An Exchange of Musical Ideas

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Throat singer Evie Mark will accompany the NAC Orchestra on its Northern Tour. © photo: Robert Frechette
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Composer Alexina Louie. Her composition Take the Dog Sled incorporates Inuit throat singing © photo: Fred Cattroll

When an orchestra goes on tour, the music is the first priority – selecting repertoire, shipping the instruments, tuning in a new space. But that music very quickly evolves into friendships, in an exchange of music.

Between October 26 and November 4, the National Arts Centre Orchestra will exchange musical ideas in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Yellowknife and Whitehorse, accompanied by composer Alexina Louie, Norwegian guest conductor Arild Remmereit, and superstar Canadian violinist James Ehnes, in a multi-layered celebration of The NAC’s Year of the North.

The music on tour is all of these things: traditional, close-to-the-heart, celebratory, intimate, observational, and about the same thing - the Northern landscape and how it shapes us. Across the magnificent swath of geography we Canadians call The North, there is a common thread: the tradition of music is alive in the everyday.


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