Last updated: September 20, 2022
Program
OUTI TARKIAINEN Selections from The Earth, Spring’s Daughter
MAX RICHTER The New Four Seasons (Vivaldi Recomposed)
ALEXINA LOUIE The Eternal Earth
Program Notes
Tonight’s NACO concert, the first of the SPHERE Festival, is a musical exploration of the relationship between humans and the place we call home: Earth. In each their own way, the works on this program celebrates the miraculous power of our planet to bring forth and sustain life. They also consider the natural cycles that govern life on Earth—birth, development, transformation, death, renewal—the “seasons” of life, as well as the seasons in nature. In doing so, these pieces bring to our attention our impact—individual and collective—on the progress of those cycles, and how they change because of it.
The concert opens and closes with pieces by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen and Canadian composer Alexina Louie. Both draw inspiration from creation myths and cyclic perspectives on life, while also evoking the longing and anger over lost ways of life and animal species through colonization and environmental change. At the centre, we’ll hear Max Richter’s “recomposed” Four Seasons, in which the British composer “recycles”, if you will, Antonio Vivaldi’s four violin concertos from the early 18th century, to create a new hybrid work.
Repertoire
selections from The Earth, Spring’s Daughter
I. Prologa / Prologue – No. 1: Eanan, giđa nieida / The Earth, spring’s daughter
II. No. 7: Mun sárggun dáid govaid / I inscribe these images – Epiloga / Epilogue
Outi Tarkiainen’s song cycle The Earth, Spring’s Daughter for mezzo soprano and orchestra was composed in 2014–2015. A joint commission by the three northernmost professional orchestras in Europe—Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Norbotten Chamber Orchestra, and the Arctic Philharmonic—it’s the first song cycle to use texts by Sámi poets. Tonight, you’ll hear the first and the seventh (final) songs, framed by the prologue and epilogue that bookend the cycle.
Tarkiainen describes the thematic concept of her work as follows:
Eanan, giđa nieida (in English, The Earth, Spring’s Daughter) is a mythical epos illustrating the core experiences of the North from the history to our times. The text is a vast collage of Sámi poetry—the Sámi people being the only indigenous people in the Europe. The strong mutual bond between the generations and the Sámi culture’s cyclical perception of time are present also in the structure of the work: the music unfolds in layers and cycles, to be born again and again.
As Juha Torvinen has shown in his in-depth analysis, the piece has a cyclic structure that links the Prologue and Epilogue as a frame, then the songs in related pairs working inward—first and seventh, second and sixth, etc. The Prologue opens the cycle, as Tarkiainen outlines, “in the metaphorical realm of the gods in which Spring gives birth to a daughter, Earth. The earth is wide open and deserted, and eternal time ascends and descends.” Against a backdrop of vibraphone and crotales over sustained notes in the strings, the text is spoken. Following the line “suddenly they both squatted,” the English horn intones a motif representing Earth, after which the text declares her born. Later, solo violin plays an upward reaching motif—this is Longing, which, accompanied by the Earth motif, is a musical evocation of a longing for the Earth itself.
Out of the Prologue, the first song emerges, in which it “presents the work’s main themes and textures, and they slowly orbit, each on its own path, forever following one another—just as in Sámi culture’s cyclical perception of time.” Alongside the Longing and Earth motifs, a third one, Eternity, appears three times played by vibraphone and celesta, thus underscoring the final lines of the text.
From here, we cut to the final song, which, Tarkiainen says, “finally draws a picture that has and is everything—and from which there is no return. The hauntingly beautiful song can nevertheless still be heard as if from behind a curtain….” It begins introspectively, then picks up pace and intensity, reaching a thunderous climax on “and I resound”. The composer describes the moment like the collapse of reality into a wormhole, in which the music becomes a mass of sound and noise. It then recedes into silence on whispered repetitions of the words “in boađe”.
