≈ 1 hour and 30 minutes · With intermission
Last updated: October 31, 2024
A note from Chris Lee, Principal Tuba of the NAC Orchestra
Dear audience,
I’m excited to present this program of tuba chamber music, featuring Canadian premieres of works by Jesse Montgomery, Quinn Mason, and David Baker.
Our concert opens with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Romanza” from the first tuba concerto ever written, in 1954. Next, Gary Kulesha's trio (from 1981, revised in 2024) takes you on a virtuosic journey through a completely different musical language, ending abruptly after a whirlwind third movement. Jesse Montgomery's In Color (2014) is a set of five vignettes, two of which connect the “Lament” from Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto (2021) with Quinn Mason's optimistic piece, On Life (2018).
The second half of the program beautifully juxtaposes the three other movements from In Color and David Baker’s Sonata for Tuba and String Quartet (1971).
I hope you enjoy this program!
Program
Chris Lee, tuba
Emily Westell, violin
Jeffrey Dyrda, violin
Jethro Marks, viola
Leah Wyber, cello
Karen Donnelly, trumpet
Frédéric Lacroix, piano
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS “Romanza” (Mvt 2) from Tuba Concerto (4 minutes)
GARY KULESHA Passacaglia, Cadenzas, and Finale for trumpet, tuba, and piano (12 minutes)
I. Passacaglia
II. Cadenzas
III. Finale
The next four pieces are performed without pause.
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “Red” (Mvt 5) from In Color for tuba and string quartet (1 minute)
WYNTON MARSALIS (arr. Chris Lee) “Lament” (Mvt 3) from Tuba Concerto (5 minutes)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “Aqua” (Mvt 1) from In Color (1 minute)
QUINN MASON On Life for tuba and string quartet (7 minutes)
INTERMISSION
The second half of this program is performed without pause.
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “Purple” (Mvt 3) from In Color (1 minute)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “Makina” (Mvt 4) from In Color (1 minute)
DAVID BAKER Sonata for tuba and string quartet (20 minutes)
I. Slow – Moderato
II. Easy swing “blues”
III. Very slow
IV. Fast
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “The Poet” (Mvt 2) from In Color (1 minute)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY “Red 2” from In Color (1 minute)
Repertoire
“Romanza” (Mvt 2) from Tuba Concerto
During his final creative period from 1951, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) became interested in unusual timbres and instruments. Of the latter, he was drawn to those that weren’t typically featured in a solo role, like the harmonica, for which he composed a romance in 1952. Two years later, Vaughan Williams completed a concerto for tuba, the first in that genre for the instrument. He requested the premiere be given by tubist Philip Catelinet and the London Symphony Orchestra at one of the LSO’s Jubilee concerts. Catelinet, who was self-taught on the instrument and had played it while in the BBC Military Band then became principal tuba of the BBC Theatre Orchestra, was initially shocked by the prospect of being thrust into the spotlight. “As a musician, I really couldn’t appreciate the idea of the tuba being the centre attraction as soloist on a concerto at an orchestral concert,” he recalled of the experience. “The tuba was too often connected by the public with what was humorous and ludicrous to be considered seriously a possibility on a concert platform.”
The Tuba Concerto was a success, not least because Vaughan Williams, as music historian Eric Saylor has noted in his recent biography of the composer, “treated the instrument seriously as a solo instrument, exploring sonorities and techniques that reveal its technical abilities and expressive depths.” The piece has since inspired composers to make their own contributions to the solo repertoire for the tuba.
Vaughan Williams described the music of this three-movement concerto as “fairly simple and obvious and can probably be listened to without much previous explanation.” The middle movement, “Romanza”, is the emotional heart of the work, set in the composer’s signature English pastoral style. Throughout, the tuba muses rhapsodically, demonstrating the instrument’s capabilities for song-like lyricism and fluid agility to poignant effect.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Passacaglia, Cadenzas, and Finale for trumpet, tuba, and piano
I. Passacaglia
II. Cadenzas
III. Finale
Recently appointed to the Order of Canada, Gary Kulesha (b. 1954) is one of our country’s most visible musicians. Although he is best known as a composer, he is extremely active as a conductor as well and has appeared extensively as a pianist. His career has been an astonishing mixture of activities, taking him from the classical music world through broadcasting and theatre, film, and opera.
“Passacaglia, Cadenzas, and Finale was written in 1981 and revised and corrected in September of 2024,” according to Kulesha. “It followed my Sonata for Trumpet, Tuba, and Piano, and is one of many pieces I wrote that used the tuba in chamber music.” As he further describes:
The Passacaglia [a musical form that features variations on a theme in the bass line] is actually a re-imagining of the first movement of my first Chamber Concerto, which I wrote immediately before this work. But this version differs from the Chamber Concerto in many ways, and the 2024 revision pushes it even further from that version.
