≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: December 2, 2019
Good evening Ottawa!
I’m thrilled to be working with your incredible NAC Orchestra for the first time, and visiting your lovely city. We have a mulled wine and figgy pudding filled concert for you, with dashes of South American holiday spice, a soupçon of Hawaiian fun, and other flavours.
May this concert fill you with smiles and cheer, and we wish you all a very happy Holiday Season!
VARIOUS arr. Bob Krogstad
The Bells of Christmas
GARY FRY
Sing We Joyous
MARKS arr. James Stephenson
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
TCHAIKOVSKY
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker
TCHAIKOVSKY
Trepak from The Nutcracker
TRAD. arr. John Rutter
Il est né le divin enfant
JOHANN, JR. & JOSEF STRAUSS
Pizzicato Polka
JUSTIN WILDE
Light the Candles of Freedom
R. A. ANDERSON
Mele Kalikimaka
ADAM arr. Arthur Harris
O Holy Night
GARY FRY
My Dancing Day, On Christmas Night
- - - INTERMISSION - - -
L. ANDERSON
Sleigh Ride
P. BALLARD
Mister Santa
ALAN SILVESTRI & GLEN BALLARD
Concert Suite from The Polar Express
BIZET
Farandole from Suite No. 2 from L’Arlésienne
JAMES STEPHENSON
Hot Santa
BARROSO
Brasil
HAGUE
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
BERLIN arr. Carmen Dragon
White Christmas
Cantata Singers of Ottawa
Andrew McAnerney, artistic director
Jamie Loback, musical preparation
Andrew Ager, chorus master
Soprano
Kristi Aruja
Gwyneth Bergman
Bonnie Day
Valerie Douglas
Deirdre Garcia
Natasha Harwood
Cassandra Jackowski
Lucie Laneville
Erica Loughlin
Colleen Morris
Sophia Nickel
Robyn Ouimet
Cathy Patton
Anna von Holtzendorff
Alto
Patricia Bilodeau
Trish Brooks
Judy Brush
Vickie Classen Iles
Janet Cover
Nichole Ekkert-Vine
Mary Gordon
Liz Gray
Pein-Pein Huang
Diana James
Eileen Johnson
Andi Murphy
Tenor
Loyal Beggs
Gary Boyd
Diane Chevrier
Neil Crawford
Richard Fujarczuk
Dorian Gerdes
Ross Jewell
Richard Richardson
Bass
Wallace Beaton
Mark Chester Dumbrique
Andrew Hodgson
Greg Huyer
Bjørn Johansson
J.P. McElhone
Glen Seeds
Mike Vanier
Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the Orchestra performs a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, featuring world-class artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds.
Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director in 2015, following Pinchas Zukerman’s 16 seasons at the helm. Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and former Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (2009 - 2017), he has been in demand around the world, conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Stockholm Philharmonic, among others, and maintains a regular relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the German National Youth Orchestra.
National and international tours have been a hallmark of the National Arts Centre Orchestra from the very beginning. The Orchestra has toured 95 times since its inauguration in 1969, visiting 120 cities in Canada, as well as 20 countries and 138 cities internationally. In recent years, the orchestra has undertaken performance and education tours across Canada, as well as the U.K. and China. In 2019, the Orchestra marked its 50th anniversary with a seven-city European tour that included performances and education events in England, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and that showcased the work of six Canadian composers.
The NAC Orchestra has recorded many of the more than 80 new works commissioned since its inception, for radio and on over 40 commercial recordings. These include Angela Hewitt’s 2015 JUNO Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos; the groundbreaking Life Reflected, which includes My Name is Amanda Todd by Jocelyn Morlock, winner of the 2018 JUNO for Classical Composition of the Year; and from the 2019 JUNO nominated New Worlds, Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes, 2019 JUNO Winner for Classical Composition of the Year.
The NAC Orchestra reaches a national and international audience through touring, recordings, and extensive educational outreach. The Orchestra performed on Parliament Hill for the 2019 Canada Day noon concert in a live broadcast for CBC Television.
Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CSO) is marking 60 years and Artistic Director Andrew McAnerney has programmed “A Season of Celebration.”
