≈ 75 minutes · No intermission
Repertoire
O Canada
Fall Fair
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.
Les Diableries
“Contented House” extract from Canada Mosaic
Hymn to Freedom
Artists
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.
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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 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.
In April 2022, Alexander Shelley made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the NAC Orchestra in its long-awaited return, and in the spring of 2019, he led the Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary European tour, with stops in London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.
Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, the Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. Previous releases with the NAC Orchestra include the Juno-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, the acclaimed multi-volume Clara - Robert - Johannes series, all with Canadian label Analekta, as well as Truth in Our Time with Orange Mountain Music.
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., ONL, LL.D. (hc).
Kerson Leong has been described as “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Forging a unique path since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, he continues to win over colleagues and audiences alike with “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes” (Le Monde).
His recent album for Alpha Classics featuring the six sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe was awarded the Diapason d’Or Découverte and the Choc de Classica, with Classica proclaiming him “more than a discovery, a veritable revelation” and Gramophone magazine declaring that “his recording could be a happy first choice for any discerning listener.”
His 2023–2024 season includes solo performances with the Arkansas Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia de Lanaudière, I Musici de Montreal, and Les Violons du Roy. Recent season highlights include a tour of Sweden with Camerata Nordica, a recital tour of the Midwestern United States, and recording John Rutter’s Visions with the composer himself and the Aurora Chamber Orchestra, after giving its world premiere in London, U.K.
As a sought-after soloist, he was hand-picked by Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be his artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain during the 2018–2019 season and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. His latest album, featuring the Britten and Bruch violin concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Patrick Hahn for Alpha Classics, was released to widespread critical acclaim, including five-star recommendations from The Sunday Times and Diapason.
Kerson is an associate artist of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he was mentored by Augustin Dumay. He performs on the “exBohrer, Baumgartner” Guarneri del Gesu courtesy of Canimex Inc, Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.
Pop, Groovy, Funk by moment and Soul as a whole, Yao, with his baritone voice, succeeds in charming us with the warm universe of his sweet poetry and his artistic audacity.
Faithful to his pictorial writing – casted in great sensitivity - Yao reminds us of the textual richness of French rap by MC Solaar or Oxmo Puccino. His singularity: his eclectic pop side; Where the musical universes succeed one another and intertwine through the textual escapades of this poet.
After greatly distinguishing himself in the French-Canadian scene with his album Perles et Paraboles, Yao, with his seven nominations at the Trille Or 2015 Awards Gala (by APCM – the Association of Professional Singers and Musicians), was awarded in October 2015, the Édith- Butler Prize of the SPACQ Foundation (Professional Society of Authors and Composers of Quebec.)
His latest project, Lapsus came in at 24th of the Top 200 New releases in Canada in French Pop. A simply personal and captivating creation, that awarded two nominations at the 2017 Trille Or Awards (“Best Author, Composer or Songwriter”, and “Export Ontario (Ontario Artist who Most Illustrated himself Outside of the Province)”.
In 2019, with seven nominations under his belt, he won the top three most coveted awards as “Artist of the year”, “Performer of the year”, as well as the “Media’s favorite” award.
Active on, and off the scene, he received in November 2018, the Commemorative Medal of the Senate, highlighting the 150th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada – a distinction to highlight his accomplishments as well as his involvement in the community, via his art and his work promoting diversity cultural, across the country. And through his work as an artist-educator was awarded in 2018: the Ontario Arts Foundation’s Artist-Educator Award.
Having performed nationally and internationally (France, Madagascar, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, Cape Verde), Yao, with his extraordinary musicians offer you a personal, vibrant and captivating show, that you will want to see more than once.
2018 JUNO nominee Kellylee Evans is a high-octane, chameleon-like performer whose natural charm and improvisational vocal style embody jazz, soul, pop, and hip-hop. The singer-songwriter won a 2011 JUNO Award and has been captivating audiences along the way, opening for stars such as John Legend, George Benson and Willie Nelson.
Former conductor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Laurence Ewashko celebrates his 35th season of choral activity in the National Capital Region. As a choral clinician, vocal coach and adjudicator, he makes a significant contribution to the quality and appreciation of vocal music in Canada and abroad. Laurence has prepared choruses for many prestigious conductors, as he regularly does at the National Arts Centre.
A Full Professor of Choral Studies at the University of Ottawa, he conducts the School of Music’s two choirs. Laurence is a recipient of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting and numerous awards from the Canada Council of the Arts. He is the founding conductor of Ewashko Singers which was established in 1992.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees