Latest news with #NACOrchestra
Hamilton Spectator
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Indigenous opera singer Emma Pennell wins $25K emerging artist award
Indigenous soprano Emma Pennell has won a $25,000 emerging artist award. The 27-year-old opera singer will receive the RBC Emerging Artist Award during weekend celebrations for the 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. Pennell was chosen by a committee of artistic leaders at the National Arts Centre. Daphne Burt, senior manager of artistic planning for the NAC Orchestra, nominated Pennell, describing them as a star on the rise. Pennell says the award is a life-changing amount that would help cover the expensive costs of opera auditions, which often involve travel and stage attire. Pennell will receive the award at a special event on June 14th, part of the weekend of celebrations for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. 'Not many people who come from places that I come from have these opportunities and so I owe it to all the Indigenous people that I've met along the way,' said Pennell, who has Ktaqmkuk Mi'kmaq roots and is from the village of South River in rural Northern Ontario. 'Our voices, our art, our performances and our bodies belong on these stages just like everybody else. I actually have no idea how the National Arts Centre found me, but they did! It's just amazing.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Indigenous opera singer Emma Pennell wins $25K emerging artist award
Indigenous soprano Emma Pennell has won a $25,000 emerging artist award. The 27-year-old opera singer will receive the RBC Emerging Artist Award during weekend celebrations for the 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. Pennell was chosen by a committee of artistic leaders at the National Arts Centre. Daphne Burt, senior manager of artistic planning for the NAC Orchestra, nominated Pennell, describing them as a star on the rise. Pennell says the award is a life-changing amount that would help cover the expensive costs of opera auditions, which often involve travel and stage attire. Pennell will receive the award at a special event on June 14th, part of the weekend of celebrations for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. 'Not many people who come from places that I come from have these opportunities and so I owe it to all the Indigenous people that I've met along the way,' said Pennell, who has Ktaqmkuk Mi'kmaq roots and is from the village of South River in rural Northern Ontario. 'Our voices, our art, our performances and our bodies belong on these stages just like everybody else. I actually have no idea how the National Arts Centre found me, but they did! It's just amazing.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2025.
Ottawa Citizen
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Alexander Shelley on quitting while it's good, and why that's harder than it sounds
Article content The National Arts Centre has announced the departure of Alexander Shelley, the much-loved music director of the NAC Orchestra, after more than a decade in the position. Article content The 45-year-old maestro will leave Ottawa in July 2026, and head for California to lead the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles. Article content In this lightly edited interview, Shelley reflected on his time in Ottawa, a chapter of his life that saw several significant milestones, including the births of his two sons and the commissioning of more than 50 new orchestral works. Article content Article content Article content A: We're going to be ending the relationship on a great high, which is what you want. We're in the middle of an amazing recording cycle. We've got this tour (to South Korea and Japan) coming up. We have amazing guests coming this season, like Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang and Gabriela Montero and just the list goes on and on. Augustine Hadelich. They are some of the finest artists in the world, with whom we've built deep and meaningful relationships over the last decade. I think this season rivals any of the great orchestras in the world. Article content A: Yes, of course. Part of our soul as a family, and for me personally, will always be here. For my wife and our children who are Canadians, who were born here, this is much more than a job. This is a very important chapter in our lives as a family. Article content Article content A: This orchestra, the administration and the audience are a family, too. When you're making music at the level that we are, it's a forging of deep relationships with the musicians. It's not just a job where you turn up and do a thing. And we've been through a lot. We went through the whole pandemic together, the convoy. When you think about it, there have been enormous social shifts between 2015 and 2025. Article content Article content A: This orchestra is a national gem in the excellence that it represents. I feel that I have been part of a line of musical directors here who have understood that it's incumbent on us to continue that growth of excellence. This is one of the elite ensembles of the world. I believe that through the work on stage, through the hiring, and the growth of the organization, we can continue to to have that upward trajectory. Article content A: I remember when I took this job I was thinking deeply about the role of a national organization, and I (realized) the role of a national organization is to to lean into the risks that other organizations that have different models of funding and support can't lean into as easily.
