February 8, 2016 – OTTAWA (Canada) – The National Arts Centre’s Annual Report for 2014-2015 entitled The Creators, which has just been tabled in Parliament, highlights a historic year marked by the Federal Government’s investment of $110.5 million in funding for the architectural rejuvenation of the NAC. Designed by the renowned firm Diamond Schmitt Architects, this major project will re-orient the NAC to the Nation’s Capital with a stunning new entrance on Elgin Street, and includes a light-filled lobby and atrium that are fully accessible, as well as new spaces for education and performance. Construction is now well underway.

The 2014‒2015 season also included the NAC Orchestra’s highly successful UK Tour that commemorated Canada’s role in the First World War. Led by Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, the tour included five concerts in Edinburgh, London, Nottingham, Bristol and Salisbury, and more than 50 education events. The emotional high point of the tour was the Orchestra’s performance at Salisbury Cathedral, a magnificent, 750-year-old church just a few kilometres from where 30,000 Canadian soldiers arrived 100 years ago to prepare for battle.

From April 29 to May 10, the Ontario Scene festival, the latest in a series of national festivals led by Producer and Executive Director Heather Moore, was an exceptional showcase for 650 artists, with 90 events over 12 days in 35 venues across the Nation’s Capital. The festival showcased many of the province’s leading music artists — Daniel Lanois, Molly Johnson, Ron Sexsmith, Shad – as well as emerging artists such as Jaron Freeman‑Fox and the Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Ontario Scene also invested in the development of new work, including the performance-creation lab Declaration by Article 11, featuring leading Indigenous artists, and the music and dance work Intermezzi by Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble with collaborators Peggy Baker, James Kudelka and Coleman Lemieux + Compagnie.

The 2014-2015 season was an incredible year at the National Arts Centre,” said NAC President and CEO Peter Herrndorf. “The NAC Orchestra’s UK Tour made all of Canada proud, as we commemorated the important role that Canadians played in the First World War. The Ontario Scene showcased some of the finest artistic talent Ontario has to offer. And the architectural rejuvenation project, which is now underway, will transform the National Arts Centre, finally re-orienting the building to the Nation’s Capital, and making us a far more welcoming place to all Canadians.”

2014‒2015 was the most successful year to date for the NAC Foundation led by CEO Jayne Watson, which raised more than $10.8 million from donors, corporate partners and foundations from across the country to support performance, creation and learning. That figure includes $840,000 to support the UK Tour and more than $800,000 for Ontario Scene.

“We value each and every one of our supporters, whose contributions to the National Arts Centre Foundation help the performing arts thrive across Canada,” said NAC Foundation CEO Jayne Watson.

The opening essay of the Annual Report celebrates and profiles of some of Canada’s most talented creators of original music, theatre and dance. They include Quebec choreographer Marie Chouinard; Franco-Ontarian playwright and translator Jean Marc Dalpé; Vancouver theatre artist Marcus Youssef; Nova Scotia composer Derek Charke; Inuit theatre artist and dancer Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory; and Peterborough singer-songwriter Royal Wood.

The NAC ended the year with a modest operating surplus of $45,000 on an overall budget of $73.9 million. More than 1 million Canadians took part in performances, events and commercial activities at the NAC during the 2014–2015 season.

There were many other highlights in 2014‒2015:

- The emotional farewell to Pinchas Zukerman during the NAC Orchestra’s concerts on June 19 and 20 that celebrated his extraordinary musical legacy after 16 highly successful seasons. Zukerman conducted a massed choir and soloists (including his daughter Arianna Zukerman) in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and both nights ended in thunderous applause and standing ovations;

- The Study and The Repast, two landmark events on Manitoulin Island over two weeks in May that featured in-depth conversations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous theatre creators, students and scholars about Indigenous work in theatres and communities across the land. The Study and The Repast were produced in association with Debajehmujig Storytellers and the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance;

