≈ 1 hour · No intermission
Repertoire
Overture to Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (The Magic Flute)
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550: I. Molto Allegro
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik: I. Allegro
(Arr. Robert King) Two Themes: I. Andante grazioso; II. Andante
Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (The Magic Flute): Papageno Aria
Flute Concerto in D major, K. 314: I. Allegro aperto
Artists
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.
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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 eight 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)
Canadian flutist Benjamin Morency has recently completed a Master’s degree in Music under the guidance of internationally renowned flutist Ransom Wilson at the prestigious Yale School of Music. He previously studied for six years with Marie-Andrée Benny at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, and also had the opportunity to work with masters of the instrument such as Mathieu Dufour, Emmanuel Pahud, Philippe Bernold, Jeanne Baxtresser, and Robert Langevin. In November 2017, he was awarded Grand Prize winner at the OSM Manuvie Competition.
Benjamin performs as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada and in the United-States. After performing the Jacques Ibert Flute Concerto with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in January 2018, he also had the opportunity to record Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata for Flute and Piano op.94, Francis Poulenc’s Flute and Piano Sonata, and Denis Gougeon’s L’Oiseau Blessé with pianist Mariane Patenaude in Radio-Canada studios, subsequently broadcasted on ICI Musique. He was also a soloist with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra in California, and the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.
Over the years, he was awarded many scholarships to study and perform in prestigious festivals including the Domaine Forget and the Banff summer Academy, the Orford Music Festival, the Young Artist Program at the National Art Center in Ottawa, and at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, where he received an Award of Excellence for the 2016 summer tour.
Benjamin is now the flute teacher at the Conservatoire de Musique de Val-d’Or, and is really proud to be a Wm. S. Haynes Young Artist.
A native of Montreal, Vincent Parizeau began his music studies at the St. Joseph’s Oratory with the celebrated Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal. He studied bassoon at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Rodolpho Masella and Gerald Corey (the NAC Orchestra’s former principal bassoon) graduating with “Premier Prix” (First Place Honours) at the age of 21. He went on to study with Franck Morelli and in 2001 earned a Master of Music degree at Yale University.
On his return from the United States, Vincent founded the Ensemble Synapse, a group of 14 musicians performing a repertoire of original works with no conductor. An ardent advocate of contemporary music, he has appeared regularly in performance with various contemporary music ensembles, including the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec and l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal with which he has recorded two albums.
Vincent has played in a number of orchestras including the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal where he played for a season before joining the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the beginning of the 2004-05 season.
Actor and film and stage director Maxime Genois is a graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal. For theatre, he has worked with such leading directors as Denis Marleau, Catherine Vidal, Philippe Cyr, Marc Beaupré, Sébastien David and Philippe Boutin. He directed the operas Nero and the Fall of Lehman Brothers, which will be revived in New York in the fall of 2020 by Montreal’s BOP | Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime, and The Turn of the Screw, in association with the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and the Agora Orchestra. He also directed Quasar’s Cathédrale-Métal, which won the Opus Prize for Concert of the Year. His short film Le Clown was selected for competition at Angoulême.
Hugo Dalphond questions synergy between body, space and light through elaborating and building scenographic devices aimed to initiate meetings. It is principally by making viewers and performers coexist within a same space, and by modulating their perception of that very space that he creates alternative sensorial experiences. This becomes a reason to engage in different co-presence qualities, and thus, gain consciousness of our interactions and rapport with others.
Since 2015, he tackles these questions in a PhD which has as per subject light installation and the spatial opportunity it offers to rethink our collective states.
As well, he collaborates as light designer and director of scenography on various projects in theatre and dance.
Camille Barrantes is a designer of spaces whose creative practice focuses on the narrative experience of place. Her portfolio includes art direction projects for multiplatform media, scenographic installations and environmental design. She is a graduate in set design of the École supérieure de théâtre de Montréal and the Hochschule für Design in Hanover. She lives and works in Montreal.
Player
For Mélanie Dumont, the theatre is a fabulous playground! Since 2011 as associate artistic director of NAC French Theatre, Mélanie has focused on providing fantastic interdisciplinary spaces for audiences age 0 to 20 to flex their imaginations! A close associate of Brigitte Haentjens, she has acted as dramaturg for several of her productions, including Rome, Richard III and Dans la solitude des champs de coton, and also wrote Ce qui se trame, an overview of this important artist’s practice. Having developed close artistic links with Flemish creators over the years, Mélanie has collaborated on a number of Belgian projects, including Hush with the Zonzo company and the BIG BANG Festival.
Ear awakener
Internationally renowned musical theatre and opera director, artistic director of theatre company Zonzo and the BIG BANG Festival, present in over a dozen European cities, the Belgian Wouter Van Looy has made a huge contribution to making music accessible to a wide and diverse audience. Why do musicians wear such formal outfits? Why are they traditionally so far from the audience? How can we approach the repertoire to make it more current and engaging? By asking questions like these, he has created unique stage experiences that shed a whole new light on such mega-composers as John Cage (Listen to the Silence), Miles Davis (Mile(s)tones) or Henry Purcell (Hush).
Laurie began her stage management career with English Theatre and Jean Roberts’s company at the National Arts Centre. Since then she has been honoured to work with NAC English Theatre, NAC Indigenous Theatre, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and NAC Presents (now Popular Music and Variety). Laurie has been Production Stage Manager for the Shaw Festival and Theatre Calgary, and Stage Manager for, amongst others, Arts Club Theatre Company, The Globe Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Mirvish Productions, Stratford Festival, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Grand Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, and Neptune Theatre.
- Featuring National Arts Centre Orchestra
- conductor Alexander Shelley
- flute (2017 OSM Manulife Competition Winner) Benjamin Morency
- bassoon Vincent Parizeau
- stage director Maxime Genois
- lighting designer Hugo Dalphond
- set designer Camille Barrantes
- actor Mathilde Viau
- actor Émilie Viau
- artistic consultant Mélanie Dumont
- artistic consultant Wouter Van Looy
- stage manager Laurie Champagne