April 29 to May 17, 2024 | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
NAC Orchestra Mentorship Program
Play it forward
Hone your orchestral skills under the mentorship of the musicians of one of North America’s leading orchestras. This unique side-by-side program offers exceptional career-development opportunities, centred around rehearsals and performances of major contemporary and classic symphonic works with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Instrumental and conducting candidates
Applications are open to instrumentalists aged 18+ who are completing their performance degree, are on the audition circuit, or have recently started a position in a professional orchestra. International applicants welcome.
Conducting candidates should be in their final year of study in a conducting program or in the early stages of their career and have a wide knowledge of orchestral repertoire. In 2024, this is open to Canadian conducting candidates only.
Music librarian and orchestra personnel manager candidates
New for 2024: Recruitment now includes a search for one music librarian participant and one orchestra personnel manager participant! Both positions are for interested Canadians aged 18+ with some experience in or understanding of these roles and who are seeking to further their knowledge, to hone their skills, and to gain valuable hands-on experience in these two very important aspects of orchestral performance. Both selected participants in these roles will travel to the NAC in advance of the program to help with the preparation of the program and will return for the full three-week program with the instrumental and conducting participants.
All participants receive an honorarium, free accommodations, and a meal allowance. Travel subsidies are granted to each participant as a percentage of their total travel costs.
Location and land acknowledgement
The NAC Orchestra Mentorship Program takes place in the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall, uOttawa School of Music’s Pérez Hall, and associated internal rehearsal spaces. All of these venues and spaces are in the city of Ottawa, Canada’s officially bilingual capital city.
The NAC is located on the traditional, unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. We are deeply grateful to the elders, artists and community members for their support through the exchange of protocol and knowledge. Their generosity gives meaning and context to everything we do here. We are committed to honouring their language and culture in our ongoing activities and collaborations.
