≈ 75 minutes · No intermission
Repertoire
Symphony No 4 (selections)
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Original Composition
Listening Underwater
Keiko Devaux (b. 1982) is a contemporary music composer based in Montréal. Her approach embraces a love of electroacoustic sounds and methodology by manipulating and distorting acoustic sound with digital tools, and then transcribing or re-translating these back into musical notation and the acoustic realm. Her interests include emotional experience and affect, auto-organizational phenomena in nature and living beings, as well as “genre-blurring” by layering and juxtaposing contrasting melodic/harmonic skeletal elements of highly contrasting sonic sources. The distortion of the temporal, frequency, and timbral attributes allow the blurring between traditional tonal sounds and more electroacoustic-inspired “noise” gestures.
Keiko’s works have been performed in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the United States, and Israel by various ensembles. She has received numerous prizes and awards, including most recently a JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year (for Arras, 2022), the Prix Opus for Composer of the Year (2022), and the inaugural Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music in 2020 (the largest of its kind in Canada and one of the largest in the world).
From 2020 to 2022, Keiko was in residence with the NAC Orchestra as a Carrefour Composer. Listening Underwater was commissioned by NACO as part of this program, and tonight’s performance is the work’s world premiere. She provides the following description about her piece:
The inspiration for this work brought together my general interest in hydro-acoustics with underwater noise pollution and the effect it has on sea-life communication. For this piece I focused particularly on the communicative sounds of toothed and baleen whales. Toothed whales, which include orcas and dolphins, use echolocation to communicate, navigate, and hunt whereas baleen whales produce a series of sounds or “songs” to communicate. Using these two types of vocalizations as inspiration points created a nice contrast between echolocation—a series of clicks and pops—in the ultrasonic range, with the pitch-bending/wavering “songs” produced by baleen whales in the infrasonic range creating two very distinct frequency bands.
The piece establishes and builds an underwater environment of organic ambient noise including surface waves, deeper swells, general underwater movement, and an overall muffled quality with frequencies in the mid-range more attenuated highlighting the extreme high and low intermittent and droned sounds. Eventually the underwater communication, expressed as foreground melodic themes is introduced. These thematic motifs are presented as communicative calls in one section of the orchestra receiving a response in another section often truncated or diffused in nature. As these call-response motifs continue to build and develop in nature, the thrum of human noise (ships, machinery, drilling, etc.) begins its slow crescendo. As this crescendo builds, the calls adapt by adjusting their frequency range higher or lower. Eventually, as the noise builds, the responses become more distant, diffused, disfigured, and ultimately lost. As this crescendo reaches its climax, the underwater calls and responses are stamped out, and the ocean is “silent” again. As the piece comes to an end, melodies are slowly reborn and begin to call out again, first to no response, and eventually life and communication rebuilds and reemerges.
Ramifications for string orchestra
I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)
Komm susser Tod
Artists
Originally from Colombia, Andrea Peña is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative practice transverses the fields of art installation, choreography and design. Her works are focused on the creation of critical, alternative, performative and spatial universes that question the individual within society. Peña’s choreographic language is characterized by its vulnerability, complexity and rich physicality, which extends beyond mere movement, through a conceptual research approach.
Post a professional career as a dancer with BalletBC and Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Peña founded Andrea Peña & Artists in 2014. The company has been recognized with numerous awards and commissions, for their conceptual, visceral and highly rigorous creations, recently including the 2018 Hong Kong International Choreography award and the 2018 Banff Arts Center's Clifford E. Lee Canadian Choreography Award.
Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. The predominant theme in his work is nature transformed through industry, he has documented some of the most poignant transformations of nature around the world.
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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)
Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) 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 NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships.
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.
Each season, the NAC Orchestra features world-class artists such as the newly appointed Artist-in-Residence James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds. 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.
- Artistic Direction Andrea Peña
- Choreography Andrea Peña in collaboration with the performing artists
- Photography and Video Edward Burtynsky
- Projection Design Bobby León
- Music Alexander Shelley with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Eƨƨe Ran
- Performers Gabrielle Kachan, Jontae McCrory, Jo Laïny Trozzo-Mounet, Francois Richard, Rebecca Margolick, James Phillips, Myriam Arseneault, James Viveiros, Justin Calvadores
- Lighting Design Hugo Dalphond
- Scenography Jonathan Saucier
- Executive Producer (NAC) Caroline Ohrt
- Senior Producer (NAC) Tina Legari
- Producer (Edward Burtynsky) Julia Johnston
- Producer (AP&A) Isabella Salas
- Communications & Logistics Polina Boltova
- Production Manager Alex Gazale
- Technical Director Conrad St-Gelais
- Video Chief Gabriel Ranon
- Digital Asset Coordination and Consultation Jim Panou
- Production Consultant Marcus Schubert
- Promotional photography Jeanne Tétreault, Bobby León & Jonathan Auger, Rodolfo Rueda
- Video Direction (Teaser) Bobby León
- Promotional video-Director of Photography Jonathan Auger
- Documentary video Agustina Isidori
- Featuring EDWARD BURTYNSKY STUDIO
- Director of finance Connie Hitzeroth
- Head of Business Affairs Julia Johnston
- Director of Studio Operations, Gallery Relations Karen Machtinger
- Project Coordinator, Field Producer Jim Panou
- Director of Publications, Exhibitions & Special Projects Marcus Schubert
- Studio Manager McKenzie Grey
- Archivist & Manager of Production Paul Sergeant
- Media & Communications Manager, Production Coordinator, Special Projects Alanna Smith
- Andrea Peña & Artists has received the support from Conseil des arts du Canada Conseil Des Arts et Lettres du Québec Conseil des Arts de Montréal National Arts Centre
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