The main theme of the Passacaglia is stated immediately at the beginning, and the variations that follow grow increasingly rhythmically complex. The theme is never absent, although it is frequently very disguised. It passes through all the registers of the instruments while the movement builds intensity. After the climax, the music subsides and ends with a simple statement of the theme over a sustained tone.
The Cadenzas are in two sections, one for trumpet and tuba together, and one for solo piano. They are true cadenzas—very virtuosic, with a somewhat improvisatory quality.
The Finale is very fast and very exciting. The theme of the Passacaglia, which also appeared in the Cadenzas, is once again the source of the main material. The movement begins with very high energy, relaxes somewhat for a more lyrical middle section, and then re-ignites for a volatile rush to the conclusion.
Composer biography and program note compiled and edited by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
In Color for tuba and string quartet
(Movements listed in performance order)
V. Red
I. Aqua
III. Purple
IV. Makina
II. The Poet
V. Red 2
Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981), as stated in her bio, is Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year, and a “Grammy-winning, acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator whose music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience.” In 2014, tuba player Bob Stewart commissioned Montgomery to write a piece featuring his instrument with string quartet. As he explained in an interview for Jazz Speaks, “I didn’t really want a typical tuba solo piece like an étude or something, but a piece that explored the sound qualities of the instrument, using multiphonics [an extended technique in which several notes sound at once], using overtones from the extremes of the instrument—a lot of different things. The result was the piece In Color, which is in five movements. Each movement explores a different texture that the tuba can present.”
For Montgomery, In Color presented an interesting challenge…
…to find a blend between the unique timbre of the tuba and the strings, to find a place in the middle where these two opposing timbres could meet. When I thought about how the tuba and the quartet were going to get along, I thought immediately about colour, the place in between melody and rhythm where interesting things can happen. My goal was to find a composite sound colour that would be unique to this kind of ensemble.
Montgomery had several listening sessions with Stewart to determine the kind of harmonies that are naturally created by playing multiphonics on the tuba, then wrote for the strings around those. In December 2014, Stewart released the recording Connections – Mind the Gap, which includes In Color with its five movements reordered and with other works inserted in between, thus creating a precedent for how they are presented in this afternoon’s concert.
Like on Stewart’s recording, the rhapsodic fifth movement “Red” frames this program. “Aqua” suggests oceanic depths, the ebb and flow of waves, and running water. Following the atmospheric “Purple”, “Makina”, a play on the word “machine” in Spanish, says Montgomery, “broadens the spectrum…so that the concept of blend is displaced by a collective cacophony of effects. This section is a play on the metal body of the tuba and its mechanisms; in this movement both the tuba and the string quartet use extended techniques almost exclusively to depict the metal switches, pistons, and wheels of an imagined mega machine.” In the second movement “The Poet”, performed second last in this concert, Montgomery features the tuba as the solo part, to which the player brings their own improvisations.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
“Lament” (Mvt 3) from Tuba Concerto
Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961) has distinguished himself as a composer of works that are inventive hybrids of Western art music and jazz traditions. Notably, he adapts and fuses art music’s forms and mediums (e.g., orchestra, string quartet) with jazz and its many styles, along with other Black music idioms including work songs and spirituals. In this vein, his Tuba Concerto expands the notion of virtuosity for the soloist—as not only about technical prowess, but also about playing expressively, as well as being able to deftly perform a diverse range of Black and Latin American musical styles.
Co-commissioned by several orchestras including the NAC Orchestra, Marsalis composed his Tuba Concerto in 2021. Originally written for Carol Jantsch, principal tuba of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the piece was premiered by Jantsch and the orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin on December 9, 2021. It has since been performed by several other tubists and orchestra, including the NAC Orchestra's Principal Tuba Chris Lee who gave the concerto’s Canadian premiere on June 16, 2022.
In a video conversation with Jantsch, Marsalis described the tuba as “such a singing instrument.” For “Lament”, he wanted to write a part that “started introspectively…the kind of thing we equate with Bill Evans and Wayne Shorter.” From introspection, the movement shifts to 19th-century Romantic lyricism, with the tuba playing a “kind of an opera recitative” to which the orchestra responds. After another introspective moment, a march appears; based on a repeated bass line and featuring tambourines, Marsalis explained that it’s a reference to the minstrel show: “I wanted the tuba to deal with the whole pathos that comes with this type of parody…the bittersweet quality of having to make a parody of yourself.” The middle section has “burlesques” with “extreme dissonances…and when you sing your part, you slowly realize that no matter what you do…you’re a comic-tragic character. A sad clown.” To drive this point home, Marsalis instructs the tuba at the movement’s climax to “shout as if wailing wasn’t enough.”
