Topics: touring

The NAC Orchestra’s U.K. Tour: Following in their footsteps

This week the National Arts Centre Orchestra kicks off its tour to the United Kingdom, where it will perform five concerts to commemorate the start of the First World War. One of them will be in the historic Salisbury Cathedral, a few steps from Salisbury Plain where Canadian troops first…

Storytelling through music with composer Abigail Richardson

Kids are a big part of every NAC Orchestra tour. In preparation for its October 2014 tour to the United Kingdom commemorating the outbreak of the First World War, the Orchestra asked Canadian composer Abigail Richardson to work with students from Ottawa’s Colonel By Secondary School to help…

huff National Tour: A Creative Exploration of Hope

huff, from award-winning Aboriginal writer, actor and musician Cliff Cardinal, is wrenching yet darkly comic, a journey into a First Nation heart of darkness in a land called Ontario. A charismatic storyteller who combines ancestral history with brutal honesty and biting humour, Cliff…

NAC Orchestra UK Tour: Remembrance, performance and education

Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, under the baton of its renowned Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, will undertake a performance and education tour of the United Kingdom in October 2014 to commemorate the First World War Centenary. The First World War is particularly significant to…

UK Tour: Feet on the Ground, Remembering 1914

In his beautiful composition A Ballad of Canada, the late Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth remembered John McCrae and his infamous 1915 poem, In Flanders Fields. McCrae composed the poem in the field, his surgeon’s kit bloodied and his heart broken after seeing a school friend die in…

From far and wide: NAC Foundation CEO Jayne Watson on UK Tour...

Q: What role does the National Arts Centre Foundation play in planning the UK Tour? The Foundation supports the National Arts Centre's priorities, artistic and otherwise. In this case, we've helped find private funding to make the UK Tour possible. The NAC Orchestra would not be able to…

The Golden Era: Pinchas Zukerman’s Gift of Music to Canadians

“Pinchas not only expresses his lifetime of experience through his work, but through his commitment to excellence in his teaching, conducting and advocacy. He represents a vision, but most especially a sound of a more beautiful, hospitable world.” – Adrian Anantawan, Canadian violinist and…

In conversation with President and CEO Peter Herrndorf about the NAC’s visual...

The NAC is an extraordinary place. Over the past 14 years, I have been dazzled by the thousands of incredible artists working on one or more of the NAC's four stages. But the NAC is also a galvanizing idea. It's the idea that by working together with artists and arts organizations in…

Alain Paré receives the NAC Award for Distinguished Contribution to Touring

The National Arts Centre is pleased to announce that Alain Paré has been awarded the 2014 National Arts Centre Award for Distinguished Contribution to Touring in the Performing Arts. The award was be presented at a special dinner during the Canadian Arts Presenting Association’s (CAPACOA)…

Concert in Shanghai

The NAC Orchestra's tour to China culminated with an energetic and joyful performance of Symphony No. 2 by Brahms. It was a spectacular end to eighteen wonderful days of teaching, performing, and cultural exchange with music students and audiences across China.

Education activities in Shanghai

While in Shanghai, NAC Orchestra musicians held more than a dozen masterclasses and instrument coaching sessions for students at the Shanghai Conservatory, one of the most prestigious conservatories in China.   

It’s all about the loading dock

For musicians on tour it's all about the acoustics. Each venue provides a different sound that requires musicians to adjust their playing accordingly. For the NAC's technical crew it's all about the loading dock. A good loading dock will enable the crew to unload the instruments and…

A panda lullabye

The adminstration of the Beijing Zoo requested gentle muisc for the The Ambassador Brass Trio performance. Their selection of soothing lullabyes was enjoyed by many curious young children while the pandas did not seem to need any assistance with their afternoon slumber.

Bruch in Beijing

For many people Pinchas Zukerman's performance of Bruch's Violin Concerto no. 1 in Beijing was the concert highlight of the NAC Orchestra's tour in China. The performance was magnificent and the superb acoustics of the National Centre for the Performing Arts caused the lyrical music to soar…

Sketches of China