CSO’s concert series for 2023–2024 includes Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (in November), Arctic Soundscapes with music from Arctic countries (in April), and the CSO@60 Anniversary Concert (in June) with works from the choir’s 60 years of music making, specially commissioned pieces, and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with The Ottawa Baroque Consort.
Founded in 1964, the choir of approximately 45 voices has distinguished itself in the performance of music of many styles and musical periods from early music to minimalism, and is at home singing a cappella, with orchestra, or with 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, providing scholarships to young Canadian singers, and including works by women and Canadian composers in seasonal programming.
With the exception of the COVID period, CSO has performed annually with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of every NAC Artistic Director, plus visiting guest conductors, since the NAC’s opening in 1969.
The choir has been an invited guest at a number of Canadian music festivals, including Festival de Lanaudière and Festival of the Sound. It has also partnered with such well-known Canadian choirs as Pro Coro Canada of Edmonton, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and Montreal’s St. Lawrence Choir in joint concerts. Thanks to numerous CBC and Radio Canada broadcasts, the choir is well known across Canada.
Juno-nominated conductor Andrew McAnerney was raised in the British Choral tradition as a boy chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, England. He studied music at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, and upon graduation took a position as a professional tenor (lay clerk) at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. In Europe Andrew built a career as a conductor, consort singer, soloist, and arranger performing extensively with many of the world’s finest vocal ensembles including the Tallis Scholars, BBC Singers, and the Brabant Ensemble.
Andrew moved to Canada in 2012 and since then has guest-directed ensembles including Arion Baroque Orchestra, the NAC Orchestra, Chamber Players of Canada, Elmer Iseler Singers, Elora Singers, Chœur Louisbourg, and La Rose des Vents. Andrew was appointed Artistic Director of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM) in 2015 and is also director of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, and the choir of men and boys at Christ Church Cathedral. In the latter role he directed the music for the national ceremonies in honour of Prince Phillip (2021) and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (2022).
As a singer and conductor Andrew is credited on over 50 recordings including the music of Bach, Brumel, Clemens non Papa, Crequillon, Gombert, Handel, Lotti, Morales, Moulu, Mozart, Palestrina, Phinot, Purcell, and Rore. Andrew’s debut CD with SMAM, Laudate dominum, featuring music by Lassus, was released by ATMA Classique in 2017. His second CD, L’Homme armé, also released on the ATMA Classique label, was nominated for a 2022 Juno Award in the category Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble).
Andrew is passionate about musical excellence and accessibility. He regularly teaches for Canadian Amateur Musicians Musiciens Amateurs du Canada (CAMMAC) and works with children and adults of all ages to explore and make music.
Manon St-Jules has had a bilingual career since graduating from the National Theatre School. She has worked with theatre companies large and small in Toronto (Canadian Stage, Festival of Classics, Theatre Direct, Pleiades), Montréal (Denise-Pelletier, Centaur, Segal Centre, Usine C), and Sudbury (Sudbury Theatre Centre, Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario), appearing in both classical and contemporary works. In Ottawa, she has performed with the National Arts Centre (NAC) English Theatre, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Arts Court, Théâtre Catapulte, and Rouge Écarlate Theatre. She has hosted NAC Orchestra concerts, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala, and many other events across the country. She has held dramatic and comedic roles in film, television, commercials, and various multimedia projects. She was notably in the cast of Eaux turbulentes (ARTV and Radio-Canada) and the feature film Noël en boîte, and was seen in three seasons of the series Amélie et Compagnie (TfO). In addition to her voice work, Manon is also a theatre translator and scriptwriter. She has participated in the series Tout Sexplique (UnisTV) and Love et Lajoie (TfO) was broadcast in January 2022.
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. She co-produced the 1940s Pops show On the Air with Jack Everly for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a show they co-produced in 2007 for the NAC Orchestra.
In 2018 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 Goes Broadway, continuing to implement feedback on her British-Columbian French with the choruses of Ottawa, and cheering on Luke and Princess Leia with Charlie Ross, Émilie Fournier, and Eric Osner during the Star Wars Pops concert.
In her spare time, McCoy is the Head of Arts, Drama, English, and Library at Lisgar Collegiate Institute.