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
On Life for tuba and string quartet
Quinn Mason (b. 1996) is a composer and conductor based in Dallas, Texas. His music has been performed and commissioned by numerous renowned orchestras, including the San Francisco, Dallas, National, Seattle, Cincinnati, and Detroit symphony orchestras, Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, and many more nationally and internationally, as well as acclaimed concert bands and chamber ensembles around the world. He has received numerous awards from several organizations, including the American Composers Forum and ASCAP Voices of Change, and has guest-conducted many orchestras throughout the United States.
On Life for tuba and string quartet from 2018 was commissioned by American tubist Evan Zegiel, who wanted a new work from Mason based on a theme for a concert in early March 2019 entitled “Young at Heart”. The piece unfolds in three parts, with two fast outer sections that seem to evoke the verve and bustle of life, framing a more reflective, somewhat dreamy central episode. Throughout, Mason, who said he wanted to represent the lighter, more humorous side of life in this composition, employs to full advantage the unique soundscape of a tuba with string quartet, setting their distinctive timbres off with a variety of contrasting textures and sonorities.
The lively first section opens with the strings engaging in playful shifts of musical meter and off-beat accents, the tuba soon joining in. In the ensuing slower section, the tuba plays lyrical phrases against a backdrop of fluctuating sounds ranging from shimmering tremolos to undulating figures. An expressive viola solo leading to a freely tumbling line is then emulated by the tuba, after which the two instruments sing briefly in counterpoint over the rest of the strings. Following a meditative cello solo, the tuba leads us back to the opening energy. The ensemble then briskly makes its way through various twists and turns, reaching the end with spirited good cheer.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Sonata for tuba and string quartet
I. Slow – Moderato
II. Easy swing “blues”
III. Very slow
IV. Fast
Indianapolis-born David Baker (1931–2016) was a world-renowned composer, conductor, and musician (he chiefly played trombone and cello). A distinguished professor of jazz studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music from 1966 to 2016, he was also conductor and musical and artistic director for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra from 1991 to 2012. As a composer, he was prolific, having written over 2,000 works ranging from jazz to classical music to film scores, commissioned by over 500 individuals and ensembles.
Baker composed his Sonata for tuba and string quartet in 1971, for his friend and Indiana University colleague Harvey Phillips (1929–2010), a celebrated tuba player known for his advocacy of the instrument. While the combination of tuba and string quartet might seem peculiar, the choice, said Baker in his description of the piece, was “very deliberate, and calculated to place the tuba in surroundings unlike those in which it usually finds itself.” Notably, the string quartet is “the companion (not accompanying) group” to the tuba. As Baker further explains, “Because of Harvey’s great artistry and sensitivity as well as the vast tonal combinatorial possibilities inherent in this unusual alliance, the string quartet provided the perfect foil.”
Each of the Sonata’s four movements, notes Baker, is “designed to explore a different aspect of the quartet/tuba combination. All four movements make extensive use of ostinato [a repeated musical figure or rhythm], virtuosic writing for tuba and strings, and intense rhythmic activity and drama.”
The first movement is characterized by a “multi-layered rhythmic scheme, extensive use of imitation, multiple stopping, and fragmentation.” Fragmentation of musical materials between the instruments is also the principal technique of the second movement, which draws extensively in terms of “mood, harmony, and note choice on the ‘blues’”, says Baker, with solo tuba introducing a “21st-century” blues at the start.
The slow and lyrical third movement features the use of stretto (overlapping statements of a theme), as well as “slides, slurs, and sudden changes in volume, mood, and rhythms.” A “virtuosic string passage in stretto”, played “on the bridge” of the instruments, opens the finale, over which tuba soars with the first theme. A rhythmic ostinato in the strings combines with the tuba line for the second theme. Later, there’s a short cello and tuba duet, “in which both instruments engage in double stops—for brass instruments, this very difficult and modern technique is called multiphonics,” Baker clarifies. Following an enigmatic episode, the virtuosic string opening returns, with tuba on the first theme, and leads into “a strongly rhythmic coda” culminating in an ascending tuba line, then ends on a sustained low C.
Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Artists
A native of Toronto, Chris began playing tuba at age 12 at Winona Drive Senior Public School and instantly discovered a passion for performing.
