February 12, 2004 -

• Pinchas Zukerman in 14 different programmes as conductor, violinist, and chamber musician
• Tour of British Columbia with Pinchas Zukerman and Award Composer Alexina Louie
• NACO debuts of Ivan Moravec, Mervon Mehta, Katia Skanavi, Lou Rawls, Ian Tyson, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Calgary Fiddlers
• World premieres by Alexina Louie, and NACO first performances of works by Brian Current, Elgar, Gade, Hermann, Rachmaninov, Rautavaara and Sibelius

Ottawa (Canada) -- Music Director Pinchas Zukerman today announced details of the 2004-2005 National Arts Centre Orchestra season which includes a tour of British Columbia led by Pinchas Zukerman with composer Alexina Louie; stellar guest artists and exciting debuts; world premieres of two commissions by Alexina Louie, plus works by Ottawa composer Brian Current and the late Canadian composer Harry Somers.

Pianists Ivan Moravec from the Czech Republic and Katia Skanavi from Russia will be making their NAC Orchestra debuts, along with conductor Patrick Summers, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in a special collaboration with Pinchas Zukerman as conductor and violinist, and Mervon Mehta as narrator for the complete incidental music of Beethoven’s Egmont. The CJOH Pops Series features debuts by Lou Rawls, Ian Tyson, and the Calgary Fiddlers.

Returning artists include pianists Yefim Bronfman, Jonathan Biss, Louis Lortie, Radu Lupu and Jon Kimura Parker, and violinists Elmar Oliveira, Viviane Hagner and the young Russian Ilya Gringolts for the first time since he made his sensational North American debut at the National Arts Centre in 1999 at age 17. Canadian singing stars Measha Brueggergosman and Richard Margison are united in a vocal extravaganza. The legendary pianist Alfred Brendel and Ottawa’s much lauded Angela Hewitt appear in recital along with star violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Gil Shaham. Trevor Pinnock returns for his first Messiah since 1994, and Yo-Yo Ma is the special guest for the fall gala together with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra.

Pinchas Zukerman will participate as conductor and sometimes violin soloist in ten of the eighteen Audi Signature, Ovation and Bravo Bostonian concerts as well as one of the Great Performers concerts, a CJOH Pops concert, a Music for a Sunday Afternoon concert, and a TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concert.

Pinchas Zukerman said, “We are proud and excited to present the 04-05 season. This new programme promises to showcase this incredibly versatile orchestra, there is something for everyone, young and young at heart.  Come be part of our best season yet!”

Peter Herrndorf declared, “Thirty-five years of excellence is our banner headline for 2004, and without a doubt the National Arts Centre Orchestra exemplifies these words. With Pinchas Zukerman continuing to inspire us with his enormous passion and commitment we are on the threshold of an even more exciting new era.”

The British Columbia Tour, Pinchas Zukerman’s fifth tour since becoming Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra will take place from November 8 to 21, 2004. More details of the Tour and the extensive education activities that will take place alongside the concerts will be announced at a later date.

Canadian music includes the world premiere of an NAC-commissioned piece by NAC Award Composer Alexina Louie, as well as a commissioned orchestration of her work originally scored for cello and piano, Bringing the Tiger Down From the Mountain II. The Orchestra will also perform North Country by the late Canadian composer Harry Somers, and This Isn’t Silence by Ottawa composer Brian Current, the 2003 winner of the Barlow Prize, a prestigious international composition award. Current was a participant in the Conductor Training Workshop led by Jorma Panula at the NAC in 2000.

Works receiving their first NAC Orchestra performances are: Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Gade’s In the Highlands, Hermann’s Vertigo: Suite, Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2, Rautavaara’s Violin Concerto and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7. Bach’s “Great” Mass in C minor will be performed for the first time since its only NACO performance in 1982.

Some of these concerts will be broadcast live-to-air across Canada in partnership with CBC Radio Two’s In Performance.

Christopher Deacon, Managing Director of the NAC Orchestra, said: “Pinchas has created a musical offering of stunning breadth. The season will open with the lush romanticism of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, will include an innovative programme of dance to the music of Bach, and marks the return of the 20^th century masterpiece by Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. On the Canadian front I’m delighted to see two new commissions from Alexina Louie, a major work by a young Ottawa composer, Brian Current, and one of our great Canadian masterpieces, North Country by Harry Somers. The variety is extraordinary.”

