On October 15, don’t miss the NAC Orchestra in our Air Canada Ovation Series “The Search for Identity,” a concert exploring the thrilling diversity of sounds of the1920s, with music by Ibert, Webern, Eisler, Milhaud and Cole Porter.

A part of the NAC Orchestra’s Roaring 20s Festival (Oct 8-17), this concert will take you on a journey through the evolution of music from this era. The 1920s, in many ways raised more questions than answers. The advent of new technologies caused significant changes in the direction of music, and caused many artists to ask “What next in music?”

In “The Search for Identity,” the orchestra will explore three different answers to this question: the German school of Webern and Eisler and their 10-minute symphonies, Frenchmen Milhaud and Ibert with their sense of playfulness and humour, and American giant of popular song, Cole Porter who spent much of the 1920s living and writing in Europe. 

“I wanted to look at the music of the ’20s at both its most thoughtful and most debauched extremes,” says Music Director, Alexander Shelley. “The search for formal, intellectual perfection manifests itself in two incredibly short, intimate and ethereally beautiful symphonies by Webern and Eisler. Those symphonies will be thrown into relief by their polar-opposites - effervescent, witty, anti-intellectual (and slightly mad!) works by Milhaud and Ibert," he adds.

The evening will showcase Canadian Jazz vocalists Micah Barnes and Sophie Milman* who will perform a playful mix of Cole Porter’s toe-tapping hits as well as a special appearance by the Capital Chamber Choir. The evening will also feature jazz bassist John Geggie joined by Alexander Shelley on piano and vocalists, as they perform three magnificent pieces from this extraordinarily diverse, exciting and influential decade.

“This festival has music which is not only accessible, but it’s also music which is very meaningful. It celebrates a period in our human history of creation that is really quite extraordinary. Few periods of time have encapsulated this more perfectly than the 1920s during which the effects of increasing globalization exposed artists to sounds and cultures that were new and inspirational,” says Shelley.

Join Alexander Shelley for a Post-Concert Talk back on-stage at Southam Hall at 10 p.m.

Tickets for “The Search for Identity” and for the Festival are on sale starting at $105 for the 5-concert series. You won’t want to miss the sounds of this transformative era when jazz bopped its way into classical composition.

 

*Please note that due to scheduling conflict Sophie Milman will replace Molly Johnson for this performance.

 

ALEXANDER SHELLEY BIOGRAPHY

In September 2015 Alexander Shelley took up the mantle as Music Director, leading a new era for the National Arts Centre’s Orchestra. He is currently in his seventh year as Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra where he has transformed the orchestra’s playing, education work and touring activities which have included tours to Italy, Belgium, China and a re-invitation to the Musikverein in Vienna. In January 2015 Shelley was named Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in which capacity he will curate and perform a series of concerts at Cadogan Hall each season and will lead the orchestra on a tour of Korea in 2016.

Born in the UK in 1979, Shelley first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition and was described as "the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award. His conducting technique is immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality."

He is the son of celebrated concert pianists, the grandson of a talented cellist and the great grandson of an equally talented organist. He has been described in the press as a “musician of considerable gifts and extraordinarily impressive interpretive qualities” (Strauss, Elgar and Sibelius in London), a conductor with "exceptional artistic authority" (Brahms with DSO Berlin) and described his Verdi Requiem in Salzburg as an "original, intelligent, thoroughly convincing and well-crafted interpretation."

Since then he has been in demand from orchestras around the world including the Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Simon Bolivar, Seattle and Houston Symphony Orchestras.  Further afield Shelley is a regular guest with the top Asian and Australasian orchestras.

Shelley’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet for Royal Danish Opera; La Bohème for Opera Lyra at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Iolanta with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Cosi fan tutte in Montpellier and a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North in 2015.

Alongside his regular appearances in London, Ottawa and Nuremberg, Shelley will in the coming seasons return to, among others, the DSO Berlin, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, NDR Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Hong Kong, New Zealand and Melbourne Symphony orchestras. Forthcoming debuts include Camerata Salzburg, Czech Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Oslo Philharmonic and RTÉ Orchestra. His first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, an album with Daniel Hope and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, was released in September 2014.

In Germany he enjoys a close relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, with whom he performs regularly both in subscriptions in Bremen, and around Germany, and in October 2013 he took the orchestra on tour to Italy with a signature programme of Strauss, Wagner and Brahms.  Alexander Shelley and which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration He is artistic director of their Zukunftslabor project - an award-winning series which aims to build a lasting relationship between the orchestra and community, winning over a new generation of concert-goers through grass-roots engagement.  

Inspiring future generations of musicians and audiences has always been central to Shelley’s work. In spring 2014, he conducted an extended tour of Germany with the Bundesjugendorchester and Bundesjugendballett which included a collaborative concert at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival with Sir Simon Rattle and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2001, during his cello and conducting studies in Dusseldorf, he founded the Schumann Camerata with whom he created "440Hz", an innovative concert series involving prominent German television, stage and musical personalities, conceived by him as a major initiative to attract young adults to the concert hall.

 

ABOUT THE NAC ORCHESTRA

 

In September 2015 Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director with the National Arts Centre’s Orchestra. Shelley has an unwavering reputation as one of Europe’s leading young conductors, notably as Chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and most recently as the Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Formed in 1969 at the opening of Canada's National Arts Centre, the NAC Orchestra gives over 100 performances a year with renowned artists including Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, James Ehnes, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. It is noted for the passion and clarity of its performances and recordings, its ground-breaking teaching and outreach programs, and nurturing of Canadian creativity.

Since its inception the Orchestra has commissioned 80 works, mostly from Canadian composers. In 2001 it inaugurated the National Arts Centre Awards for Canadian Composers and the recipients thus far have been Denys Bouliane, John Estacio, Peter Paul Koprowski, Gary Kulesha, Alexina Louie and Ana Sokolovic.

Previous NAC Orchestra Music Directors include Pinchas Zukerman, Mario Bernardi and Trevor Pinnock. The 2015-16 season features Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds , Alain Trudel as Principal Youth and Family Conductor and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly completing the strong artistic team.

In addition to a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, tours are undertaken to regions throughout Canada and around the world, most recently to China (2013) and the UK (2014). The latter commemorated the start of the First World War and explored themes of remembrance and healing through music in over 50 education and performance events. Following the footsteps of Canadian troops 100 years ago, it showcased the brilliant work of Canadian composers and the NAC Orchestra's musicians, both as performers and as educators, and received standing ovations in packed halls throughout the UK.

In 1999, Pinchas Zukerman founded the NAC Young Artists Program, part of the wider NAC Summer Music Institute, which provides elite training to talented young musicians. Students all over the world are also taught via videoconferencing in the NAC's cutting-edge Hexagon Studio. The Orchestra also created and continues to pioneer education work locally and in indigenous communities in northern Canada.

The NAC Orchestra has made over 40 commercial recordings, including Angela Hewitt’s 2014 Juno Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos conducted by Hannu Lintu. Many more concerts are freely available through NACmusicbox.ca on the NAC's performing arts education website ArtsAlive.ca. These include many of the 100 new Canadian works commissioned by the NAC Orchestra in its 45 year history.

 

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

 

Andrea Ruttan
Communications Officer, NAC Orchestra
Agente de Communication, Orchestre de CNA
Andrea.Ruttan@nac-cna.ca
613 947-7000 x335
613 220-5487 (mobile)