During his time at Winona, Chris met Chuck Daellenbach of the Canadian Brass and performed over 50 concerts with the Winona Brass Quintet, including a tour of Japan. Chuck would serve as a role model and mentor for the remainder of Chris’s career, and those early musical experiences with the quintet would leave an indelible imprint on him.
After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Chris’s formal education included studies with Dennis Miller at McGill University, Alain Cazes at the Montreal Conservatory, and Dan Perantoni at Indiana University. He spent his summers performing with various festival orchestras, including the National Academy Orchestra (Hamilton, Ontario), the National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge, Colorado), the National Orchestral Institute (College Park, Maryland), the Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra (Switzerland), and a memorable summer in the Ceremonial Guard band on Parliament Hill.
Chris’s professional orchestral tuba career began overseas in Spain, where he performed as principal tuba with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia for two seasons from 2001 to 2003 before returning to Canada to take up the same position with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2003. Chris served as principal tuba with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for 15 seasons from 2003 until 2018 when he started as Principal Tuba with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Chris has been an active teacher and enjoys sharing his passion for music. While in Europe, Chris was the Professor of Tuba at the ESMAE School of Music in Porto, Portugal, and is the former instructor of tuba at the University of Manitoba. He is very proud of his former students, who hold a variety of positions.
Chris has recorded with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Brass, and numerous studio recordings in the USA. Chris has appeared as a soloist with a variety of ensembles, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble, and the National Youth Band of Canada. Chris gave the orchestral premiere of the Victor Davies Tuba Concerto in 2009 with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and is always on the lookout for new tuba repertoire to perform for Canadian audiences. When he is not playing tuba, Chris enjoys running, golfing, and spending time with his wife, Desiree, and their two kids, Evelyn and Keenan.
Canadian violinist Emily Westell has established herself as a versatile musician. Since her debut as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra at age 15, she has performed as soloist and conductor with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and has played concerti with the Tanglewood, Banff Festival, and University of Calgary orchestras. A winner of the 2012 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition (loan of the 1717 Windsor-Weinstein Stradivari), she was awarded the 2013 Astral Artist Prize from Canada’s National Arts Centre. Emily has performed chamber music and solo recitals in Paris (Cité de la Musique), New York (Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall), Boston (Jordan Hall), and the Netherlands (International Holland Music Sessions). Her concerts have been broadcast on CBC and Radio-Canada.
Emily has performed at the festivals of Prussia Cove, Norfolk, Spoleto USA, Orford, Meadowmount, and Lanaudière. An advocate for new music, Emily has performed with the Harvard Group for New Music, Columbia Composers, Boston’s Callithumpian Consort, and on the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble CD, Rollin’ Down #1, winner of the Western Canada Music Award for Outstanding Classical Album. She is a former instructor of violin and chamber music at McGill University.
Emily recently completed post-doctoral professional studies with Pinchas Zukerman in the Manhattan School of Music’s prestigious Zukerman Performance Program with a President’s Award. Her previous teachers include Edmond Agopian, Miriam Fried, and Jonathan Crow. She holds a Doctor of Music from McGill University (where she was an SSHRC Doctoral Fellow), a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, and the Fine Arts gold medal from the University of Calgary for the top graduate.
Canadian violinist Jeffrey Dyrda has enjoyed performing for audiences across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has performed as principal with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Jeff was appointed assistant concertmaster of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2022 and joined the violin section of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in the fall of 2024.
A dedicated chamber musician, Jeff is a former member of the Rolston String Quartet, with whom he received the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and the First Prize of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, among others. Performance highlights included appearances at the Spoleto, Banff, Cliburn, and Norfolk festivals and in concert series in many of the world’s finest chamber music halls.
As an educator, Jeff’s activities include private teaching, masterclasses, and community outreach in Canada, the United States, and abroad. He has instructed chamber music at the Virginia Tech Intensive Chamber Music Seminar, as well as at Yale University as part of the Fellowship String Quartet in Residence, and has also been a provincial adjudicator for the Associated Manitoba Arts Festival. Jeff received a Fellowship from the New World Symphony in Miami Beach and is a graduate of Rice University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and McGill University.
In the summers, Jeff greatly enjoys performing as a regular member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. He is also an accomplished jazz saxophonist.
Originally from Oakbank, Manitoba, Jeff lives in Ottawa with his wife, cellist Grace An, and their son, Franklin, and plays on a 1921 violin by Romeo Antoniazzi.
Vancouver-born violist Jethro Marks was appointed Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in the spring of 2011. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, China, Mexico, Europe, and Canada and is a frequent collaborator with many artists and ensembles. Jethro is the first violist of the Zukerman Chamber Players, a string ensemble led by Pinchas Zukerman that has completed highly acclaimed tours of festivals in Canada, the USA, Europe, China, South America, and New Zealand. The ensemble released its fourth CD in 2008.