Hamilton Spectator
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
A musical from Tomson Highway, dancing skateboarders among NAC's upcoming lineup
A long-awaited musical from playwright Tomson Highway, a '90s take on 'Macbeth' and skateboarding stunts are among the spectacles bound for the National Arts Centre. Canada's multidisciplinary home for the performing arts released a 2025-26 lineup Thursday that includes the return of holiday favourites including Handel's 'Messiah' by the NAC Orchestra and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's 'Nutcracker' in December. In between are dance, orchestral, pop music and drama productions from new voices and established veterans. Here's a look at some of the highlights. THEATRE Highway brings the third instalment of his 'Rez Cycle' to NAC's Indigenous Theatre program, with the world première of his musical 'Rose.' The 2003 play is set on the Wasaychigan Hill Reserve in 1992, and revisits several characters from 'The Rez Sisters' and 'Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing.' The story here centres on Emily Dictionary and her biker pals 'as they fight to reclaim their community.' NAC says the musical has never been staged 'due to its scale and ambition.' In the English Theatre lineup, artistic director Nina Lee Aquino directs two world premières: 'Copperbelt' by Natasha Mumba, a co-production with Soulpepper Theatre about the daughter of a powerful African family caught between ambition and the cost of success; and the eco-thriller 'cicadas,' created by David Yee and Chris Thornborrow and co-produced by Tarragon Theatre, in which a very strange house sinks into the earth. The English Theatre lineup also includes Marie Farsi's stage adaptation of 'Fifteen Dogs,' André Alexis's Giller Prize-winning novel about a group of dogs suddenly granted human consciousness. The French Theatre season closes with Shakespeare's 'Macbeth,' directed by Quebec visionary Robert Lepage. The original Stratford Festival production, created in collaboration with Lepage's company Ex Machina, set the action amid the biker wars of the 1990s. ORCHESTRA Music director Alexander Shelley's final season with the NAC Orchestra opens with Giacomo Puccini's opera 'Tosca' and boasts an all-Canadian edition of the Great Performers series, including Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Quebec City-based chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy and recitals by Calgary-born pianist Jan Lisiecki and Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes. Soloists include violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell, cellist Bryan Cheng, and pianists Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Hélène Grimaud. DANCE Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen unleashes what NAC describes as a 'zany' production dubbed 'Skatepark,' in which skateboarding thrill-seekers encounter a group of dancers. Also, Guillaume Côté and Lepage present a dance version of 'Hamlet,' the Royal Winnipeg Ballet offers up a surreal 'Hansel & Gretel' and the National Ballet of Canada presents a new work, 'Procession,' from choreographers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. POPULAR MUSIC AND VARIETY The Pops lineup will see singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright hit the stage Oct. 15, followed by Ariane Moffatt on Oct. 16 and Choir! Choir! Choir! on Nov. 23. There's also a tribute to Aretha Franklin featuring Broadway star Capathia Jenkins and soul singer Ryan Shaw, Troupe Vertigo fuses acrobatics and symphonic music, and live concerts of film scores from 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.' International artists include the Manchester-based instrumental trio Gogo Penguin on Oct. 17, the Soweto Gospel Choir on Nov. 29 and an onstage conversation and food demonstration with British chef, restaurateur and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi on March 1, 2026. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2025.
Ottawa Citizen
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
National Arts Centre reveals diverse lineup for 2025-26 season
Article content There is always something new and creative to discover at the National Arts Centre, whether it's an edgy modern-dance show or a surprising take on an orchestral classic. Article content With four stages under its hexagonal roof and a skilled team of specialized artistic programmers in charge of six different genres of performing arts, the NAC's schedule gets filled with gems well in advance. Article content Article content The 2025-26 calendar is no exception. Between September 2025 and spring of 2026, dozens of concerts, theatrical productions and dance events will be shoehorned into the building, including no fewer than nine world premieres. One show calls for a skateboard ramp at centre stage, while another is described as a Macbeth-meets-biker mashup. Article content Article content The season will also mark a farewell for maestro Alexander Shelley, who has been leading the NAC Orchestra for more than a decade — and whose two young sons were born in Ottawa. Shelley has designed a final season that will include a big opera production of Puccini's Tosca, an all-Canadian edition of the Great Performers series, a seasonal presentation of Handel with an all-Canadian cast of vocalists, four world premieres and more. Article content The first, scheduled for January 2026, is co-produced by Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre and written by Natasha Mumba, a graduate of Ottawa's Canterbury arts high school and now based in Toronto. Entitled Copperbelt, it's the story of a Zambian-born woman who's made a life for herself in Toronto, but is compelled to return to her homeland when her estranged father falls ill. Article content Article content Article content The second Aquino-directed world premiere is cicadas, created by David Yee and Chris Thornborrow. Commissioned by the NAC, it's an eco-thriller set in Toronto in 2035. Article content Article content The English theatre season also features a family play described as a live theatrical cinema experience starring Canadian DJ Kid Koala, who performs live on piano and turntables every night of the Dec. 3-13 run. The tale of a small-town mosquito trying to make it big in music also uses puppeteers, miniature sets, a string trio and cameras to tell its story. Article content Another six shows will be presented by the Indigenous theatre department under the artistic leadership of Kevin Loring. They range from the inter-tribal collaboration that drives Nigamon Tunai to the world premiere of Tomson Highway's latest, Rose, to an allegorical circus piece from New Zealand, Te Tangi a Te Tūī.