Rain-stick sounds lead into the Epilogue, which brings back the Prologue’s text but this time, it’s sung, not spoken, and is extended. In the music, the foundation of sustained tones returns; however, the Earth and Longing motifs are absent, and have been replaced by the melody of Suuvivirsi, a Finnish hymn praising spring and summer. It’s initially embedded in the accompaniment to the vocal line, first played by solo cello, then solo violin, underlining the text about Spring giving birth to Earth, then covering it with snow. Torvinen notes that while the hymn’s inclusion points to the importance of intergenerational knowledge (the text now includes a grandmother), it also stands in tension to it possibly representing Christianity’s colonization of the Sámi peoples. At the close, the celesta intones the hymn’s opening phrase—a conclusion that is both ambivalent and provocative in meaning.
The performance of the Epilogue is accompanied by the showing of the film Kasvojen vaihdos (Change of Faces) by filmmaker and visual artist Elina Oikari. Inspired by Sámi poetry, the video, which merges super 8 mm film and archive material, can be seen as a kinetic meditation about Arctic lifeways and landscapes.
Texts and Translations
Texts by Rauni Maaga Lukari and Nils-Aslak Valkeapää.
English translations by Kaija Anttonen, Ralph Salisbury, and Harald Gaski.
Eanan, giđa nieida
Prologa
Soai vácciiga buohtalaga
eadni ja nieida
vuostebiggii mii sojahalai sieđggaid
loktii muohttaga ja sudno helmmiid
Guoldu sázai ratti
Ii lean šat velojaš jurddašit geasi ja cizážiid
Fáhkkestaga goappašagat nolliheaigga
ja riegádahtiiga rabasnjálmmat nieidamánáid
I
Eanan, giđa nieida
loktana, luoitá
jápma, riegáda
oavddolaš eallima máihli
Ja dát luotkko gođus gos biegga johtá
áiggiid gihppu, loažža giesastuvvon oktii
iige áigi leat, eai geažit, eai
ja áigi lea, agálaččat, álo, lea
VII
mun sárggun dáid govaid
geađgái gárrái
áigái
iežan govat
mu eará hámit
ja soapmásin jáhkán
ahte mun dat lean
dáid govaid
ja mus nu olu hámit
ja dál, dál de iežan sárggun
ollisin, easka
čavddisin
ja mun čuojan go dat čuojaha mu
ja jávkkan bosastaga mielde
áiggi ábii'e
ja dan govas
in boađe ruoktot
šahten
Epiloga
Soai vácciiga buohtalaga
eadni ja nieida
vuostebiggii mii sojahalai sieđggaid
loktii muohttaga ja sudno helmmiid
Guoldu sázai ratti
Ii lean šat velojaš jurddašit geasi ja cizážiid
Fáhkkestaga goappašagat nolliheaigga
ja riegádahtiiga rabasnjálmmat nieidamánáid
maid soai govččaigga muohttagiin
vai njuoraguovttos bivašeaigga
Ieža soai velledeigga báldii
ja lávlugođiiga geassesálmma
Go soai leaigga vuosttas vearssa gergehan
iđii miehtebiekkas eatni eadni
velledii sutno njuoratguokta gaskii
ja čuovvolii sálmma
The Earth, Spring’s Daughter
Prologue
They walked side by side,
mother and daughter,
against a wind that made junipers bend
and the snow and their hemlines rise
wind lashing their chests
One could no longer think of summer and birds
Suddenly they both squatted
and gave birth to gaping baby girls
I
The Earth, spring's daughter
rises, falls
is born, dies
a wonder life's sap
And this airy fabric in which the wind wends,
a bundle of times, loosely wound together
and time does not exist, no end, none
and time is, eternal, always, is
VII
I inscribe these images
on the stone on the drum
in time
my images
my other shapes
and sometimes I believe
that this is me
these images
and so many shapes of me
and now, now I draw myself
whole, finally
complete
and I resound when it plays within me
and I disappear with the gusts of wind
to the sea of time
and from this image
I will not return
again
Epilogue
They walked side by side,
mother and daughter,
against a wind that made junipers bend
and the snow and their hemlines rise
wind lashing their chests
One could no longer think of summer and birds
Suddenly they both squatted
and gave birth to gaping baby girls
whom they covered with snow
so they would not freeze
Then they lay down by the newborns
and began a summer hymn
As they were through with the first verse
the mother's mother appeared from upwind
