June 20, 2005 -

Ottawa, Canada -- The National Arts Centre’s fifth annual Conductors Programme which begins on Sunday, June 19 will conclude on Tuesday, June 28 with a free concert by the National Arts Centre Orchestra led by the participants. The NAC Conductors Programme, part of the Summer Music Institute, provides a valuable opportunity in Canada for experienced conductors to develop to a higher level under the expert guidance of accomplished orchestra leaders. The five participants were selected from 68 applications received from Canada and abroad to work with Finnish conductor and master teacher Jorma Panula, and National Arts Centre Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman. An additional five are auditing the programme.

The following five are full participants in the 2005 Conductors Programme:

James Lowe, a 29-year-old from Nottingham, Britain, is the Artistic Director of the New Bristol Sinfonia and Associate Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He studied viola at the Royal Academy of Music, and has a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from Edinburgh University. He has studied with Panula, Neeme Järvi and Benjamin Zander. He was a 2002 finalist in the BBC Young Conductors Competition and was one of two prize-winners in the Tokyo International Competition for Conductors.

Jukka Iisakkila, a 29-year old fromFinland, is the Artistic Director of the Sääksmäki Sounds! Music Festival and its resident orchestra, the Nordic Symphony Orchestra. He has his MM from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and has studied with Panula, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Alan Gilbert. He was the First Prize winner of the Helsingborg Nordic Competition in 2002, and a prize-winner in the Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition in 2004. He has conducted many orchestras in Scandinavia as well as the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Opera.

Darko Butorac, a 27-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 will conduct 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.

Yaniv Dinur, a 24-year-old Israeli pianist born in Jerusalem, was a participant in the 2002 NAC Conductors Programme. 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.

Bradley Thachuk, a 35-year-old Canadian born in Toronto, is the Associate Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Music Director of the Fort Wayne Youth Symphony. Before that he was Interim Music Director of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and, from 1995 to 1998, Music Director of the Brampton Symphony Orchestra. He continues his association with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras where he was Conducting Assistant in 2000-01. He has also conducted in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy, and Portugal.He studied classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto before receiving his BM from the University of Toronto. He has a MM from the University of Cincinnati and now studies privately with Paavo Järvi. He won the David Effron Conducting Fellowship in 2000.

The NAC Summer Music Institute is supported by scholarships, private donations, the NAC National Youth and Education Trust, and corporate partners including Galaxie – the Continuous Music Network, Scotiabank and TransAlta.

The five participants undergo ten days of intensive study in a master class format conducting a quintet of musicians from L’Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne. In the final two days of the programme, on June 27 and 28, all five participants may have the opportunity to rehearse and conduct the National Arts Centre Orchestra in the NAC’s Southam Hall. This will culminate in the free public concert. Conducting sessions for each participant are videotaped, and these videos used as the basis for detailed discussion each day. Included in the Programme will be orchestration sessions led by Maestro Panula and evening information sessions with staff and members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra and invited guests.

Jorma Panula has led the NAC Conductors Programme with Pinchas Zukerman since 2001. He was the artistic director of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra from 1963 to 1965, the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1965 to 1975, and the Aarhus Symphony from 1970 to 1973. He has been a frequent guest conductor throughout Europe and appeared frequently as conductor of the Finnish National Opera. Jorma Panula has also composed a wide variety of music, including two operas that established a genre of “performance opera” which fuses music, visual art and daily life. He is now a guest conductor and professor for conducting courses all over the world including Paris, London, Moscow, Tanglewood and Aspen. Conductors who have studied under him include Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has reduced his schedule in recent years, and the NAC Conductors Programme is now the only training programme he gives in North America.

NAC Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman first met conductor Jorma Panula in 1990 in Denmark when Panula led a viola concerto which had been written for Zukerman by Finnish composer Per Norgaard.

Free tickets to the final concert of the NAC Conductors Programme on June 28, at 19:30 are available in person at the NAC Box Office.

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