Experience the NAC Orchestra’s Roaring 20’s Festival with Alexander Shelley
OTTAWA (Canada) – Hear the moment when jazz bopped its way into classical composition and classically-inspired music brought emotional life to the cinema, at the NAC Orchestra’s Roaring 20’s Festival, Oct 8-17!
Alexander Shelley and the NAC Orchestra will bring Jazz Age “Storytelling music” to the stage, for five unforgettable nights. Featuring the music of Elgar, Cole Porter, Sibelius, Weill, Gershwin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, and even Charlie Chaplin, audiences will delight in the sounds of this remarkable era.
The early 20th century marked a time of unprecedented change and transformation. With the echoes of the Great War still fresh, nationalism gave way to the beginnings of a global society, and with that change all kinds of boundaries began to dissolve. Composers left their homelands— some by choice, others by exile—and set to work in new locales, absorbing fresh influences and reinventing traditional ones.
“This period is so fascinating,” says Music Director Alexander Shelley. “It’s the beginning of true artistic globalization. All of the extraordinary composers on our Festival heard each other’s music, and were inspired or provoked by it. It will be an extraordinary kaleidoscope of sound,” he adds.
The festival will explore the reinterpretation of folk songs by these exceptional composers who saw tradition eclipsed by history and asked: “Who am I”?
This Festival series will also feature a special performance on October 14, with the Orchestra performing a brilliant musical score composed by Charlie Chaplin, alongside a screening of his remarkable silent film City Lights. City Lights is a beautiful love story, full of humour and sadness. This performance will also showcase the music of Kurt Weill’s familiar “Mack the Knife” composed for a jazz club–type ensemble, with lots of winds, brass and saxophones.
As Alexander Shelley explains “Chaplin is a fascinating example of this extraordinary time in history. While music was developing and changing at an unprecedented pace, another medium was growing from infancy to adulthood – cinema. He started his career when films were silent and when he finished man was on the moon and films were in colour.”
Tickets for this thrilling festival are now on sale starting at $105 for this 5-concert series. You won’t want to miss the art and sounds of this transformative era, when unprecedented social and economic change reconciled the schism between jazz and concert music.
FESTIVAL SHOWS AND DATES
TRANSFORMING TRADITION (Thursday October 8, 2015 8:00 p.m.)
Alexander Shelley, conductor | Johannes Moser, cello
JANÁČEK Lachian Suite (mvmts 1 & 5)
ELGAR Cello Concerto
BARTÓK Rumanian Dances
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5
Part of the season’s Festival, this concert explores the transformation of cultural and national identity in the early 20th century. This concert provides the base for the Festival concerts that follow.
STAR SHOWCASE (Friday October 9, 2015, 8:00pm)
James Ehnes violin
Peter Jablonski piano
NAC Orchestra
Prokofiev "Classical" Symphony
Stravinsky Little Suite No. 1
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1
Stravinsky Little Suite No. 2
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3
This showdown between two of the 20th century’s most potent composers provides the perfect opportunity for stars James Ehnes and Peter Jablonski to shine.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! (Wednesday, October 14, 2015, 8:00 p.m.)
Alexander Shelley, conductor
WEILL Suite from Threepenny Opera
CHAPLIN City Lights (with film)
Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera” has lots of familiar tunes in it, the most famous is “Mack the Knife”. The orchestra will perform the original version of the music from 1928, which is for jazz club –type ensemble, with lots of winds, brass and saxophones.
Air Canada Ovation Series, THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY (October 15, 2015, 8:00pm)
Alexander Shelley conductor
Micah Barnes, vocalist
NAC Orchestra
Special appearance by the Capital Chamber Choir
Cole Porter Selected Songs, including “Begin the Beguine”, “You Do Something to Me”, and “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love”
Milhaud Le Boeuf sur le Toît
Webern Symphony, Op. 21
Eisler Kleine sinfonie
Ibert Divertissement
Alexander Shelley weaves the brilliant songwriting of Cole Porter into the early 20th century evolution of French and the Austro-German music, in the search for new symphonic forms. A memorable concert where the night club meets the concert hall.
*Post concert Talkback with the artists
Air Canada Ovation Series, WHAT IS CLASSICAL? (October 17, 2015, 8:00pm)
Alexander Shelley conductor
Kirill Gerstein, piano
NAC Orchestra
Ravel Bolero
Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand
George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin An American in Paris
Alexander Shelley explores the 1920s creative clash between intellectualism and pop, with a performance of some of the most popular music—in any style.
Post concert Talkback with artists
ALEXANDER SHELLEY BIOGRAPHY
In September 2015 Alexander Shelley took up the mantle as Music Director, leading a new era for the National Arts Centre’s Orchestra. He is currently in his seventh year as Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra where he has transformed the orchestra’s playing, education work and touring activities which have included tours to Italy, Belgium, China and a re-invitation to the Musikverein in Vienna. In January 2015 Shelley was named Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in which capacity he will curate and perform a series of concerts at Cadogan Hall each season and will lead the orchestra on a tour of Korea in 2016.
