≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: December 20, 2019
This is my favourite music from the decade that gave us big hair, big cell phones and big tunes. I can't wait to Rock Out at the NAC! The NAC Orchestra and Ottawa audience know how to have fun and appreciate this wonderful decade like no other. See you at the show!
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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Stuart Chafetz is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Columbus Symphony and the newly-appointed Principal Pops Conductor of the Marin Symphony. Chafetz, a conductor celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence, is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent. This season, he will be on the podium in Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Naples (Florida) and Pittsburgh, as well as with The Philly and Cincinnati Pops. He enjoys a special relationship with The Phoenix Symphony where he leads multiple programs annually.
As principal timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony for 20 years, Chafetz would also conduct the annual Nutcracker performances with Ballet Hawaii and principals from the American Ballet Theatre. It was during that time that he led numerous concerts with the Maui Symphony and Pops. He's also led numerous Spring Ballet performances at the world-renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In 2017, he made his NAC debut leading the Pops show All Night Long: Music of the 80s. In the summers, he spends his time at the Chautauqua Institution, where he conducts the annual Fourth of July and Opera Pops concerts.
Stuart Chafetz makes his home near San Francisco, with his wife Ann Krinitsky. He holds a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music.
Julie Reiber currently stars in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Come From Away. She is best known for playing the iconic green girl Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway. Other Broadway credits include performing the roles of Brooklyn in BKLYN The Musical, Natalie/Ed in All Shook Up, Marion in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Medda in Newsies.
Reiber has performed as a soloist with symphonies across the U.S. and Canada as well as performing with the Korean Symphony in the Olympic Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Her debut album Love Travels can be found on iTunes and be heard on Spotify. She makes her NAC debut with this evening’s concert.
Originally from California, Bryce Ryness began his professional career in a seemingly inauspicious way – as a business major at the University of Southern California and member of the collegiate a cappella group The SoCal VoCals. Somehow, through many a winding road, that parlayed its way into a multi-decade career boasting five Broadway shows, twelve television appearances, seven Off-Broadway shows, three cast albums, two personal albums, and playing more than 50 cities on two different national tours.
Most recently on Broadway, he starred as the terrifying Miss Trunchbull in the record-breaking, final company of Broadway’s Matilda, thrilling audiences and garnering critical praise for his unique interpretation of an extraordinary character. Also on Broadway: Hair (2009 Tony Award-winning revival), First Date, Leap of Faith and the hilarious Legally Blonde: The Musical.
As a vocalist, he just finished a smash, sold-out engagement with The Philly Pops performing Classic Rock Sing-Along, a show he developed with legendary conductor Michael Krajewski. Additionally, he’s been principal soloist with the Boston Pops, Houston Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He makes his home in Pasadena, California with his wife and three kids. This evening’s concert is his first appearance with the NAC Orchestra.
Annick’s love of performing blossomed at a very early age when she would force her family members and her parents’ invited dinner guests to watch her many theatrical productions. She grew up in Ottawa where she began her professional career in the industry 20 years ago. Since then she has loved to work and live in many cities including Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, London (UK) and New York City, where she graduated from the conservatory program at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Annick is passionate about stories and how they connect us - and spreading invisible illness awareness. She feels truly lucky every time she gets to step under the lights at the NAC since it is in this very theatre that she first fell in love with the stage. Annick is currently living in Toronto where she continues to dream and to thrive in her work as a filmmaker, producer & storyteller.
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.