Top 10 most memorable moments at the National Arts Centre in 2009

(Ottawa, Canada) ��� In addition to celebrating its 40^th anniversary in 2009, the National Arts Centre (NAC) featured many memorable moments during the past 12 months. Here is a list of the top 10 NAC highlights of this remarkable year:

1) Prime Minister Stephen Harper���s surprise performance of the Beatles��� ���With a Little Help from my Friends��� with Yo Yo Ma at the NAC���s Fall Gala on October 3. The performance generates some of the highest media coverage in the NAC���s history with hundreds of media mentions nationally and internationally, and becomes the number one You Tube video viewed in Canada and number five in the world.

2) Leonard Cohen is a very hot ticket when he performs to a full house at the National Arts Centre for two nights in May during his successful North American tour.

3) BC Scene presents 600 artists from British Columbia in the nation���s capital during a 13-day festival. Also in 2009: the NAC produces the Governor General���s Performing Arts Awards, co-presents the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, and co-produces the Canada Dance Festival.

4) Resurrection of the NAC���s English Theatre Company under the direction of Peter Hinton, the NAC���s English Theatre Artistic Director. The company launched with a sold-out run of A Christmas Carol.

5) Maestro Pinchas Zukerman conducts the National Arts Centre Orchestra in a performance of Mahler���s Symphony No. 1 ���Titan��� for its 40^th anniversary concert on October 8. He also led the 11th edition of the NAC Summer Music Institute, that brought 90 students from seven Canadian provinces and 12 other countries to study with 24 world renowned faculty members.

6) Wajdi Mouawad, the NAC���s French Artistic Director, is named Associate Artist of the prestigious Avignon Theatre Festival in France, where he presents three of his plays: Littoral, Incendies, and For��ts in a 11-hour performance from dusk till dawn.

7) Three Canadian composers, Ana Sokolovic, Peter Paul Koprowski, and John Estacio each win $75,000 from the NAC to compose music for the National Arts Centre���s Orchestra.

8) The National Arts Centre hosts a birthday party to celebrate the Canadian Music Centre���s 50^th anniversary with a free concert of Canadian music in Southam Hall.

9) In September, Cathy Levy, the NAC���s acclaimed Dance producer, brings rising star Hofesh Shechter a British-based, Israeli-born dancer, composer, and musician to the NAC. Earlier on June 2, Levy produces an elegant 40^th anniversary show that blends classical music, dance and theatre, hosted by playwright Michel Marc Bouchard and Veronica Tennant (who danced in the first NAC performance back in 1969).

10) Kevin Loring, the NAC���s playwright in residence, wins the Governor General���s Literary Award for Drama for Where the Blood Mixes. The play will be presented as part of the NAC English Theatre 40^th anniversary season.