Subscribers to the 2004-05 season have first chance at getting tickets to the annual fall NAC Gala featuring the celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma united with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra on October 2, 2004. The Gala is presented by TELUS, Founding Partner of the National Youth and Education Trust. The four Major Sponsors making up the “Corporate Quartet” are: Bruce Power, CGI Group, Sun Life Financial, and Forest Products Association of Canada. The Associate Sponsor is A&E Television Networks.

Subscribers can also purchase tickets to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra coming to Ottawa for the first time with new Music Director Peter Oundjian on November 4, 2004 presented by RBC Financial Group.

Subscribers also have priority on tickets for the current season’s special “Audi Presents” concert featuring pop diva k.d. lang in her NAC Orchestra debut this coming June 27, 2004.

NAC Orchestra principal musicians featured as soloists are principal cello Amanda Forsyth in the powerful and moving Elgar Cello Concerto performed for the first time since 1990, principal horn Lawrence Vine in Britten’s Serenade, and principal second violin Donnie Deacon together with principal double bass Joel Quarrington in Bottesini’s Gran Duo Concertante.

The season marks the return to the podium of former NAC Orchestra Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Trevor Pinnock for Messiah which he last conducted at the NAC in 1994. Other conductors include Lawrence Foster, Mario Venzago, Maximiano Valdés, Roberto Minczuk, James Judd, Patrick Summers in his NAC Orchestra debut, and conductor/pianist Jeffrey Kahane who will also lead Mozart’s Concerto No. 27 from the piano. The ever-popular Boris Brott returns to work his magic for the amazing TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts, and the dynamic Jack Everly will be back for two concerts on the CJOH Pops Series.

The CJOH Pops Series includes the Pops debut of Pinchas Zukerman with some of the encores that he loved hearing performed by his mentor Isaac Stern; jazz and pop superstar Lou Rawls in a tribute to Frank Sinatra, the return of trumpet virtuoso Doc Severinsen in an all-new Cubana show, a celebration of Alberta folk culture as part of the Alberta Scene festival, including appearances by Canadian folk icon Ian Tyson, the Calgary Fiddlers and more; pianist and conductor Peter Nero and the ever-popular Jack Everly with five Broadway divas.

The season again includes the two-night, six-concert Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series; the three-night, six-concert CJOH Pops Series; the four single-night Great Performers recitals; the TD Bank Financial GroupYoung People’s Concerts twice a day over four afternoons; plus the four-concert Music for a Sunday Afternoon chamber music series presented at the National Gallery of Canada. Special concerts include Messiah and Christmas with the NAC Orchestra, as well as the return of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the first time in Ottawa under its new Music Director Peter Oundjian.

National Arts Centre Orchestra sponsors include Audi Canada returning to sponsor the Audi Signature Series; Bostonian Executive Suites, sponsor of the Bostonian Bravo Series; the TD Bank Financial Group presenting the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts; Borden Ladner Gervais LLP sponsoring the season-opening concert; Mark Motors of Ottawa, providers of the official car (Audi) of the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and CJOH TV, media sponsor of the CJOH Pops Series. Partners include Rogers Television 22 providers of NACOtron for the TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts; and the National Gallery of Canada where the Music for a Sunday Afternoon series takes place.

Highlights from Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo Series

Pinchas Zukerman will open the season with a grandiose Audi Signature Series concert of Russian Romance featuring Ottawa favourite Jon Kimura Parker performing Tchaikovsky’s lavish Piano Concerto No. 1 while the Music Director conducts the NAC Orchestra’s first-ever performance of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor. This concert is sponsored by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

The Audi Signature Series closes with another all-Russian evening of Glinka, Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 4) and the great Yefim Bronfman performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

The Ovation Series begins with the irresistible combination of principal second violin Donnie Deacon and principal double bass Joel Quarrington in Bottesini’s concerto for this rare combination of instruments – the Gran Duo Concertante. Pinchas Zukerman continues his ongoing Brahms cycle with a performance of the transcendent Symphony No. 4.

