NAC announces Summer Music at the National Arts Centre

Summer Music at the NAC includes

Orchestras in the Park, visiting orchestras and repertoire readings, and everything is FREE!

The National Arts Centre today announced details of Summer Music at the NAC, a line-up that includes four Orchestras in the Park concerts outdoors in LeBreton Flats Park presented in collaboration with the National Capital Commission; concerts by the l’ÄôOrchestre de la francophonie canadienne led by Pinchas Zukerman and Jean-Philippe Tremblay, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada led by Alain Trudel; Canada Day concerts and activities; plus a series of three ’ÄúRepertoire Readings’Äù of new music by Canadian composers. All concerts are free, though some require tickets that can be picked up in person at the NAC Box Office.

Summer at the NAC also features the unveiling of the new Le Cafˆ© menu by Chef Michael Blackie.

From July 23 to 26 at 7:30 pm, the National Arts Centre Orchestra will present its third season of Orchestras in the Park in collaboration with the National Capital Commission in the special outdoor performance space developed at LeBreton Flats Park in front of the Canadian War Museum. Each of the four concerts will be preceded by a KidsZone of activities for youngsters.

Orchestras in the Park begins on Thursday, July 23 with the NAC Orchestra performing ’ÄúClassics and Kuertis’Äù featuring renowned Ottawa favourite Anton Kuerti at the piano with his son Julian Kuerti (associate conductor of the Boston Symphony, and an alumnus of the NAC Conductors Program) on the podium. This concert also features trumpet player Amy Horvey, this year’Äôs recipient of the Richard Li Young Artist Chair, performing the Hummel Trumpet Concerto.

In ’ÄúOpera Under the Stars’Äù on Friday, July 24, conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni leads the NAC Orchestra, soprano Erin Wall, baritone James Westman, and tenor Antonio Figueroa ’Äì three sensational Canadian singers ’Äì in favourite arias from The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and more, joined by the Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus directed by Laurence Ewashko.

On Saturday, July 25, the electrifying Natalie MacMaster, Cape Breton’Äôs fiddling, step-dancing and vocal sensation, guarantees to have the audience on its feet cheering her and the NAC Orchestra in a night of Celtic delights with Jean-Marie Zeitouni once again on the podium.

Orchestras in the Park concludes on Sunday, July 26, when the Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne takes over the outdoor stage in ’ÄúBeethoven’Äôs Fifths’Äù led by Music Director Jean-Philippe Tremblay and featuring pianist Hong Xu , the 2006 Laureate of the Honens International Piano Competition. Beethoven’Äôs ’ÄúEmperor’Äù Piano Concerto No. 5 is followed by Beethoven’Äôs mighty Fifth Symphony!

Orchestras in the Park concerts are free with no tickets required.

To kick off the month of July, visit the National Arts Centre for Canada Day festivities taking place all day long on Wednesday, July 1, including a massed choral performance by Unisong at 10 a.m. in Southam Hall and one concert by the NAC Orchestra led by Pinchas Zukerman at 2:30 p.m. featuring both the Unisong Choir and musicians of the NAC Young Artists Program, part of the Summer Music Institute .

The Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne will also pay a visit to Southam Hall on Thursday, July 2 with two more Beethoven symphonies and a piano concerto to coincide with the Orchestra’Äôs summer recording project of all nine Beethoven symphonies. Jean-Philippe Tremblay will open the program with Beethoven’Äôs Symphony No. 1. Then Pinchas Zukerman, Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra will lead 14-year-old Calgary piano prodigy Jan Lisiecki in Beethoven’Äôs Piano Concerto No. 3 and close the program with Beethoven’Äôs Second Symphony.

On Tuesday, July 28, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada led by Alain Trudel makes its annual visit to the Capital. The program consists of Rob Teehan’Äôs Dreams of Flying, a new work commissioned by the NYOC, Haydn’Äôs Symphony No. 96 and Mahler’Äôs Symphony No. 6.

Tickets for both the Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada are free and can be picked up in person at the NAC Box Office.

And on July 7, 8 and 9, the National Arts Centre Orchestra will offer its services to four composers for ’ÄúRepertoire Readings’Äù of original works. These sessions, conducted by the NAC Composers Program Lead Composer Gary Kulesha, will take place in the NAC Rehearsal Hall and are open to the public, no tickets required, as long as space is available.

There are also numerous public concerts presented as part of the eleventh annual NAC Summer Music Institute during the month of June. These have been announced separately.

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