Latest news with #NationalArtsCentreOrchestra
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
On the occasion of Oscar Peterson's centenary, Canada celebrates its jazz piano giant
Last week at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, the Oscar Peterson Centennial Quartet and the National Arts Centre Orchestra presented Peterson's civil rights anthem Hymn to Freedom and the world premiere of a newly commissioned arrangement of Peterson's Trail of Dreams by bassist Mike Downes. The concert kicked off a summer of shows − many in collaboration with the Peterson estate − that celebrate the great Canadian jazz pianist who was born in Montreal on Aug. 15, 1925, and died Dec. 23, 2007. The Globe and Mail asked some of the musicians taking part in concerts, including Saturday's all-star gala at Toronto's Massey Hall, to talk about their favourite Peterson songs and albums. National Arts Centre Orchestra bringing premieres, works by Oscar Peterson to Korea and Japan My Foolish Heart (song from the 1963 studio album Oscar Peterson and Nelson Riddle, with orchestra arranged and conducted by Riddle): 'I grew up listening to Oscar Peterson, but years later I found the Oscar Peterson and Nelson Riddle album. It blew me away, especially the song My Foolish Heart. It made me want to record that song, on 2020's Surfboard. His restraint is beautiful − it's such a romantic soundscape. The use of space is breathtaking. When I heard it for the first time it made me fall in love with Oscar's music all over again." − Brandi Disterheft, bassist Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite (2000 studio album, arranged by Michel Legrand): 'The compositions are beautiful and majestic, clearly outlining how Oscar felt about Canada. The suite was written after he suffered a stroke in 1993, and to my ears the compositions have a profound depth and meaning, perhaps in part due to this stage in his life, and the wisdom of a lifetime of performing and composing.' − Mike Downes, bassist Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson Play George Gershwin (1954 studio album, with clarinetist DeFranco, bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Herb Ellis and drummer Bobby White): 'The orchestra, conducted by Russ Garcia, plays such beautifully lush arrangements. The relationship between the orchestra and the two soloists is never competitive, it's stunningly complimentary. I also appreciate the bridge between a somewhat classical sound of the orchestra playing Gershwin and the swingin' and virtuosic solos from Peterson and DeFranco. This album is a masterclass in emotive playing and invites the audience into such mastery without any sort of elitism.' − Caity Gyorgy, singer Nigerian Marketplace (Peterson composition from the 1981 live album of the same name, with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted and drummer Terry Clarke): 'It's an eight-minute song that goes through many moods. It has a contemporary feel initially, but it shifts into something soul-orientated and groove-orientated. And then his solo is everything you could ever want in an Oscar Peterson solo. It isn't dance music per se, but it's so exciting. The band is right there with him, ramping up, though never feeling gratuitous. Everything they do is in service of the song. Yes, there is showmanship, but never at the expense of artistry.' – Laila Biali, pianist Canadiana Suite (1965 album, composed by Peterson, recorded by the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen): 'Not only was Oscar the greatest jazz pianist in terms of his groove and his blazing technical skills and his use of harmony, he was also a master composer and a master arranger. We get all of this with Canadiana Suite. But beyond that, it is evocative. I can see the Rocky Mountains on Land of the Misty Giants. And March Past evokes a parade at the Calgary Stampede. It starts quite softly. Then, in the middle of the song, it's just burning. It's all about a parade coming toward you and then marching past." − Mark McLean, drummer West Side Story (1962 album by the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Brown and drummer Thigpen): 'It's a side of Oscar not represented as much as his virtuosic side. Here he is beautiful, melodic and accessible. What's interesting is the way he creates melodies with harmonies. He's using every finger he can to build the melodies − it's so rich. There are times with Oscar you forget that it's only one person playing.' − Thompson Egbo-Egbo, pianist Oscar Peterson centenary concerts Asterisk denotes official Oscar Peterson Centennial concert.
Calgary Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Ford: Singing the praises of the underappreciated Calgary Civic Symphony
(Caution: the following contains effusive praise, unbridled admiration and lacks the usual biting criticism. Reader discretion is advised.) Article content Very little is new at my age. 'Been there, done that' is my usual response. But when something new and shiny unfolds before one's eyes and ears, it's magic. Article content Article content It happened two Sundays ago, and the charm and its music still lingers — the youthful appeal of the soloists, the music they played and the accompanying symphony orchestra. Article content Article content This collection of musicians is one of the true gems of Calgary and something too few people know about. (I hesitate to say too few people care, but how can one care about something largely unknown by the general public?) Article content Article content The Calgary Civic Symphony, led by Rolf Bertsch, the music director and conductor of this professional but amateur collection of artists, performs five Sunday afternoon concerts at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. ('Amateur' has come to be a pejorative word, but for these musicians, it merely means they aren't paid for their performances, which are up to the standard of any 'professional' symphony.) Article content Bertsch, the ebullient conductor, has an international reputation and led the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for almost three decades. In his 'spare' time he was the pianist for the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and was pianist and principal conductor for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Article content Article content These days, you'll find him at Mount Royal University Conservatory. Article content The Sunday program I was privileged to attend was the annual Rising Stars performance of the orchestra, featuring solos from the four young winners of the 2025 Rotary Calgary Concerto Competition: pianists Charlotte Giraudeau, 16; Coco Zhang, 17; Oscar Hanqi Zhang, 14; and cellist Aaron Janse-Deng, 15. Article content I'm not usually given to positive and uplifting opinions, but this concert of classical standards blew me away, especially the featured young people. To say they were amazing is not strong enough praise for their talent and hard work. (Having spent many childhood years practising the piano, it boggles my mind to consider the hours these young people have devoted to honing their natural talent. It also explains why I have a piano but don't play, yet am quick to appreciate those who can and do.)