The opening Bostonian Bravo concerts on October 7-8 take place on the 35^th birthday of the NAC Orchestra, and in honour of the occasion this program features a reprise of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony which was performed on that historic night of October 7, 1969. This concert also features the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Pinchas Zukerman and NACO principals performing Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe and bassoon.

Principal cello Amanda Forsyth will perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor conducted by Pinchas Zukerman on a programme that also features a new NAC-commissioned orchestration for cello and orchestra of Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II by NAC Award Composer Alexina Louie. This work will be featured on the Orchestra’s tour of British Columbia in November 2004. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 completes this programme.

In 1999 after relatives in Russia told NACO musician Lev Berenshteyn about a young prodigy and Berenshteyn brought the violin virtuoso to Pinchas Zukerman’s attention, the 17-year-old made his spectacular North American debut with the NAC Orchestra. Now a Deutche Gramophon recording artist, the Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts returns to perform the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1. Conductor Jeffrey Kahane, also a pianist, will lead Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 from the piano.

Maximiano Valdés returns to lead an unusual all-Scandinavian programme of Gade’s In the Highlands, Rautavaara’s Violin Concerto featuring the first appearance in Ottawa since 1989 of violinist Elmar Oliveira, as well as two works by Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonola and the mighty Symphony No. 7. The Gade, Rautavaara and Sibelius Symphony are all firsts for the NAC Orchestra.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will make its NAC Orchestra debut in a spectacular collaboration in which Pinchas Zukerman performs and conducts the music of Bach, including excerpts from a suite, a prelude and two Brandenburg Concerti, while this energetic dance company in its first Ottawa appearance since 1991 performs counter/part choreographed by Artistic Director Jim Vincent. The work was a hit at its January 2004 premiere with Pinchas Zukerman and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The same programme features Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C minor performed only once before by NACO in 1982. It will feature the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, the Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus and an ensemble of rising Canadian stars.

The violin playing of Pinchas Zukerman and the piano playing of the phenomenal Radu Lupu are both in the forefront of an all-Beethoven programme featuring the Violin Sonata No. 3 and the Piano Concerto No. 4. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 completes the programme.

The complete incidental music of Beethoven’s Egmont will be conducted by Lawrence Foster while Goethe’s dramatic tale is narrated by Montreal-born actor Mervon Mehta. This programme also features Foster championing a 20^th century masterpiece – Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

Canadian star tenor Richard Margison is united on the NAC stage with the country’s fastest rising soprano Measha Brueggergosman in a selection of arias. Brueggergosman is also highlighted in Beethoven’s “Ah, Perfido!” scene and aria. These concerts feature the NACO podium debut of Houston Grand Opera Music Director Patrick Summers.

Pinchas Zukerman will lead an all-British programme of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with Zukerman as violin soloist, together with Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings featuring principal horn Lawrence Vine, and the first-ever NAC Orchestra performance of Elgar’s intriguing Enigma Variations. The expanded orchestra for this programme is made possible in part through the NAC Orchestra Association Kilpatrick Fund.

The final programme of the season juxtaposes opposite instrumental forces in a double offering of Beethoven. The Septet in E-flat major for Strings and Woodwinds featuring Pinchas Zukerman on violin is followed by the stirring “Choral” Symphony No. 9 with the NAC Orchestra joined by the Ottawa Choral Society and Choirs of the University of Ottawa.

Great Performers

The all-star four-concert Great Performer recital series features two violinists and two pianists, all highly sought-after artists on the world stage.

The legendary Alfred Brendel, one of the greatest of all classical pianists makes a return visit to the recital series, and Ottawa pianist Angela Hewitt, the supreme Bach specialist of her generation, performs the complete Goldberg Variations.

Another Ottawa favourite, the sensational violin virtuoso Gil Shaham makes a welcome return to the recital stage for the first time since 1998 joined by his recital partner Akira Eguchi. The series also features NAC Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman with his longtime recital partner Marc Neikrug.