she lay down between the babies
and joined the singing
Film: Kasvojen vaihdos (Change of Faces)
Written & directed by: Elina Oikari
Cinematographer & film editor: Elina Oikari
Color grading: Sarrah Wilkman, Grade One Oy
Performers: Edith Båhl, Inka-Maaria
Supported by: Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation & The Arts Promotion Centre Finland
Recomposed Four Seasons
I. Spring 0
II. Spring 1
III. Spring 2 –
IV. Spring 3
V. Summer 1 –
VI. Summer 2
VII. Summer 3
VIII. Autumn 1
IX. Autumn 2
X. Autumn 3
XI. Winter 1
XII. Winter 2
XIII. Winter 3
Max Richter created The New Four Seasons in 2012 for Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed recording series, for which contemporary artists are invited to reinterpret classical works. Recorded by Daniel Hope and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester in Berlin, it became hugely successful, topping classical charts; it has also appeared on the soundtracks of TV shows and films, even fashion shows. A new re-recording with period instruments featuring soloist Elena Urioste and musicians of the Chineke Orchestra was released earlier this year.
In a recent article for The Guardian (June 10, 2022), Richter mentioned that while he fell in love with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons when he listened to it as a child, he later hated it for its ubiquitous presence, and ceased to hear it as music. “You hear it in the supermarket regularly, you’re confronted with it in adverts or hear it as muzak when on hold. Slowly you begin to blank it out.” He eventually felt he needed “to resolve the love/hate relationship I had with the work—call it an exorcism—and reclaim Vivaldi’s original as a musical object rather than a sonic irritant. The best way to do that, I decided, would be to take a voyage through Vivaldi’s landscape and to make new discoveries there.”
In his process of re-composition, Richter observed that “As I looked into [Vivaldi’s] score I saw there was a natural meeting point between his Baroque language and my own. Vivaldi’s work is very pattern-based, and he generates his effects by juxtaposing contrasting kinds of material. That’s very much the way post-minimal music and electronic dance music operates, and I found plenty of touch points that enabled me to dive into his material in a natural, sculptural, and architectural way.” The New Four Seasons opens with, in Richter’s words, "a dubby cloud which I’ve called ‘Spring 0’. It functions as a sort of prelude, setting up an electronic, ambient space for the first ‘Spring’ movement to step into.” After that, his score employs only a quarter of Vivaldi’s material, which he manipulates with techniques such as looping, overdubbing, and subtle metrical and rhythmic shifts, often layering them on to slow-moving ostinato backdrops. Some movements are also inscribed with references to contemporary genres and styles of music. “Summer 1” is "heavy music for the orchestra,” he says. “It’s relentless pulsed music, which is a quality that contemporary dance music has; and perhaps I was also thinking about John Bonham’s [of Led Zeppelin] drumming.” For “Autumn 2”, he feels the harpsichord part should be played “very regularly, rather like a ticking clock […] because that style connects to various pop records from the 1970s where the harpsichord or Clavinet was featured, including various Beach Boys albums and the Beatles’ Abbey Road.”
The overall effect of Richter’s new hybrid work is that aspects of the seasons described in the sonnets (believed to be written by Vivaldi) and evoked in the original concertos are intensified, becoming more sonically vivid and expressive. For example, there’s a certain dance-vibe joy to “Spring 1” and “Spring 3”, and a fresh edge to the furious storm in “Summer 3”. The slow movements, like “Summer 2” and “Autumn 2” are more elegiac in mood, full of longing, whereas “Winter 2” acquires a strikingly stark beauty reinterpreted as a lone violin wandering freely in a frozen landscape of sustained strings.
