NACO, Feb. 14: Family Adventures with Boris the Explorer, Daniel Cook and Oliver Jones

TD Canada Trust Family Adventures features famed kid-show host Daniel Cook and jazz legend Oliver Jones together with ’ÄúBoris the Explorer’Äù in a Valentine celebration on Feb. 14

Ottawa (Canada) ’Äì The series of TD Canada Trust Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra continues on Saturday, February 14 with Principal Youth and Family Conductor Boris Brott taking the podium in his persona of ’ÄúBoris the Explorer’Äù for a special Valentine’Äôs Day celebration. Boris’Äôs co-host is kid sensation Daniel Cook from the hit children’Äôs TV show This is Daniel Cook, and more recently guest host of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Boris and Daniel will lead their young audience on an exploration to uncover musical friendships behind great classical and jazz works. They will be helped along the way by jazz legend Oliver Jones, by 11 and 14-year-old Ottawa virtuosos Kerson (violin) and Stanley (cello) Leong, by NAC Orchestra principal horn Lawrence Vine, and by the Cantiamo Girls Choir. For extra fun, dress the kids (and yourself!) up in red. These bilingual TD Canada Trust Family Adventures, perfect for kids 5 and up and their grown-up friends, are at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon

The concert ticket includes ’ÄúTuneTown’Äù, pre-concert activities in the NAC Foyer organized by Friends of the NAC Orchestra 45 minutes prior to each concert, beginning at 12:45 p.m. for the first concert and 2:45 p.m. for the second concert. In keeping with the Valentine’Äôs Day theme, there will be a craft station where children can make their own Valentines and send them to the musicians of the Orchestra, and there will be additional Valentine’Äôs Day activities by Music for Young Children. There will also be information stations by the Ottawa Public Library, by the Cantiamo Girls Choir of Ottawa, and by the Canadian Aviation Museum (a model of the ’ÄúSilver Dart’Äù aircraft to celebrate the centennial this month of Canada’Äôs first powered flight). The Musicians from The Regimental Band of the Governor General’Äôs Foot Guards will host a woodwind instrumental petting zoo. Daniel Cook will come out to meet the audience and sign autographs after both concerts.

The six-decade career of pianist Oliver Jones mirrors the proud history of jazz in his native Montreal, the city that also produced Oscar Peterson, Oliver’Äôs lifelong friend and continuing inspiration. Though semi-retired from public performance, Jones recorded an album with singer Ranee Lee, Just You, Just Me, which won the Toronto Urban Music Award for Best Jazz Recording in November 2005. With the NAC Orchestra he will perform ’ÄúFulford Street’Äù and ’ÄúWonderful World’Äù and will offer jazz improvisations including one on the theme from Daniel Cook’Äôs TV show.

This is Daniel Cook is a spontaneous, live-action, on-location original series that followed its host ’ÄìDaniel Cook who started at age 6 and hosted until he was 8 ’Äì as he explored the world from his perspective. The hit show for pre-schoolers aired on Treehouse and TVO in Canada, Disney in the US has been seen in 85 countries in 14 languages. He recently appeared as special correspondent on The Oprah Winfrey Show hosting the ’ÄúAmazing Kids’Äù episodes.

Daniel will help Boris find musical friendships in such music as Schumann’Äôs Allegro performed by NACO principal horn Lawrence Vine, Brahms’Äô Lullaby, Vivaldi’Äôs Concerto for Violin and Cello performed by Kerson (violin) and Stanley (cello) Leung, and Ravel’Äôs ’ÄúBeauty and the Beast’Äù from Mother Goose, as well as the theme from the Disney version of that famous fairy tale. Oscar Peterson’Äôs Hymn to Freedom with Oliver Jones, the Orchestra and the Cantiamo Girls Choir brings the celebrations to a close.

All TD Canada Trust Family Adventures feature NACOtron presented in collaboration with Rogers Television. Five television cameras positioned on stage and in the hall capture live video images of the musicians while they are performing, and these images are projected onto a giant screen above the stage allowing the audience to watch the action in close-up.

The Ottawa Citizen is the media partner of the TD Canada Trust Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra.

Tickets for Boris the Explorer: Be My Valentine on Saturday, February 14 at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., including TuneTown Pre-Concert Activities, are $12.00 for children and $20.00 for adults (including GST and Facility Fee where applicable) and are on sale now at the NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Visit the National Arts Centre’Äôs web site at www.nac-cna.ca.

Groups of 10 and more save 15% to 20% off the regular price of tickets to NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances. To reserve your seats call 613-947-7000 ext. 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca.