Artists

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  Conductor Alexander Shelley

  

  Conductor Alexander Shelley

  Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s). 

  Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation; recent hallmarks include the multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED,and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together. 

  Alexander Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, Artistic and Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. In the spring of 2019, he led the NAC Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary European tour, and in 2017, he led the Orchestra in a tour across Canada, celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. Most recently, he led the Orchestra in its first performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 30 years.

  He has made seven recordings with the NAC Orchestra, including the JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, and the acclaimed Clara, Robert, Johannes four-album series, all with Canadian label Analekta. 

    The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., O.N.L., LL.D. (hc) 

  NAC media featuring Alexander Shelley

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  Soprano Karina Gauvin

  

  Soprano Karina Gauvin

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  Mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne

  

  Mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne

  French-Canadian mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne is acclaimed for the vocal agility and expressive power of her dark-hued tone, focusing on the works of Berlioz, Mozart, and Rossini. 

  ​During the 2021–22 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as the title role in Massenet’s Cinderella, in a new production for family audiences; the Wiener Staatsoper as Charlotte in Werther, and both the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne Festival as Dorabella in Così fan tutte. Additionally, in her native Québec, she joined Opéra de Montréal as Rose Valland in the world premiere of Julien Bilodeau’s La beauté du monde and Opéra de Québec as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. On the concert stage, she performed César Franck’s Redemption with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, and Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Cinq mélodies populaires grecques with Orchestre Classique de Montréal.   

  In March 2009, Naxos Records released a recording of Shéhérazade and L’enfant et les sortilèges featuring Julie Boulianne and the Nashville Symphony, which was nominated for the GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Album. She can also be heard on a 2011 ATMA Classique release of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenlieder. She recorded L’Aiglon by Ibert and Honegger under the baton of Kent Nagano released by Decca in 2016, and two CDs with Luc Beauséjour released by Analekta: Handel & Porpora – The London Years, and recently, Alma Opressa, Vivaldi – Handel: Arias.

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  Tenor Michael Schade

  

  Tenor Michael Schade

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  Bass-baritone Dashon Burton

  

  Bass-baritone Dashon Burton

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  Chorus master Laurence Ewashko

  

  Chorus master Laurence Ewashko

  Former conductor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Laurence Ewashko celebrates his 32nd season of choral activity in the National Capital Region. As a choral clinician, vocal coach and adjudicator, he makes a significant contribution to the quality and appreciation of vocal music in Canada and abroad. Laurence has prepared choruses for many prestigious conductors, and he regularly does so at the National Arts Centre.

  A Full Professor of Choral Studies at the University of Ottawa, he conducts the School of Music’s two choirs. Laurence is a recipient of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting and numerous awards from the Canada Council of the Arts.

  NAC media featuring Laurence Ewashko

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  Featuring Ottawa Choral Society

  

  Featuring Ottawa Choral Society

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  Featuring Cantata Singers of Ottawa

  

  Featuring Cantata Singers of Ottawa

  The Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CSO) is well known regionally and across Canada. Founded in 1964, this choir of approximately 40 voices has distinguished itself in performance of music of many styles and musical periods, from early music to minimalism, both a capella and with orchestras and small ensembles.

  The choir aspires to perform choral music to the highest standards, promotes choral music in Ottawa, and supports Canadian musical talent by commissioning Canadian composers, engaging Canadian musicians, and offering scholarships to young Canadian singers. Under Artistic Director Andrew McAnerney, CSO presents an annual concert series, with programs spanning a wide-ranging repertoire both in time and style. In every season, the choir includes works composed by women and Canadians.

  CSO has been an invited guest artist almost since its formation. With the exception of the COVID period, it has performed annually with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) and under the baton of every NACO artistic director since the opening of the NAC in 1969. In addition, the choir has sung NACO concerts led by other internationally renowned guest conductors. CSO performed on NACO’s 2019 JUNO-nominated recording New Worlds, singing Ana Sokolović’s composition Golden slumbers kiss your eyes.

  CSO has sung in major Canadian music festivals such as Festival de Lanaudière and Festival of the Sound and has partnered with well-known Canadian choirs, such as Pro Coro Canada of Edmonton, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and St. Lawrence Choir to present joint concerts. Thanks to numerous CBC and Radio Canada broadcasts, the choir is well known across Canada.

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  Featuring Ottawa Festival Chorus

  

  Featuring Ottawa Festival Chorus

  The Ottawa Festival Chorus is a select community-based choir comprised of independent choristers and members of many of Ottawa’s fine choirs in the nation’s capital city. Led by Duain Wolfe and Laurence Ewashko, the Chorus made their debut in 2006, together with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, performing Bach’s Mass in B minor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The choir was recently featured in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring In Concert, Mozart’s Requiem, and Those Glorious Hollywood Musicals. This May, they sing in Fauré’s Requiem, and in June they will appear in the Fidelity Investments Pops show The Music of John Williams.

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  Featuring Ewashko Singers

  

  Featuring Ewashko Singers

  Formed in 1992 for a live broadcast marking 50 years of Radio Canada International, Ewashko Singers has developed into one of the most flexible vocal ensembles in the National Capital Region.

  From Beethoven, Mahler, and Verdi to Richard Rodgers and Howard Shore, they skillfully perform music across a wide range of genres and languages. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Laurence Ewashko, Ewashko Singers regularly highlights Canadian composers and showcases young Canadian talent. In addition to their own concerts, they often collaborate with other local choirs and music ensembles. Recent highlights with the National Arts Centre Orchestra include the JUNO Award–winning live recording of Ana Sokolović’s Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, and Harry Somers’s opera Louis Riel as part of Canada 150 celebrations.

  NAC media featuring Ewashko Singers

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  Season stage manager Tobi Hunt McCoy

  

  Season stage manager Tobi Hunt McCoy

  Tobi Hunt McCoy is enjoying another year as Season Stage Manager with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In past seasons, she stage-managed Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Christopher Plummer in 2001 and Colm Feore in 2014. For the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra she co-produced the 1940s Pops show On the Air with Jack Everly, a show they had co-produced in 2007 for the NAC Orchestra.

  Last season, Hunt McCoy made her Southam Hall acting debut in the role of Stage Manager in the Magic Circle Mime Co.’s production of Orchestra from Planet X. Additional professional duties have included aiding Susanna and the Countess in schooling the Count and Figaro on the finer points of marital love during The Marriage of Figaro; keeping her eyes open (for the first time ever) during the flying monkey scene in The Wizard of Oz; mistakenly asking Patrick Watson for proof of identity backstage; holding her breath while marvelling at the athletic ability of the cast during Cirque à Broadway; and cheering on Luke and Princess Leia with Charlie Ross, Émilie Fournier and Erik Ochsner during the Star Wars Pops concert.

  In her spare time, Hunt McCoy is the Head of Arts, English, Drama, and Library at Lisgar Collegiate Institute.

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