The Eternal Earth
I. Summoning the Earth Spirit
II. To the Ends of the Earth
III. The Radiant Universe
The Eternal Earth is “at once my plea for the continuation of life on earth and a celebration of the joys of the universe,” Alexina Louie says of her orchestral piece from 1986. Commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, it’s a virtuosic work for large ensemble, which exhibits her distinctive blend of Eastern and Western musical influences. Of the former, this includes the expansion of the orchestra’s instrumentation to incorporate Chinese tom toms, a bender gong, a large button gong, and tam tams. Indeed, the work requires a massive assemblage of percussion instruments as well as some extended playing techniques to evoke the mystical power of the Earth and the universe.
From the start, we feel the full power of this huge orchestra, in a movement that Louie has said should sound “teeth-shattering”. As she describes it:
Vigorous fanfare-like motifs and thunderous percussion effects including lion’s roar, gongs, tam-tams, and Chinese toms-toms characterize the first movement, which calls forth the dragon spirit from the bowels of the earth. It is this spirit that Kakuzō Okakura in his book The Awakening of Japan calls “the spirit of change, therefore of life itself.”
The atmospheric second movement, “To the Ends of the Earth”, “is a tranquil, lyrical cradle song for our world with tender solo passages for cello, piccolo, harp, and celeste,” Louie explains. “It is meant as a song of solace for the distant, disappearing corners of the world and with them, the ways of life and species of nature that are being lost to us forever. Included in this movement are some exotic instrumental effects: the rubbing of water-filled crystal wine glasses, a shimmering glissando effect on the timpani, and a particular “seagull” glissando performed by the cello section at the end of the movement.”
The final movement is “an affirmation of life and a joyful celebration of the oneness of heaven and earth.” After a recall of the first movement’s opening fanfare motif, “The Radiant Universe” becomes a lively, energetic dance, featuring the various instrumental groups (strings, woodwinds, brass) alternately moving together through rapidly shifting harmonies. To close, a final ascent through the strings and woodwinds culminates with ecstatic full-orchestra chords that resolve thrillingly to a resounding consonance.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Artists
A critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano of Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations, English, Irish and Scottish heritage, Marion Newman is sought-after as one of Canada’s most accomplished singers in works ranging from Vivaldi to Vivier, and operatic roles including Carmen and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Nominated for a Dora Award for her leading role in the world premiere of Shanawdithit (Nolan/Burry) with Toronto’s Tapestry Opera, Ian Ritchie wrote “she invests her character with towering dignity and courage”.
Marion is a guest curator at University of British Columbia’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts for a new series of concerts featuring the work of Indigenous artists, and the new host of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.
Marion portrayed Dr. Wilson in the premiere of Missing (Clements/Current) with Vancouver City Opera/Pacific Opera Victoria, which gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the story of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, and starred as Tsianina Redfeather in Jani Lauzon’s music-drama I Call Myself Princess at Regina’s Globe Theatre.
On the North American concert stage, Marion has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Emily Carr String Quartet, Continuum Contemporary Music, Elora Festival Singers, Elmer Iseler Singers, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Montreal’s Chœur St- Laurent.
Concert highlights for Marion this season include Mozart’s Requiem, a co-production with Canadian Opera Company and Against the Grain Theatre, the livestream/workshop presentation of The Echoes Project with Gryphon Trio, and the string quartet version of Five Orchestral Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont (Cusson) with the New Orford String Quartet for Cecilia Concerts in Halifax.
In 2022, Marion debuts with Anchorage Opera as Dr. Wilson in a new production of Missing, and creates the role of Dawn with Welsh National Opera in the upcoming world premiere of Migrations, with stories by five writers based on their personal experiences of migrations and working with refugees.
Most recently, Marion curated and performed in What is classical Indigenous Music? with Toronto’s Confluence Concerts and debuted with Rhode Island Symphony in Handel’s Messiah.