Born in the UK in 1979, Shelley first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition and was described as "the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award. His conducting technique is immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality."
He is the son of celebrated concert pianists, the grandson of a talented cellist and the great grandson of an equally talented organist. He has been described in the press as a “musician of considerable gifts and extraordinarily impressive interpretive qualities” (Strauss, Elgar and Sibelius in London), a conductor with "exceptional artistic authority" (Brahms with DSO Berlin) and described his Verdi Requiem in Salzburg as an "original, intelligent, thoroughly convincing and well-crafted interpretation."
Since then he has been in demand from orchestras around the world including the Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Simon Bolivar, Seattle and Houston Symphony Orchestras. Further afield Shelley is a regular guest with the top Asian and Australasian orchestras.
Shelley’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet for Royal Danish Opera; La Bohème for Opera Lyra at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Iolanta with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Cosi fan tutte in Montpellier and a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North in 2015.
Alongside his regular appearances in London, Ottawa and Nuremberg, Shelley will in the coming seasons return to, among others, the DSO Berlin, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, NDR Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Hong Kong, New Zealand and Melbourne Symphony orchestras. Forthcoming debuts include Camerata Salzburg, Czech Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Oslo Philharmonic and RTÉ Orchestra. His first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, an album with Daniel Hope and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, was released in September 2014.
In Germany he enjoys a close relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, with whom he performs regularly both in subscriptions in Bremen, and around Germany, and in October 2013 he took the orchestra on tour to Italy with a signature programme of Strauss, Wagner and Brahms. Alexander Shelley and which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration He is artistic director of their Zukunftslabor project - an award-winning series which aims to build a lasting relationship between the orchestra and community, winning over a new generation of concert-goers through grass-roots engagement.
Inspiring future generations of musicians and audiences has always been central to Shelley’s work. In spring 2014, he conducted an extended tour of Germany with the Bundesjugendorchester and Bundesjugendballett which included a collaborative concert at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival with Sir Simon Rattle and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2001, during his cello and conducting studies in Dusseldorf, he founded the Schumann Camerata with whom he created "440Hz", an innovative concert series involving prominent German television, stage and musical personalities, conceived by him as a major initiative to attract young adults to the concert hall.
ABOUT THE NAC ORCHESTRA
In September 2015 Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director with the National Arts Centre’s Orchestra. Shelley has an unwavering reputation as one of Europe’s leading young conductors, notably as Chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and most recently as the Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Formed in 1969 at the opening of Canada's National Arts Centre, the NAC Orchestra gives over 100 performances a year with renowned artists including Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, James Ehnes, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. It is noted for the passion and clarity of its performances and recordings, its ground-breaking teaching and outreach programs, and nurturing of Canadian creativity.
Since its inception the Orchestra has commissioned 80 works, mostly from Canadian composers. In 2001 it inaugurated the National Arts Centre Awards for Canadian Composers and the recipients thus far have been Denys Bouliane, John Estacio, Peter Paul Koprowski, Gary Kulesha, Alexina Louie and Ana Sokolovic.
Previous NAC Orchestra Music Directors include Pinchas Zukerman, Mario Bernardi and Trevor Pinnock. The 2015-16 season features Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds , Alain Trudel as Principal Youth and Family Conductor and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly completing the strong artistic team.
In addition to a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, tours are undertaken to regions throughout Canada and around the world, most recently to China (2013) and the UK (2014). The latter commemorated the start of the First World War and explored themes of remembrance and healing through music in over 50 education and performance events. Following the footsteps of Canadian troops 100 years ago, it showcased the brilliant work of Canadian composers and the NAC Orchestra's musicians, both as performers and as educators, and received standing ovations in packed halls throughout the UK.
In 1999, Pinchas Zukerman founded the NAC Young Artists Program, part of the wider NAC Summer Music Institute, which provides elite training to talented young musicians. Students all over the world are also taught via videoconferencing in the NAC's cutting-edge Hexagon Studio. The Orchestra also created and continues to pioneer education work locally and in indigenous communities in northern Canada.
The NAC Orchestra has made over 40 commercial recordings, including Angela Hewitt’s 2014 Juno Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos conducted by Hannu Lintu. Many more concerts are freely available through NACmusicbox.ca on the NAC's performing arts education website ArtsAlive.ca. These include many of the 100 new Canadian works commissioned by the NAC Orchestra in its 45 year history.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Andrea Ruttan
Communications Officer
National Arts Centre Orchestra
613 947-7000 x335
Cell: 613 220-5487