NAC Orchestra visits Kingston

Since my first orchestral experience – a young witness to the NAC Orchestra performing Handel’s Messiah twenty years ago – to my first internship in Marketing at the NAC, I have been rather smitten with this orchestra. As an Associate Marketing Officer, I used to sneak into the top balcony…

Scuba Gear Comes in Handy

A historic moment for the NAC

On your next visit to the National Arts Centre you will notice a beautiful burgundy and gold plaque on the wall outside the Box Office. The plaque designates the NAC building as a National Historic Site. It reads: “Constructed to designs by Fred Lebensold, the National Arts Centre (NAC)…

The little meerkats

This past week, French Theatre was presenting Édredon (Eiderdown) by Les Imcomplètes for very young audiences (6 months to 5 years). They were quite spectacular: always being on the look-out, they didn't miss a thing!

Discovering Music That Surrounds Us

Betty Riddell: Touching the lives of many people for years to come

Independent… alert… well-read… warm… determined… feisty… Colonel Michel Drapeau, barrister and solicitor, uses all these words to describe his dear friend and client, Betty Riddell.  And he uses two others as well, extremely generous. Up to the day of her passing at age 96, Betty was a…

A radical departure from the everyday

Romeo and Juliet by The National Ballet of Canada (January 31-February 2, 2013)

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was one of the first works of literature to inspire ballet choreographers because its drama, romance and tragedy are so perfectly suited to dance. Since the 1930s, choreographers have also been fortunate to have Prokofiev’s grand, magisterial score — including…

Nurturing Artistic Process

Creation spaces. Sometimes they exist as part of a well managed, state-of-the-art performing arts facility. A lot of the time, however, they don’t. They’re tucked in an old warehouse in the wrong part of town, or in a church basement with terrible light. There might be a noisy nightclub…

Metamorphoses, Part 2: The Pool

West Side Story with the NAC Orchestra

Musical Snapshots of the North

In this edition of the NACOcast Maclean's columnist Paul Wells speaks with composer Alexina Louie about her composition Take The Dog Sled which was performed by the NAC Orchestra as part of the 2012 Northern Canada tour. Alexina talks about the daunting process of composing an orchestral…

Metamorphoses : Part 1 Construction

NAC Niçoise

NAC Niçoise quail egg | tuna | anchovy | new lettuce What makes a classic dish? The essence of a recipe’s success is perfectly-matched flavours. Take the niçoise made famous in America by Julia Child in her cookbook The French Chef. Our version pushes the dish into new territory with…

The Gershwin Influence

Leonard Bernstein was fascinated with the American cultural landscape and through his music he sought to bring about social change. His hope to connect all Americans is clearly illustrated in the love that blossoms amid the violent rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks of West Side…