CJOH Pops Series

A number of legendary performers in a variety of styles promise to make this season’s CJOH Pops Series one of the most spectacular ever. Music Director Pinchas Zukerman makes his series debut in a Boston Pops-style concert performing some of the whimsical encores that his mentor Isaac Stern loved to play. Doc Severinsen and a fabulous array of Cuban stars, including percussionist Luis Conte, will thrill audiences with the Latin rhythms of Cubana, while Lou Rawls presents his own special tribute to the one and only Frank Sinatra. Perennial favourite Jack Everly takes us to Broadway with not one, not two, but five fabulous divas performing show-stopping hits, while jazz piano dynamo Peter Nero returns to the NAC stage for the first time since 1977 to conduct and perform in a Big Band spectacular. And in a special Alberta Scene concert, Canadian folk icon Ian Tyson is joined by a host of western entertainers including the sensational Calgary Fiddlers.

TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts

The irrepressible Boris Brott, whose programming savvy and fantastic rapport with kids of all ages is the secret to the overwhelming success of this NAC Orchestra series, returns for all four of the bilingual TD Bank Financial Group Young People’s Concerts, each performed twice on a Saturday afternoon.

Boris and special guest artists explore the rhythms, melodies, harmonies and syncopation of our multicultural world using music, stories and multimedia.

Canada’s first man in space, astronaut Marc Garneau, joins Boris for Music of the Spheres - Our new Frontier, featuring a virtual journey on board the Space Shuttle. Mexico’s Ambassador to Canada, Maria Teresa Garcia Segovia, is the special guest for The Spanish Connection helping young audiences experience the infectious beat of Latin syncopation from Spain to the New World. Pinchas Zukerman joins Boris for Middle Europe - Folk Song to Symphony with the music of Dvorák as well as colourful folk selections from polkas and klezmer, to dumkas and furiants. And the Honourable Lincoln Alexander helps lead us on a journey From Africa to the New World - The Underground Railway and all that Jazz.

Each concert at 13:30 and 15:30 is preceded by activities in the Foyer organized by volunteers of the NAC Orchestra Association. Each concert features NACOtron, the NAC’s giant-screen video system showing the musicians up close while they perform. NACOtron is presented in collaboration with Rogers Television 22.

Music for a Sunday Afternoon

The Sunday afternoon chamber music series at the National Gallery of Canada features four concerts with guest artists Pinchas Zukerman, pianist Jeffrey Kahane, rising star Jonathan Biss  and Ottawa’s own classical guitar virtuoso Daniel Bolshoy, all performing with ensembles of musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Specials

Subscribers to the 2004-05 season have the first chance at getting tickets to the annual NAC Gala in October featuring superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma together with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra. The Gala is presented by TELUS, Founding Partner of the National Youth and Education Trust. The four Major Sponsors making up the “Corporate Quartet” are: Bruce Power, CGI Group, Sun Life Financial, and Forest Products Association of Canada. The Associate Sponsor is A&E Television Networks.

Subscribers also have priority on tickets for the 2003-04 special “Audi Presents” concert featuring pop diva k.d. lang in her NAC Orchestra debut this coming spring on June 27.

The Orchestra’s annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah promises to be a very special occasion next December when former NAC Orchestra Artistic Director and Principal Conductor and one of the world’s leading Baroque specialists Trevor Pinnock conducts his first Messiah in Ottawa in a decade.

Christmas with the NAC Orchestra, continues the new tradition begun with enormous success in 2003 under conductor George Daugherty who returns with this winning combination of vocal, choral and orchestral works in celebration of the season.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra makes its first NAC appearance with new Music Director Peter Oundjian on the podium with guest violinist Sarah Chang performing the Dvorák Violin Concerto. The concert is presented by RBC Financial Group.

Benefits

Subscribers benefit from a number of privileges including: up to 20% off regular ticket prices (50% for students); subscriber preferred discounts off additional Orchestra, Theatre and Dance tickets; 10% off lunch at Le Café; first choice of the best seats in Southam Hall; a subscriber-friendly exchange policy; priority on purchases of additional Orchestra tickets before the Box Office opens to the general public; advance notice of special events; a free subscription to Presto! the NACO newsletter; and special discounts at CD Warehouse and Nicholas Hoare, Bookseller.

Subscribers with specific tastes in music or with schedules that make it hard to decide on a series, may prefer the popular Pick-Six option. They can put together their own package of six concerts from the eighteen concerts of the Audi Signature, Ovation and Bostonian Bravo series.

Patrons can subscribe online (www.nac-cna.ca/subscribe ); by phone (613-947-7000, ext 620); or in person at the NAC.

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