong Kong in China, and Vancouver and Victoria in
British Columbia finishing on August 18. In Japan, the NYOC will
return to the World Youth Orchestra Conference Festival where it
performed in 1996 and was declared by the delegates to be "the best
youth orchestra in the world".
Ottawa participants this summer are Moira Burke, viola; Jennifer
Duke, violin, Christian Elliott, cello; Thaddeus Morden, cello; and
Leonie Wall, flute. Morden and Elliott have both been participants in
the National Arts Centre Young Artists Programme, while Morden and
Wall have been prize winners in the NAC Orchestra Bursary
Competition.
The NYOC is an internationally renowned and respected training
ground for young orchestral musicians. Its alumni form the core of
major Canadian orchestras (approximately half of the National Arts
Centre Orchestra are former members) while others have positions in
prominent international orchestras. More than 2,200 of Canada's
finest young musicians have received invaluable orchestral training
from this nationally treasured institution. The training session,
currently held on the campus of Queen's University in Kingston,
offers more hours of training of orchestral playing in one summer
than most universities offer in a year. Faculty members of the NYOC
come from prominent orchestras throughout Europe and North
America.
Kazuyoshi Akiyama returns as Music Director of the National Youth
Orchestra of Canada after an absence of one year. This summer is his
tenth with the NYOC since 1973. Maestro Akiyama's conducting
abilities are held in high esteem throughout the world. In 1973
Maestro Akiyama was honoured as the first conductor to be appointed
Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra following the
tenure of Leopold Stokowski, a position he served through 1977. He
has held the post of Music Director with the Vancouver Symphony,
where he served for thirteen years from 1972 through 1985. In 1968 he
was appointed Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony, a post he
continues to hold; and, he is also Principal Conductor of the Osaka
Philharmonic as well as Music Director of the Syracuse Symphony.
Tickets for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada on Friday, July
26 at 19:30 are free and may be picked up in person at the NAC Box
Office during regular Box Office hours, Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to
21:00. Limit: Four tickets per person. Once tickets run out, patrons
are encouraged to come on the night and will be seated if space
becomes available.
