SPHERE takes over NAC stages from September 10-20

Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) is proud to open its 2024-2025 season with SPHERE, a multi-disciplinary festival highlighting connections between art and the natural world. Presented by the NAC Orchestra and curated by its Music Director Alexander Shelley, SPHERE will engage all the NAC’s artistic disciplines, with participation from the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, French Theatre, Popular Music and Variety, and 1 Elgin Culinary Arts. This year’s program builds upon SPHERE’s inaugural edition in 2022 to explore rivers, waterways, and watersheds through performances, talks, and visual art.

Attendees will be captivated by the diverse lineup of artists and events at SPHERE, including Polaris Prize and JUNO Award winner Jeremy Dutcher in concert with the NAC Orchestra, Québécoise actor and playwright Christine Beaulieu, GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming, and celebrated Indigenous choreographer Tekaronhiáhkhwa Santee Smith. The festival will also premiere a double bill of radio dramas by Canadian playwrights David Yee and Berni Stapleton and feature a specially curated dinner by 1 Elgin’s Resident Chef for fall 2024, Chris Commandant. Throughout the festival, the NAC’s Kipnes Lantern will showcase an installation by renowned visual artist and microbiologist Chloé Savard, also known as @Tardibabe, to her more than one million Instagram followers. 

SPHERE begins on September 10 with the world premiere of UAQUE in Southam Hall, a NAC Dance and NAC Orchestra co-commission that uniquely fuses dance, music and visual art, choreographed by Andrea Peña. UAQUE, meaning “kin, relative, neighbour, friend” in the Indigenous Muisca language from Peña’s native Colombia, will take audiences on a contemplative and immersive journey through dance. The piece sets ten performers against a backdrop of stirring photographs by renowned Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky and orchestral selections by the NAC Orchestra led by Alexander Shelley, alternating with works by electronic music producer and composer Eƨƨe Ran. 

“I am thrilled to begin my tenth season at the NAC with the second instalment of such a timely and ambitious festival. At the heart of SPHERE is an invitation to celebrate the intellectual and artistic inspiration that Mother Earth gives us and to explore our fragile relationship with her,” says Alexander Shelley. “As a hub for performing arts in Canada's National Capital, we will honour the region's three major rivers and its numerous waterways through adventurous, vibrant, and thoughtful programming presented by some of the country's most celebrated and emerging artists. We invite our audiences to journey with us as we consider the future of the natural world and its most abundant resource through song, dance, theatre, and visual art.” 

The season-opening festival welcomes another significant milestone as Caroline Ohrt introduces her first season as the Executive Producer of NAC Dance.  

“I can't think of a better way to begin my inaugural season at the NAC than with the world premiere of UAQUE, a commission for the multi-disciplinary choreographer Andrea Peña,” says Caroline Ohrt. “The NAC is honoured to partner with Andrea Peña & Artists to premiere such a meaningful and important work, bringing together dance and music with Edward Burtynsky's striking photographs that speak volumes about our planet's vulnerable state. We invite audiences to pause and reflect on our connection to the earth.” 

In addition to programming across the NAC’s stages, SPHERE includes free events such as panel discussions, live demonstrations, and a day of music and family activities at the Canadian Museum of History. 

For more information and a complete festival schedule, visit nac-cna.ca/en/sphere.  

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS  

Thank you to our Lead Donors, Earle O'Born & Janice O'Born, C.M., O.Ont. 

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE 

The National Arts Centre is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams — the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety — and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation.   

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ORCHESTRA 

Since its debut in 1969, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships. 

Since its inception, the NAC Orchestra has recorded over 40 commercial recordings, including many of the 80+ new works it has commissioned, primarily from Canadian composers.  

These include: 

• The 2024 album Truth in Our Time, including the premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 13, commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra 
• Clara - Robert - Johannes: A multi-year, multi-album exploration of the music of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, featuring pianists Angela Hewitt, Stewart Goodyear, and Gabriela Montero 
• The groundbreaking Life Reflected, which includes “My Name is Amanda Todd” by the late Jocelyn Morlock (winner of the 2018 JUNO for Classical Composition of the Year) 
• Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes, 2019 JUNO Winner for Classical Composition of the Year (from the 2019 JUNO-nominated New Worlds) 
• Angela Hewitt’s 2015 JUNO Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos 
• The 2020 JUNO-nominated The Bounds of Our Dreams, featuring pianist Alain Lefèvre 

ABOUT ALEXANDER SHELLEY 

Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed, hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the Orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).  

Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation. Recent hallmarks include multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together.  

In April 2022, Alexander Shelley made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the NAC Orchestra in its long-awaited return, and in the spring of 2019, he led the Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary European tour, with stops in London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.  

Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024/25 season, the Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. Previous releases with the NAC Orchestra include the JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, the acclaimed multi-volume Clara - Robert - Johannes series, all with Canadian label Analekta, as well as Truth in Our Time with Orange Mountain Music.   

The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., ONL, LL.D. (hc) 

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Noah Richardson 
Communications Strategist, NAC Orchestra 
noah.richardson@nac-cna.ca 
(613) 415-5208