Holiday Hits with the NAC Orchestra

“One of the major highlights of the current London orchestral season.”
– Classical Source, U.K., 2019

The NAC Orchestra is a world-class ensemble of outstanding  musicians from across Canada and around the world, under the inspiring leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley. The Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary education and community outreach programs and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity.

“The NAC Orchestra’s current European tour has achieved the highest degree of cultural diplomacy.”
– Le Devoir (Montreal), 2019

The Orchestra has toured regularly across Canada and internationally, and in May 2019 it presented three Canadian artists and six Canadian composers across Europe.

“…uplifting, unsettling, mischievous and deeply poignant…”
– BBC Music Magazine on Life Reflected, 2017

The NAC Orchestra has recorded many of its 80+ commissioned works for radio and on over 40 commercial releases, including Life Reflected, which includes 2018 Classical Composition JUNO winner My Name is Amanda Todd by Jocelyn Morlock; and New Worlds, featuring Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes, 2019 Classical Composition JUNO winner.

“Life Reflected reminds us that when we try new things, art regains its primal power.”
– The Globe and Mail, 2017

In 2019, the NAC Orchestra played on Parliament Hill for the Canada Day noon concert, a live broadcast for CBC television.

Rei Hotoda, currently serving as the Music Director of the Fresno Philharmonic, is widely considered one of North America’s most sought-after and dynamic artists. She has appeared as a guest conductor with many of today’s leading ensembles, including the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Toronto, Dallas and Detroit.  She is a tireless advocate for the music of our time, and is equally at home leading the orchestra from the piano as well as from the podium.

A deep commitment to showcasing artistic diversity and collaborating with a wide array of artists defines Hotoda’s artistic philosophy. She has worked with such ensembles and artists as tabla master Sandeep Das, violinist Jennifer Koh, soprano Jessica Rivera, and ensembles such as the Indigo Girls and Pink Martini. She will make several exciting debuts in the 2019–20 season when she appears as guest conductor with the Symphony Orchestras of Louisville, Omaha and Orlando as well as the NAC Orchestra, and she makes a welcome return to the Hawaii Symphony.

Rei Hotoda is the proud recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2006 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, created by Marin Alsop to mentor women conductors. Her teachers and mentors include Gustav Meier, Marin Alsop, Jaap van Zweden and Thierry Fischer.

Praised for her “radiant soprano” and “outstanding dramatic presence,” Meredith Lustig has established herself as an artist of great versatility and sophistication. Favourite roles include Blanche DuBois (A Streetcar Named Desire, Opera Company of Middlebury), Giannetta (L’Elisir D’Amore), Cephisia (Orpheus, New York City Opera), Laurie (Oklahoma, Mac-Haydn Theater), Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld, Virginia Opera), Fiona (Brigadoon, Gulfshore Opera), Megan (The Whole Truth, American Modern Ensemble), Musetta (La Bohème, Syracuse Opera), Daisy (The Great Gatsby, Aspen Opera Theater) and Bella (An American Tragedy, Glimmerglass). For Pittsburgh Opera, she has appeared as Papagena (Magic Flute), Zina (Dark Sisters), Carolina (Il Matrimonio Segreto) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola).

Lustig has held residence at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Caramoor, New York Festival of Song, Town Hall Theatre, Glimmerglass and Pittsburgh Opera. Symphonic appear-ances include Candide (Philadelphia Orchestra), Carmina Burana (Erie Philharmonic), Serenade to Music (Chicago Symphony), Bernstein’s Mass (Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia Orchestra), and as a headliner for the Dallas, Detroit, Virginia and Steamboat Symphony Orchestras. Television appearances include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and PBS Great Performances’ presentation of Mass. She is thrilled to be making her Canadian debut with the NAC Orchestra, and wishes you a very happy holiday!

Andrew McAnerney, Artistic Director

The Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CSO) is known across Canada as a versatile and skilled choral ensemble. It exists to perform choral music to the highest standards; promote choral music in Ottawa; and support Canadian musical talent by commissioning Canadian composers, engaging Canadian soloists and offering scholarships to young Canadian singers.

Now in its 56th season, CSO presents an annual concert series with repertoire ranging from Renaissance to contemporary, and has performed works by over 50 Canadian composers.

The CSO congratulates the NAC on its 50th anniversary. The choir is proud to have performed at the NAC every year since its opening in 1969 and to have collaborated with the NAC Orchestra every year since that time. The choir appeared on the recent NAC Orchestra album New Worlds, which was nominated for a JUNO award.

The choir’s next concert of the 2019–20 season, Minimalism, will take place on March 21, 2020. The program will explore minimalist music through the works of composers Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Henryk Górecki, Max Richter and John Tavener, and include visual projections, spoken word, electric organ and string orchestra.

For choir or audition information, please visit our website.

Andrew McAnerney has been the Artistic Director of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CSO) since 2015. In addition, he is Director of the Choir of Men and Boys at Christ Church Cathedral and Artistic Director of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM). He has taught at the CAMMAC Music Centre and the University of Moncton. Raised in the British choral tradition, he studied music at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College).

Since his arrival in Canada in 2012, McAnerney has conducted a range of choirs and orchestras including the NAC Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Players of Canada, Elora Festival Singers, Elmer Iseler Singers, Choeur Louisbourg and La Rose des vents. He has received five nominations for the Conseil québécois de la musique Prix Opus: concert of the year in 2016, 2018 and 2019 (twice), and recording of the year in 2017.

Recent work has included directing the NAC Orchestra for a production of Monteverdi’s Vespers with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; a critically acclaimed CD of the music of Lassus under the ATMA label with SMAM; and a concert of early Canadian music with SMAM at St John’s Smith Square in London, England.

Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada, Manon St-Jules has led a bilingual career, performing in classical and contemporary plays for big and small companies in Toronto, Montreal and Sudbury. In Ottawa, she’s performed for the NAC, GCTC, Arts Court, Théâtre la Catapulte, Compagnie L’Atelier and Théâtre Rouge Écarlate, as well as regularly hosting concerts with the NAC Orchestra and various other events. St-Jules’ work on-camera includes parts in film, television, commercials and various multimedia projects. She has written and translated plays and librettos, and has taught at the University of Ottawa. She will be directing her first play in the winter of 2021.

Tobi Hunt McCoy is enjoying another year as Season Stage Manager with the NAC Orchestra. In past seasons, McCoy stage managed the Lord of the Rings Symphony, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Christopher Plummer in 2001 and Colm Feore in 2014, and much of the Orchestra’s educational and Pops programming. 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.