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How music builds community
December 11, 2014In 2006 the National Arts Centre began sending musicians into schools in rural and remote communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Developed in consultation with local boards of education, and using NAC-created teaching resources based on classical music composers, the Music Alive…
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Singing Messiah: Keeping it fresh, with help from Woody Woodpecker
December 11, 2014I have the great pleasure to prepare the chorus for the National Arts Centre Orchestra's production of Handel's Messiah, an event I have enjoyed for over 27 years. My job is to keep the chorus on their toes, rehearsing the movements in a variety of tempi, articulation and dynamics. Add…
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A new NAC: Re-imagining Canada’s home for the performing arts
December 10, 2014The Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs and M.P. for Ottawa West-Nepean, and the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, today announced capital funding of $110.5 million to transform and revitalize the National Arts Centre. Situated…
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Explore the Symphony: The passion behind the podcast
December 9, 2014Tucked into the back corner of the NAC’s lobby the Hexagon Studio is a small space where big ideas are discussed. It is the home of NAC podcasting and it is where NAC Orchestra musician Marjolaine Fournier and music critic Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer can be seen engaged in passionate…
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Citrus cheesecake
December 8, 2014Back in the old days, before refrigerators and year-round food imports, people used to equate citrus fruit with the holidays. What a special treat it must have been to enjoy a brightly-coloured, fragrant fruit in the middle of the cold, dark winter. It’s in that spirit that NAC Executive…
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The inside scoop: Pre-chats, open rehearsals and previews
December 5, 2014Attending pre-rehearsal chats and open rehearsals are one of the many benefits donors receive when they support performance, creation and learning across Canada through the National Arts Centre Foundation. On November 6, Cathy Levy, Executive Producer of NAC Dance, spoke to donors about…
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Come out to play! Becoming a child again with Alice
December 1, 2014Childhood normally fades slowly. Wisps of childhood persist when the boy or girl is a grown man or woman. Childhood returns sometimes by day, more often by night. But it was not so with Lewis Carroll. For some reason… childhood remained in him entire, he could do what no one else has ever…
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Kiss & Cry - Talkback
November 28, 2014In November 2014, NAC French Theatre was delighted to present Kiss & Cry, an internationally acclaimed work from Belgian artists Jaco Van Dormael and Michèle Anne De Mey. A unique production that combines theatre, dance and live filming, Kiss & Cry is a love story told in miniature, its…
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The Collaborations: Canadian theatre on the world stage
November 27, 2014Helen Lawrence is a ground-breaking co-production with Canadian Stage, the Arts Club Theatre Company, The Banff Centre and Stan Douglas that intertwines 3D animation, live-filming and theatre. NAC English Theatre invested in the show through The Collaborations, an initiative that gives…
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The Nutcracker: The numbers behind the sparkle
November 27, 2014Alberta Ballet is one of the many outstanding Canadian arts organizations that the National Arts Centre partners with every year. Under the leadership of its artistic director Jean Grand-Maître, the company has become known for high-quality dance and inventive repertoire, as evidenced by…
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Preserving and sharing the beauty of music
November 24, 2014How do we preserve beauty? We take photographs of perfect moments; we use video to memorialize baby’s first hesitant steps; and we write carefully chosen words to describe an event or a feeling. We do these things so that we can revisit and share the emotions we first felt upon…
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An unforgettable night of music and dance
November 21, 2014It was December 19, 2009, just moments before Juno award-winning Canadian folk music group Leahy hit the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall stage. In the nearby foyer, two young sisters from Ottawa, Sophie and Nicole Pilgrim, were giving a TV interview in the middle of the pre-concert…
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Canadian artists, home for the holidays
November 21, 2014Canada’s National Arts Centre is home to our country’s greatest artists. But at this time of year, the NAC is “home for the holidays” to them too. Featuring English Theatre’s resident Ensemble of actors from across Canada, Alice Through The Looking Glass in association with the Stratford…
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The ultimate gift: A dance to honour prima ballerina Anik Bissonnette
November 19, 2014There was a magical moment at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala last May and it began with a phone call to Guillaume Côté, principal dancer and choreographic associate with the National Ballet of Canada. “I called Guillaume in January and asked him if he would do a tribute…
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A Craigslist Cantata: Digital ads that resonate onstage
November 18, 2014Craigslist is the modern day marketplace - the digital destination for buying and selling. And where there is commerce and trade you will find cultural exchange and the deveopment of social relationships. Looking for a new dining room set on Craigslist can easily dissolve into an hour…