- The NAC Orchestra’s concerts on November 12 and 13, 2014 led by Music Director Designate Alexander Shelley in honour of Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, imaginatively staged by renowned theatre director Donna Feore and featuring award-winning Canadian actor Colm Feore, Canadian soloists Maghan MacPhee and Wallis Giunta; 

- The hit holiday show Alice Through the Looking-Glass produced in association with the Stratford Festival, featuring English Theatre’s resident Ensemble directed by Artistic Director Jillian Keiley. The colourful production re-appeared at the Charlottetown Festival in June but with a new, locally hired cast. In December 2015, she directed a production of Alice at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and will do so again at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre in 2016, once again with a new group of talented actors in each city;

- The brilliant productions of Molly Bloom (from Ulysses by James Joyce) and Shakespeare’s Richard III, both of which were directed by French Theatre Artistic Director Brigitte Haentjens and translated by her long-time collaborator Jean Marc Dalpé, and that generated rave reviews from audiences and critics alike;

- NAC Dance’s co-production of So Blue, a new solo work by Louise Lecavalier/Fou Glorieux in October, as part of a season that included 21 dance events, two world premieres, six Canadian premieres, six exclusive Canadian engagements and five NAC co-productions;

- NAC Dance’s presentation of Patin Libre, an extraordinary collective of five professional skaters, who gave three extremely popular performances of Vertical Influences at the Minto Skating Centre. Proclaimed by The Guardian as one of the 10 best dance shows of 2014, the Canadian premiere was co-produced by the NAC and Dance Umbrella London (U.K.), with research supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells, and presented in association with the Minto Skating Club;

- French Theatre’s new youth initiative De plain-pied, in which 900 young people aged 14 to 20 from Ottawa-Gatineau took over the NAC’s public spaces for a lively three-day creative forum, created installations and performances, and attended shows showcasing local teenagers;

- NAC Presents in partnership with BMO Financial Group, the NAC’s all-Canadian contemporary music series led by its phenomenal Producer Simone Deneau, which featured 56 performances, including an inspiring pairing of the ethereal Basia Bulat and the legendary music producer and singer-songwriter Daniel Lanois with the NAC Orchestra. The National Arts Centre Foundation is grateful to The Slaight Family Foundation for their support of emerging artists in the series;

- The NAC’s Music Alive Program, which sent local and visiting teaching musicians for full-day visits to 50 mostly rural and remote schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut. The program in Nunavut featured activities in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Igloolik, Cape Dorset, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Kugluktuk, Sanikiluaq and Arctic Bay. The Music Alive Program inspires children and youth through the arts, enriches communities through music-making, builds leadership capacity among educators and musicians, and celebrates local culture and artists;

- The NAC’s highly renowned Summer Music Institute, which once again attracted some of the most promising young classical musicians from around the globe. Founded by Pinchas Zukerman in 1999, this year’s 67 participants came from Canada and nine other countries to train with Zukerman and an international faculty;

- NAC podcasts, which have now been downloaded more than 4.9 million times by listeners around the world. The NACOcast leads the way with 1.7 million downloads, followed by Explore The Symphony with 1.4 million downloads and L’Univers symphonique with 600,000 downloads.

ABOUT THE NAC

The National Arts Centre collaborates with artists and arts organizations across Canada to help create a national stage for the performing arts, and acts as a catalyst for performance, creation and learning across the country. A home for Canada’s most creative artists, the NAC strives to do exceptional artistic work in each of its programming streams – the NAC Orchestra, English Theatre, French Theatre, Dance, NAC Presents, as well as the Scene festivals, all showcase established and emerging Canadian artists.

The organization is at the forefront of youth and educational activities, offering artist training, programs for children and youth, resources for teachers in communities across Canada. The NAC is also a pioneer in new media, using technology to teach students and young artists around the globe, by creating top-rated podcasts, and providing a wide range of NAC Orchestra concerts on demand. The NAC is the only bilingual, multidisciplinary performing arts centre in Canada, and one of the largest in the world.