In addition to her extensive performing career, she is a co-founder of Amplified Opera and has worked in many facets of the performing arts as a curator, arts administrator, speaker, and teacher. Marion is the dramaturge for Namwayut/We Are All One, a new opera in creation with IBPOC artists and Calgary Opera.
Marion has performed in many works that speak to her First Nations identity, including Ancestral Voices (Tovey) with the Vancouver Symphony, Nuyamł-ił Kulhulmx–Singing the Earth (Höstman) with the Victoria Symphony, and Five Orchestral Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont (Cusson) with the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
In Mari Samuelsen’s musical universe there are no barriers between the music of such contemporary composers as Max Richter or Arvo Pärt and that of Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi. With her breathtaking artistry and adventurous approach to programming and presentation, Samuelsen inspires audiences worldwide. The Norwegian violinist’s emotionally charged style of playing, backed by an immaculate technique and searching intelligence, makes her broad repertoire even more captivating to listen to.
Her work includes collaborations with artists such as Jeff Mills, Dubfire and Philipp Geist, and ground-breaking explorations of contemporary art and classical music at Oslo’s Yellow Lounge events. “I’ve always felt an urge not to do what’s traditionally expected,” she notes. “My aim is to create new and innovative programmes for music lovers – regardless of genre.”
Mari Samuelsen signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon in January 2019. MARI, her debut DG recording, was released in June that year. As well as the Chaconne from J.S. Bach’s Partita No.2 for solo violin (“a gripping performance … in which Samuelsen exchanges the dogged intensity of traditional readings for a radiant eloquence that traces the music’s emotional peaks and troughs with a compelling sense of inevitability”, BBC Music Magazine) and “Knee Play 2” from Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, the album includes compositions by Brian Eno, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Peter Gregson.
In 2020 Mari released two singles on the yellow label: Moonlight, a reworking of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, and an arrangement of Ludovico Einaudi’s Una Mattina, both of which were accompanied by performance videos. These were followed in 2021 by Mitt hjerte alltid vanker (“My heart always wanders”), a reimagining of a Scandinavian Christmas song included on the DG album Winter Tales.
Mari Samuelsen’s latest Deutsche Grammophon album presents a bold new selection of dynamic and original music dedicated to and influenced by life and light. Lys (Norwegian for “Light”) features works by thirteen female composers, from Hildegard von Bingen to Hildur Guðnadóttir, and combines specially commissioned pieces with new arrangements of existing music. The album is set for release on May 20, 2022.
Mari works regularly with composer Max Richter, and appeared as soloist on Deutsche Grammophon’s world premiere recording of Three Worlds – Music from Woolf Works as well as performing “November” as part of the Yellow Label’s DG120 concert at Beijing’s Forbidden City in October 2018. In February 2020 she took part in the world premiere of Richter’s Voices at the Barbican in London, and she has since participated in further performances of the work in London and at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
Other recent and forthcoming highlights include works by Matteis, Pärt and Richter as part of the hr-Sinfonieorchester’s Music Discovery Project at the Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle (March 2022); Glass’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London (May 2022); appearances with Belgian chamber orchestra Casco Phil in Louvain and Hasselt (June 2022) and at the Wonderfeel Festival in the Netherlands (July 2022); and works by Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Monti with the Noord Nederlands Orkest at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (August 2022).
Born in 1984 in the town of Hamar, which lies south of the Olympic city of Lillehammer, on the shores of Norway’s largest lake, Mari Samuelsen received her first violin lessons at the age of three and continued her studies with Arve Tellefsen. From an early age she performed with her cellist brother Håkon, with whom she later made duo appearances around the world. At the age of 14 Mari enrolled at Oslo’s prestigious Barratt Due Institute of Music, and she later continued her studies for nearly a decade with Professor Zakhar Bron at the University of the Arts in Zurich.
