Pinnock’s Matthew Passion

Trevor Pinnock is renowned world-wide as a harpsichordist and conductor who pioneered the modern revival of early music performance.

He founded the English Concert in 1972, and remained their Artistic Director until 2003, leading them in groundbreaking period-instrument performances and an extensive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. He now divides his work between conducting, solo and chamber music engagements, and educational projects at the Royal Academy of Music where he is Principal Guest Conductor of the Concert Orchestra.

Pinnock regularly works with the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Frequent chamber music partners include flautist Emmanuel Pahud and viola da gamba player Jonathan Manson.  

In 2019, he directs Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Royal Academy of Music; the National Arts Centre, where he was Music Director from 1991 to 1996; and in Scotland with the Dunedin Consort. At the Sanssouci Palace, Potsdam, he conducts Frederic Wake-Walker’s production of La Clemenza di Tito, and will tour Messiah with Freiburger Barockorchester.

Trevor Pinnock was made a CBE in 1992 and an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. He is also a recipient of the Wigmore Medal.

Lydia Teuscher was born in Freiburg, Germany and studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim.  

Highlights of her 2018–19 season include Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, the role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Arcangelo, as well as on tour in North America with Les Violons du Roy.

In opera, she has sung Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Bolshoi and Bayerische Staatsoper; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, Dresdner Semperoper and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan; and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel for the Glyndebourne Festival, Dresdner Semperoper and Saito Kinen Festival.

Teuscher collaborates regularly with conductors such as René Jacobs, Sir Roger Norrington, Helmuth Rilling and Bernard Labadie, and recent highlights include Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire with the Ensemble of the Bayerische Staatsoper, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre National de Lille. She made her debut with the NAC in 2011 and returned in March 2018 to sing Bach’s Mass in G major.

A unique vocal colour and commanding stage presence are the hallmarks of performances by mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy. She made her debut with the NAC Orchestra in 2005 and most recently appeared at the NAC in 2017, singing in Mozart’s Requiem in May and the opera Louis Riel in June. Hailed by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle as “a singer of enormous imagination and versatility,” she has appeared with the Paris Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Chicago Symphony, Glyndebourne Festival, San Francisco Opera and the Boston Symphony. Kent Nagano, Johannes Debus, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Labadie and Ludovic Morlot are among the conductors with whom she has collaborated in such works as L’enfant et les sortilèges, La clemenza di Tito and Das Rheingold.  

The Ontario native’s current season includes performances with the Philadelphia Opera, Toronto Symphony, Opéra de Québec, Opera Atelier, Calgary Philharmonic and Symphony Nova Scotia. Recent highlights include the Ryan/Steele Afghanistan Requiem with the Toronto Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and Smeton in Anna Bolena for the Canadian Opera Company. Her discography includes Handel’s Orlando, Caldara’s La conversione di Clodoveo, Ré di Francia, Bellini’s Norma and Harry Somers’ Serinette.

Ontario-born tenor Andrew Haji is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after voices on both operatic and concert stages. He made his NAC debut in 2015 and returned in 2017 to sing in Mozart’s Requiem. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 50th International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch and the Montreal International Music Competition’s Oratorio Prize, his assignments with the Canadian Opera Company (COC) this season include Rodolfo in La Bohème and Cassio in Otello. He also looks forward to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Seattle Symphony and Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Amadeus Choir in 2019. 

Last season, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern winner was heard as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore for the COC and Vancouver Opera, in Lucrezia Borgia in his Salzburg debut, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Messiah with the Grand Philharmonic Choir of Kitchener-Waterloo. On the festival circuit, he has been featured by the Wexford Festival and the Elora Festival in Ontario.  

As a member of the COC Ensemble Studio, roles included Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Ferrando in Così fan tutte. On the Four Seasons Centre main stage, he was heard as Alfredo in La traviata and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte.

Born in Lucerne, Switzerland, Mauro Peter received his musical training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Fenna Kügel-Seifried, and in Helmut Deutsch’s Lied class. In 2012, he was the winner of the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau and, in the same year, he made his debut as a lieder recitalist at the Schubertiade in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg. Many recitals have followed since then, in the most distinguished concert halls and opera houses.

During the 2018–19 season, Mauro Peter will be back at Opera Zürich where he appears in a ballet production of Schubert’s Winterreise as well as in Mozart’s La Finta giardiniera. He will also sing the title role of Weber’s Oberon at the Theater an der Wien. Recitals will bring him to the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Munich, and Mozart Week in Salzburg. On the concert platform he can be heard in Handel’s Messiah in Barcelona, as well as in Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Teatro alla Scala. This evening’s concert marks his debut with the NAC Orchestra.

