Symphony Nova Scotia

Symphony Nova Scotia announces its 2009-10 season

Halifax, NS ’Äì Symphony Nova Scotia is delighted to announce its 2009-10 concert season! This season the orchestra brings you more of the music you love ’Äì more classical heavyweights, more Canadian and Maritime content, and more of Nova Scotia’Äôs best artists and bands.

’ÄúWe enter our next quarter-century of music-making with a bang, and what a bang ’Äì from the complete Midsummer Night’Äôs Dream by Mendelssohn to ABBA!’Äù says Music Director Bernhard Gueller.

’ÄúWe are proud to present exciting and celebrated soloists in exciting and celebrated works. Our 2009-10 concerts include the Dvo‰ôˆ°k Festival, where we’Äôll perform his cello and violin concertos with the Eighth and Ninth symphonies. We will also welcome back Anton Kuerti, along with Suzie LeBlanc, JoAnn Falletta, John McDermott, Jeanne Lamon, Ashley MacIsaac, and Howard Cable.’Äù

Subscriptions are available now for 2009-10. Highlights include:

CELEBRITY SERIES: nine incredible classical music concerts

• The 2009-10 season kicks off with Mendelssohn’Äôs A Midsummer Night’Äôs Dream ’Äì complete with narrator and expanded orchestra ’Äì on the 200^th anniversary of the composer’Äôs birth.
• Canadian pianist extraordinaire Anton Kuerti joins the orchestra to perform Mozart’Äôs Piano Concerto K. 271.
• Audiences will have a rare opportunity to hear Schubert’Äôs Death and the Maiden, one of Maestro Gueller’Äôs personal favourites, arranged for full orchestra and conducted by JoAnn Falletta.
• And then, the annual composer festival continues with the music of Dvo‰ôˆ°k. Symphony Nova Scotia performs some of this brilliant composer’Äôs greatest works, including the New World Symphony and the beautiful Cello Concerto.

POPS SERIES: eight lively Trad and Maritime Pops performances

• Maestro Gueller conducts the greatest hits of ABBA with six-piece Finnish ensemble Rajaton.
• One of Canada’Äôs most exciting and innovative violinists, Owen Pallett (a.k.a. Final Fantasy), joins the orchestra as part of the Halifax Pop Explosion.
• Howard Cable calls big band music the ’Äúmost memorable and evocative sounds of the 20^th century.’Äù He conducts a huge salute to the ’Äúswing years’Äù with Peter Appleyard in Symphonic Swing.
• Local favourites and ECMA-winners like Jenn Grant, David Myles, and MIR light up the Maritime Pops series.

BAROQUE SERIES: three exquisite concerts in an intimate venue, plus Handel’Äôs Dublin Messiah

• Tafelmusik’Äôs incomparable Jeanne Lamon joins the orchestra once again to perform selections from the Baroque masters, including Bach’Äôs Wedding Cantata and Handel’Äôs brilliant Concerto Grosso.
• Virtuoso violinist David Greenberg performs ’ÄúDelirium Amoris’Äù ’Äì a concert full of the most passionate Baroque music ever written.
• The orchestra performs Bach’Äôs magnificent Mass in b minor for the first time in more than a decade.
• Baroque specialist Kevin Mallon conducts Handel’Äôs Dublin Messiah. To honour the 250^th anniversary of Handel’Äôs death, the orchestra will perform the original version of Messiah.

SYMPHONY SUNDAYS: this matinee series returns with three encore performances

• Symphony Nova Scotia’Äôs principal oboist Suzanne Lemieux performs one of the most beautiful pieces in the oboe repertoire, Strauss’Äô Oboe Concerto.
• Irish tenor John McDermott will warm the heart with beloved favourites from years gone by.
• Hear a concert of contrasts as Janina Fialkowska joins the orchestra for a performance featuring both Chopin and Beethoven.

AND MORE’Ķ

• DRUM! comes to the Symphony this fall. Symphony Nova Scotia teams up with this incredible production to create a show-stopping DRUM! extravaganza.
• The All-Ages (formerly Family) concerts include our annual holiday hit The Nutcracker, along with Holly’Äôs Magic Brush, a very special multisensory concert for adults and children and everyone in between.
• The Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra joins Symphony Nova Scotia for a performance of three spectacular works by Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Britten.

A brochure describing Symphony Nova Scotia’Äôs 2009-10 season is available by calling the box office at 494.3820 or 1.800.874.1669, or by visiting the Symphony Nova Scotia website at http://www.symphonynovascotia.ca/.

Single tickets for Symphony Nova Scotia’Äôs 2009-10 season go on sale August 1, 2009. Subscriptions ’Äì including U-Pick subscriptions ’Äì are available now.

Subscribers receive a host of rewards, including savings of up to 30%, the best available seats in the house, a free open rehearsal pass, free e-programs, and an exclusive subscriber rewards card. And if you're under 30, you can save even more ’Äì up to 60% ’Äì with the Symphony's Under-30 U-Pick.

To purchase a subscription, call 494.3820 or 1.800.874.1669 today!

About Symphony Nova Scotia
Symphony Nova Scotia is Nova Scotia’Äôs orchestra ’Äì and we play the music Nova Scotians love, from baroque and classical to pop and rock and folk. Each year our 37-member ensemble performs for more than 40,000 audience members (including 14,000 young music lovers) in communities across Nova Scotia. Under the inspirational leadership of Bernhard Gueller, Symphony Nova Scotia is recognized as one of the finest orchestras in the country. Join us in 2009-10!

Symphony Nova Scotia is grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts, Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture, and Heritage, and the Halifax Regional Municipality for their continued support.