Now in demand worldwide as concerto soloist and recitalist, Mari Samuelsen has performed at such leading venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Paris Philharmonie and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, the Tonhalle Zurich, London’s Barbican and the Hollywood Bowl. She gave the world premiere of James Horner’s double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra in November 2014, and recorded the work as the centrepiece of Pas de Deux, released on Mercury Classics (Universal Music). Her first solo recording, Nordic Noir, was an album of the kind of hauntingly atmospheric music known from TV series such as The Killing, The Bridge and Broadchurch. Both albums were hits in the Norwegian pop charts (reaching the No. 1 and No. 2 spots respectively).
Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator. From synthesizers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richter’s innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theatre works. He is Classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence,
Memoryhouse, Richter’s 2002 debut, has been described by The Independent and Pitchfork Magazine as a “landmark”, while his 2004 album The Blue Notebooks was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best Classical works of the century. SLEEP, his eight-and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. In 2012 Richter “Recomposed” the infamous Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, winning him the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, and an established place in the classical charts.
In recent years Richter’s music has become a mainstay for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, including The Mariinski Ballet, La Scala Milan, The Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Semper Oper, and NDT, while his collaborations with Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet have been widely acclaimed.
Richter has written prolifically for film and television, with recent projects including Hostiles, Black Mirror, Taboo – which gained him an Emmy nomination, HBO series The Leftovers and My Brilliant Friend and, most recently, White Boy Rick, Mary Queen of Scots and the sci-fi drama Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt. His music is also featured in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir, and in the Oscar-winning Arrival by Denis Villeneuve.
Richter’s most recent commissions are from the city of Bonn to mark the Beethoven 250th year anniversary, and a further collaboration between Richter, Margaret Atwood and Wayne McGregor, based on Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy of novels. His latest recorded project, VOICES, will be released in 2020.
(Born in 1985)
Outi Tarkianen was born in Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, a place that has proved a constant source of inspiration for her. She has long been drawn to the expressive power of the human voice, but has written vocal, chamber, and solo instrumental works as well as works for orchestra and soloist. “I see music as a force of nature that can flood over a person and even change entire destinies,” she once said.
Outi has been commissioned by orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras, and her music has been taken up by the symphony orchestras of St Louis, Detroit, and Houston, among others. Her early work with jazz orchestras culminated in Into the Woodland Silence (2013), a score that combined the composer’s sense of natural mysticism with the distinctive textures of the jazz orchestra tradition. Major works since include an orchestral song cycle to texts by Sami poets The Earth, Spring’s Daughter (2015), the saxophone concerto Saivo (2016, nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize), and Midnight Sun Variations premiered at the BBC Proms in 2019 (nominated for the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco’s Musical Composition Prize). Her first full-length opera, A Room of One’s Own (2021), was commissioned and premiered by Theater Hagen in Germany.
Outi studied composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Guildhall School in London and at the University of Miami. She has been composer-in-residence at the Festival de Musique Classique d’Uzerche in France and was for four years co-artistic director of the Silence Festival in Lapland.
By Andrew Mellor
One of Canadaʼs most sought after composers, Alexina Louie has written for many of the countryʼs leading soloists, chamber ensembles, new music groups and orchestras. Her works have become part of the standard repertoire, in particular her many compositions for piano which are frequently performed by students and professionals alike. Perhaps best known of these is Scenes From A Jade Terrace, commissioned by Jon Kimura Parker.
Louie’s orchestral works have received a multitude of important international performances. Some of the world renowned conductors who have performed her music include Sir Andrew Davis, Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Lazarev, Charles Dutoit, Bramwell Tovey, Gunther Herbig, Pinchas Zukerman, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Carlos Kalmar, James Judd, and Ingo Metzmacher.
Louie’s music has also been selected for productions by The National Ballet of Canada. Dominique Dumais’ a hundred words for snow (2003) was set to Louieʼs O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould, which The Globe and Mail described as Louie’s “profoundly beautiful” homage to the late Glenn Gould. In 2007, The National Ballet of Canada commissioned Louie to write Wolf’s Court, a new work in collaboration with choreographer Matjash Mrozewski.