Among his recordings are Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin released on the Wigmore Hall Live label in 2015. Fall 2016 saw a new solo album of lieder by Robert Schumann released on the SONY label.

French-Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly returns to the Paris Opera for his first perfor-mances of Leporello in a new production of Don Giovanni in the 2018–19 season. He will be heard in Handel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and with the Handel & Haydn Society conducted by Bernard Labadie. In recital, he performs Winterreise with pianist Michael McMahon in Montreal, Vancouver and San Francisco. He will also be seen in special performances with Le Chimera Project of Schubert’s Winterreise arranged for Klezmer quartet. 

Recent appearances include Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Opéra de Lyon in Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Jephtha at the Paris Opera, and a staged version by Romeo Castellucci of Bach’s St Matthew Passion conducted by Kent Nagano. Having been a chorister with music director Matthew Larkin at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in the Glebe, he returned to Ottawa in 2013 to debut as a soloist with the NAC Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah.

Recently, he was awarded “Concert of the Year” in Romantic, Post-Romantic and Impressionist Music at the 16th Annual Ceremony of the Prix Opus in Quebec. His solo recordings are available on Analekta Records.

“The gifted young bass-baritone Douglas Williams” (The New York Times) combines a “formidable stage presence” (Seattle Times) with “a bass voice of splendid solidity” (Music Web International), making him one of the most appealing singing actors of his generation. He has collaborated with leading conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Nicholas McGegan, Helmuth Rilling and Sir Neville Marriner, in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Stuttgart’s Mozart-Saal, and the Frankfurt Alte Oper. He is a sought-after interpreter of Monteverdi, Handel, Bach and Mozart, in addition to music of the romantic and modern eras.

Recent operatic highlights include the role of Sciarrone in Tosca with the Berlin Philharmoniker at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and his debut as Figaro with the Milwaukee Symphony in a new production by Robin Guarino. Recent appearances on the concert stage include the American premiere of Scarlatti’s La gloria di primavera at Carnegie Hall with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and baroque programs with Les Talens Lyriques in Paris, Versailles and Oslo. This is his first time appearing with the NAC Orchestra.

Williams’ recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers with Boston Early Music Festival won the 2015 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording.

Andrew McAnerney, artistic director

Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CSO) is known across Canada as a versatile and skilled choral ensemble. The choir has performed at the NAC every year since the opening in 1969. It performed in Golden slumbers kiss your eyes… on the recent NAC Orchestra recording New Worlds.

Now in its 55th season, the choir presents an annual concert series with repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary, from Canada and around the world. Following its March 9 concert, Bach Cantatas by Candlelight, the CSO season concludes on May 26, 2019 with an all‑Bruckner program accompanied by an orchestra of brass and woodwinds. The symphonic Mass in E minor (1882 version) will be the centrepiece.

Andrew McAnerney, Artistic Director of CSO, is also Director of the Men and Boys Choir at Christ Church Cathedral, and Artistic Director of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. A music graduate of Oxford University, he recently made his conducting debut with the NAC Orchestra in a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He has also appeared as a guest conductor with Arion Baroque Orchestra, Elora Singers, Ensemble Caprice and La Rose des Vents.

Jamie Loback, artistic director

The Capital Chamber Choir was formed in 2009 with a focus on contemporary and Canadian choral music. The choir consists of 35 members and attracts a diverse and dedicated audience. The ensemble has been praised for its skill, energy, vocal blend, and commitment to performing new and challenging music.

The Capital Chamber Choir released its debut album, The Delight of Paradise, in April 2017. In July 2018, they completed a tour to St. John’s, Newfoundland, where they performed at PODIUM, the national convention of Choral Canada. 

The choir’s 2018–2019 season began with A Baltic Celebration in October and will conclude in June with a performance of Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles. Throughout the season, the choir collaborates with the NAC Orchestra.

Jamie Loback became the Capital Chamber Choir’s Artistic Director in 2012. A graduate of the University of Ottawa’s School of Music, he has served as Music Director at St. Joseph’s Parish since 2005 and conducts several choirs in Ottawa, including the Ottawa Regional Youth Choir and the Ottawa Children’s Choir (Chamber and Boys’ Choirs).