Hamilton Spectator
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
National Arts Centre Orchestra's tour to Korea and Japan serves up Beethoven, Oscar Peterson, and some cultural diplomacy
TOKYO - The daily operation of an orchestra typically runs like clockwork — every minute is meticulously scheduled, rehearsals are tightly run, and the search for precision is constant. What better way to test the strength of this refined apparatus than to take it out on the road, and bring it to an audience that may be very familiar with the music, but not with the musicians? The National Arts Centre Orchestra is at the tail end of an 11-day tour to South Korea and Japan that included stops in Busan, Gumi, Seoul, Tokyo, and Tsu, wrapping up with a performance in Osaka on Saturday. Some 2,500 patrons showed up to their performance at the Seoul Arts Center. Approximately 60 world-class musicians are on this trip, and at the centre of this musical gyre is conductor Alexander Shelley. Squeezing in time in-between rehearsals to meet in the lobby of a Tokyo hotel, Shelley laughed when asked if he had time to explore the city. Shelley described the trip as a mission of cultural diplomacy as much as one that brings the orchestra to new audiences. ' The most exciting part of it for me is not demonstrating how special — even when it's true — the country of origin is that we are representing, but in fact how much the things that we're all looking to experience and articulate are shared,' he said. This was the orchestra's first appearance in Seoul, and its first time back in Japan in 40 years. An international orchestra tour is a mighty expensive endeavour. The tour came with a budget of approximately $2 million, funded in part by philanthropic donations, said Annabelle Cloutier, strategy, governance and public affairs executive at the National Arts Centre. It mobilized more than 110 artists and musicians, and engaged over 16 regional partners across 47 unique community events. It took three years to meticulously plan for this titanic trip field, accounting for the more than 50,000 cubic metres of cargo that made the trip over. These metrics might seem like a high price tag even for the long string of concerts presented. But this tour also coincided with a few diplomatic projects. The concert in Seoul, for example, closed out the Korea-Canada Year of Cultural Exchanges ─ a joint effort to commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations. Likewise, the Japan leg of the tour featured quite a few engagements with the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, wherein the embassy's Oscar Peterson Theatre serves as the venue for the ongoing centennial celebration of the legendary Canadian jazz pianist. Shelley said tours like these help to establish cultural common ground. ' I don't think I could do my job unless I believed at the most profound level that the human experience is constant across time and across culture. A Korean woman born 300 years ago would've had a very different experience of life to me growing up in London in the ''80s. But I think that the underlying motivations and experiences would've been identical: hope and fear, ambition and love, loss and melancholy.' The contrast between hope and fear is one that Shelley particularly savours in Beethoven's Fifth symphony, which made several appearances in programs along this tour. As he notes regularly, it is the first symphony that starts in a dark minor key and ends in a more hopeful major. Shelley makes the case that Canada's national orchestra performing the German composer's work to Korean and Japanese audiences does more to strengthen the ties that bind than emphasize the differences that divide. 'If we do it right, this man who lived in Germany a long time ago, whose life is completely different from ours, tapped into something that we can all recognize. When we connect with each other properly, we recognize this deep current that courses through human history. And that for me is what real cultural diplomacy is about.' The tour included compositions by Canadians including Kelly-Marie Murphy, Keiko Devaux, and Oscar Peterson, while among the standout homegrown performers are the emerging British Columbia pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko and established violinist Adrian Anantawan from Ontario. Shelley will leave his role as music director with NACO at the end of the 2025/26 season. After more than 10 years on the podium, he will become Music and Artistic Director of Pacific Symphony in California. Shelley's words of advice for his eventual successor are to urge them to contemplate the question: 'Why an orchestra? What role does it serve?' Michael Zarathus-Cook is a Toronto-based freelance writer, the chief editor of 'Cannopy Magazine,' and a medical student at the University of Toronto. The National Arts Centre sponsored his trip to South Korea and Japan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6.
Winnipeg Free Press
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
National Arts Centre Orchestra's tour to Korea and Japan serves up Beethoven, Oscar Peterson, and some cultural diplomacy
TOKYO – The daily operation of an orchestra typically runs like clockwork — every minute is meticulously scheduled, rehearsals are tightly run, and the search for precision is constant. What better way to test the strength of this refined apparatus than to take it out on the road, and bring it to an audience that may be very familiar with the music, but not with the musicians? The National Arts Centre Orchestra is at the tail end of an 11-day tour to South Korea and Japan that included stops in Busan, Gumi, Seoul, Tokyo, and Tsu, wrapping up with a performance in Osaka on Saturday. Some 2,500 patrons showed up to their performance at the Seoul Arts Center. Approximately 60 world-class musicians are on this trip, and at the centre of this musical gyre is conductor Alexander Shelley. Squeezing in time in-between rehearsals to meet in the lobby of a Tokyo hotel, Shelley laughed when asked if he had time to explore the city. Shelley described the trip as a mission of cultural diplomacy as much as one that brings the orchestra to new audiences. ' The most exciting part of it for me is not demonstrating how special — even when it's true — the country of origin is that we are representing, but in fact how much the things that we're all looking to experience and articulate are shared,' he said. This was the orchestra's first appearance in Seoul, and its first time back in Japan in 40 years. An international orchestra tour is a mighty expensive endeavour. The tour came with a budget of approximately $2 million, funded in part by philanthropic donations, said Annabelle Cloutier, strategy, governance and public affairs executive at the National Arts Centre. It mobilized more than 110 artists and musicians, and engaged over 16 regional partners across 47 unique community events. It took three years to meticulously plan for this titanic trip field, accounting for the more than 50,000 cubic metres of cargo that made the trip over. These metrics might seem like a high price tag even for the long string of concerts presented. But this tour also coincided with a few diplomatic projects. The concert in Seoul, for example, closed out the Korea-Canada Year of Cultural Exchanges ─ a joint effort to commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations. Likewise, the Japan leg of the tour featured quite a few engagements with the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, wherein the embassy's Oscar Peterson Theatre serves as the venue for the ongoing centennial celebration of the legendary Canadian jazz pianist. Shelley said tours like these help to establish cultural common ground. ' I don't think I could do my job unless I believed at the most profound level that the human experience is constant across time and across culture. A Korean woman born 300 years ago would've had a very different experience of life to me growing up in London in the ''80s. But I think that the underlying motivations and experiences would've been identical: hope and fear, ambition and love, loss and melancholy.' The contrast between hope and fear is one that Shelley particularly savours in Beethoven's Fifth symphony, which made several appearances in programs along this tour. As he notes regularly, it is the first symphony that starts in a dark minor key and ends in a more hopeful major. Shelley makes the case that Canada's national orchestra performing the German composer's work to Korean and Japanese audiences does more to strengthen the ties that bind than emphasize the differences that divide. 'If we do it right, this man who lived in Germany a long time ago, whose life is completely different from ours, tapped into something that we can all recognize. When we connect with each other properly, we recognize this deep current that courses through human history. And that for me is what real cultural diplomacy is about.' The tour included compositions by Canadians including Kelly-Marie Murphy, Keiko Devaux, and Oscar Peterson, while among the standout homegrown performers are the emerging British Columbia pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko and established violinist Adrian Anantawan from Ontario. Shelley will leave his role as music director with NACO at the end of the 2025/26 season. After more than 10 years on the podium, he will become Music and Artistic Director of Pacific Symphony in California. Shelley's words of advice for his eventual successor are to urge them to contemplate the question: 'Why an orchestra? What role does it serve?' Michael Zarathus-Cook is a Toronto-based freelance writer, the chief editor of 'Cannopy Magazine,' and a medical student at the University of Toronto. The National Arts Centre sponsored his trip to South Korea and Japan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Music director Alexander Shelley to hold final National Arts Centre Orchestra concert July 2026
The National Arts Centre Orchestra's celebrated music director will hold his last concert with the capital ensemble in July before heading to California. Alexander Shelley's farewell show comes towards the end of NAC's 2025-2026 season, with his contract set to end Aug. 31, 2026. Shelley is also music director designate for the 2025-2026 season of the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, Calif., and is set to fully take the reins of the Orange County orchestra in the 2026-27 season. Shelley joined the Ottawa orchestra in September 2015 at age 35, becoming the youngest music director in NAC Orchestra's history. He's credited with strengthening its reputation through major tours of Canada, Europe and to New York's Carnegie Hall, as well as livestreams and critically acclaimed recordings. Over the next two months, Shelley will lead tours to Korea and Japan, marking the orchestra's debut in Korea and its return to Japan for the first time in four decades. In a statement Wednesday, NAC president and CEO Christopher Deacon said Shelley has left an indelible mark on the orchestra and artists he has inspired. Shelley said his time in Canada 'has enriched me more than I can express,' and is proud to say his two sons were born in Ottawa. 'They are Canadians. My wife Zoe and I could not be prouder of this fact or more grateful to this country for the lifelong friendships we have forged, for the memories it has gifted us, for the unshakable generosity of spirit shown to us, and for over a decade of unforgettable cultural and musical adventures,' Shelley said. Born in London to concert pianists, Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany and shot to fame when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors' Competition. He went on to become the youngest-ever chief conductor of Germany's Nürnberger Symphoniker, from 2009 to 2017. Since 2015, Shelley also served as associate conductor of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2023 was appointed artistic and music director of Artis−Naples in Florida for the Naples Philharmonic. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2025. Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