In 2009, the Canadian Opera Company presented Louie’s full-length, mainstage opera The Scarlet Princess (with libretto by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) in concert before a sold-out audience in Toronto. The live recorded concert was broadcast across Canada and was received with enormous praise.
Her vocal and operatic works have been sung by widely celebrated singers, including Barbara Hannigan, Russell Braun, Daniel Okulitch, and John Relyea. Louie’s expertise in vocal writing are highlighted in her ground-breaking international award-winning humorous made-for-TV mini-operas Toothpaste and Burnt Toast, both of which were created in collaboration with director Larry Weinstein and librettist Dan Redican.
In 2014, acclaimed violinist James Ehnes commissioned Beyond Time, a highly virtuosic, colourful work for violin and piano which he has taken on tour. Audiences and critics alike have been thrilled by his performances of the piece.
Most recently, Louie’s highly anticipated Triple Concerto For Three Violins And Orchestra, jointly commissioned by the Toronto Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony for their three concertmasters, was performed by all three orchestras during Canada’s celebratory 150th Anniversary year.
Louie has twice won JUNO awards (Canada’s equivalent of the Grammy) for Best Classical Composition. In addition to the JUNOs, she is the recipient of many awards and honours including the Jules Léger Prize for Chamber Music, the National Arts Centre Composers Award, the Chalmer’s Award in Composition, an honourary doctorate from the University of Calgary, as well as many other distinctions.
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“A natural communicator, both on and off the podium” (The Telegraph), Alexander Shelley performs across six continents with the world’s finest orchestras and soloists.
With a conducting technique described as “immaculate” (Yorkshire Post) and a “precision, distinction and beauty of gesture not seen since Lorin Maazel” (Le Devoir), Shelley is known for the clarity and integrity of his interpretations and the creativity and vision of his programming. He has spearheaded over 40 major world premieres to date, including highly praised cycles of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms symphonies, operas, ballets, and innovative multi-media productions.
Since 2015, he has served as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2023, he was appointed Artistic and Music Director of Artis–Naples in Florida, providing artistic leadership for the Naples Philharmonic and the entire multidisciplinary arts organization. The 2024–2025 season is Shelley’s inaugural season in this position. In addition to his other conducting roles, the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles’s Orange County announced Shelley’s appointment as its next Artistic and Music Director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026–2027 season, with Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025.
Additional 2024–2025 season highlights include performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the Seattle Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland). Shelley is a regular guest with some of the finest orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australasia, including Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Helsinki, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Malaysian, Oslo, Rotterdam and Stockholm philharmonic orchestras, and the Sao Paulo, Houston, Seattle, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, Munich, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, and New Zealand symphony orchestras.
In September 2015, Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the youngest in its history. The ensemble has since been praised as “an orchestra transformed ... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen), and his programming is credited for turning the orchestra “almost overnight ... into one of the more audacious orchestras in North America” (Maclean’s). Together, they have undertaken major tours of Canada, Europe, and Carnegie Hall, where they premiered Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 13.
They have commissioned ground-breaking projects such as Life Reflected and Encount3rs, released multiple Juno-nominated albums and, most recently, responded to the pandemic and social justice issues of the era with the NACO Live and Undisrupted video series.
In August 2017, Shelley concluded his eight-year tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, a period hailed by press and audiences alike as a golden era for the orchestra.
Shelley’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Royal Danish Opera), La bohème (Opera Lyra/National Arts Centre), Louis Riel (Canadian Opera Company/National Arts Centre), lolanta (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Così fan tutte (Opéra national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon), The Marriage of Figaro (Opera North), Tosca (Innsbruck), and both Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni in semi-staged productions at the NAC.
Winner of the ECHO Music Prize and the Deutsche Grunderpreis, Shelley was conferred with the Cross of the Federal Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in April 2023 in recognition of his services to music and culture.
Through his work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Schumann Camerata and their pioneering “440Hz” series in Dusseldorf, as founding Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s “Zukunftslabor” and through his regular tours leading the National Youth Orchestra of Germany, inspiring future generations of classical musicians and listeners has always been central to Shelley’s work.