One of five brothers growing up in a musical family, Jethro first studied violin with his father, who played in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. While attending Indiana University at Bloomington, he became intrigued by the rich, dark sound of the viola. He began to switch his focus and started studying with violist Atar Arad. Awards included first prize in the Kuttner Quartet Competition, first prize in the Concerto Competition, and the prestigious Performers Certificate. In 1998, Jethro was accepted into the Zukerman Program at the Manhattan School of Music as the only violist, and he won first prize in the MSM Concerto Competition. Jethro first participated in the National Arts Centre’s Young Artist Program in 1999, returning the following summer. He returned to the NAC Summer Music Institute in 2000 and 2001 as a mentor and made his CBC Radio debut in 2003, performing Paganini’s 24th Caprice on viola.
An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with some of the most illustrious artists and chamber groups of our day, including Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Gary Hoffman, Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, Itzhak Perlman, Yefim Bronfman, Emanual Ax, and the Orion Quartet, and has participated in festivals around the world, including the Verbier Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Festival de musique de Saint Barthelemy, the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Lanaudière Festival, the Agassiz Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Musica Mundi in Belgium, Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, and Mostly Mozart, as well as the 92nd St. Y, Jupiter, and Lyric Chamber Music Societies in New York City. Jethro is frequently featured in chamber music concerts in the National Arts Centre’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon series and at Ottawa Chamberfest.
He made his solo debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 2004, playing Harold in Italy, and he premiered the Steven Gellman Viola Concerto with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra in 2007. In 2014, he performed Malcolm Forsyth’s concerto with cellist Amanda Forsyth. He frequently collaborates with Ottawa pianist Mauro Bertoli and plays numerous recitals throughout Canada.
Leah Wyber is a native of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Her introduction to the cello began in a school strings program at age eight. She received her advanced musical training at the University of British Columbia and the Banff Centre. Eric Wilson, Paula Kiffner, and George Kiraly are among her most influential teachers.
Leah is a former member of La Pietà of Montreal, Thirteen Strings of Ottawa, the Atlantic String Quartet, and Joe Trio of Vancouver. She was also the principal cello of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for several years. Some of the many festivals and programs she has participated in include Ottawa Chamberfest, the Scotia Festival, the Whistler Mozart Festival, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra.
Leah has been a member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1993. In addition to performing alongside the wonderful cellists in the orchestra, she enjoys playing chamber music and teaching. Other interests include gardening, hiking, cross-country skiing, and curling.
Karen Donnelly was unanimously appointed Principal Trumpet of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in October 1999, following three successful seasons (1996-1999) as acting principal trumpet and continues to enjoy each year with this wonderful ensemble.
Before joining the NAC Orchestra, Karen was a freelancer in Montreal, where she performed with most ensembles in the area, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Karen was the principal trumpet with Orchestra London (Canada) from 1994 to 1996. She has been guest principal trumpet with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and currently enjoys playing Associate Principal Trumpet with the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra.
Karen has been a featured soloist with many professional and community-based groups. These include the NAC Orchestra, Thirteen Strings, the Kingston Symphony, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, the Hannaford Silver Street Band, the National Honour Band of Canada, the Parkdale Orchestra, the University of Regina Wind Ensemble, and many high school bands in the region.
In 2019, Karen spearheaded a new initiative, the Canadian Women’s Brass Collective, to shine a light on female brass players and provide visibility and mentoring for all students.
Music education has always been very close to Karen’s heart. Her work with the True North Brass Quintet creates opportunities for educational concerts and workshops in schools. Through the NAC’s learning and engagement programs, Karen has given masterclasses in Switzerland, Mexico, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Canada.
Karen joined the teaching staff at the University of Ottawa in 2002, and she is an honorary teaching artist and mentor for the OrKidstra program, providing music to kids in equity-deserving communities in Ottawa.
Karen studied at the University of Regina and McGill University, where she completed a Master of Music. She wouldn’t be a musician, however, without her school band program in her hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan.
Frédéric Lacroix has performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. As such, he has performed with many important musicians, including Branford Marsalis, Johannes Moser, Kathleen Battle, Alexander Rudin, and some of Canada’s most noted musicians. He has made regular radio appearances on CBC and Radio-Canada in Canada as well as NPR in the U.S. Frédéric is also active as a composer, having composed for Ottawa Chamberfest, the Society of American Music, the Canadian University Music Society, the Chœur Classique de l’Outaouais, and other noted Canadian musicians.
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.
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