He regularly gives informed and passionate pre- and post-concert talks on his programs, as well as numerous interviews and podcasts on the role of classical music in society. In Nuremberg alone, over nine years, he hosted over half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concert, Europe’s largest classical music event.
Born in London in October 1979 to celebrated concert pianists, Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany and first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, with the press describing him as “the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award.”
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., ONL, LL.D. (hc).
Elina Oikari is a filmmaker based in Helsinki. She has graduated with a Master of Arts from the ELO Film School Finland in Aalto University majoring in documentary film directing (2014). As a filmmaker Oikari works with fiction, documentary, and alternative film. Her work often explores current social themes as well as timeless places and stories. Using a sharp palette of absurd humour and reflective visual language she aims to push the boundaries of cinema.
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
Since taking the helm in 2015, Shelley has shaped the Orchestra’s artistic vision, building on the legacy of his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, who led the ensemble for 16 seasons. Shelley’s influence extends beyond the NAC. He serves as Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in the United States. In addition to his other conducting roles, the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles’s Orange County announced Shelley’s appointment as its next Artistic and Music Director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026-2027 season, with Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025. Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser complement Shelley’s leadership. In 2024, the Orchestra marked a new chapter with the appointment of Henry Kennedy as its first-ever Resident Conductor.
The Orchestra has a rich history of partnerships with renowned artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Jeremy Dutcher, Jan Lisiecki, Ray Chen, and Yeol Eum Son, underscoring its reputation as a destination for world-class talent. As one of the most accessible, inclusive and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
A hallmark of the NAC Orchestra is its national and international tours. The Orchestra has performed concerts in every Canadian province and territory and earned frequent invitations to perform abroad. These tours spotlight Canadian composers and artists, bringing their voices to stages across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.
NAC Orchestra
First Violins
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Marjolaine Lambert
Manuela Milani
Emily Westell
*Zhengdong Liang
*Erica Miller
*Martine Dubé
*Heather Schnarr
*Oleg Chelpanov
*John Corban
Second violins
Mintje van Lier (principal)
Winston Webber (assistant principal)
Frédéric Moisan
Carissa Klopoushak
Mark Friedman
Karoly Sziladi
Leah Roseman
**Edvard Skerjanc
*Emily Kruspe
*Renée London
*Andréa Armijo Fortin
*Marc Djokic
Violas
Jethro Marks (principal / solo)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal)
David Marks (associate principal)
Paul Casey
David Thies-Thompson
*Christoph Chung
*Alexander Moroz
Cellos
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Marc-André Riberdy
Timothy McCoy
Leah Wyber
*Desiree Abbey
*Karen Kang
Double basses
*Joel Quarrington (guest principal)
**Hilda Cowie
Max Cardilli
Vincent Gendron
Marjolaine Fournier
*Travis Harrison
Flutes
Joanna G'froerer (principal)
Stephanie Morin
*Kaili Maimets
Oboes
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen
*Melissa Scott
English Horn
Anna Petersen
Clarinets
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
*Juan Olivares
Bassoons
Darren Hicks (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
*Ben Glossop
Horns
Lawrence Vine (principal)
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Elizabeth Simpson
Lauren Anker
Louis-Pierre Bergeron
Trumpets
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
*Paul Jeffrey
Trombones
**Donald Renshaw (principal)
*Steve Dyer (guest principal)
Colin Traquair
Bass Trombone
*Zachary Bond
Tubas
Chris Lee (principal)
Timpani
*Jonathan Rance
Percussion
Jonathan Wade
*Dan Morphy
*Louis Pino
*Tim Francom
Harp
*Angela Schwarzkopf
Harpsichord
* Thomas Annand
Piano
* Olga Gross
Principal Librarian
Nancy Elbeck
Assistant Librarian
Corey Rempel
Personnel Manager
Meiko Lydall
Assistant Personnel Manager
Laurie Shannon
*Additional musicians
**On Leave/En congé
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees