The Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, Ottawa’s premiere professional chamber orchestra, was founded in 1976 by conductor Brian Law and string players from the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The orchestra is now directed by Kevin Mallon. The orchestra’s repertoire is diverse – covering music from the Baroque era to 21st century music – having commissioned 100 new works from Canadian composers. The orchestra’s core of thirteen string players is regularly supplemented by guest performers. From baritones to sopranos, from marimba players to Klezmer specialists, guest artists have helped develop Thirteen Strings into one of the best-known and most eclectic chamber orchestras in Canada. The Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra presents its own subscription concert series and has collaborated with many arts organizations in Ottawa. These have included: Le Festival de musique sacrée, Ottawa’s Seventeen Voyces, the Music and Beyond festival, the Cantata Singers, Ottawa’s Viennese Winter Ball, the West Fest street festival and the McGill Chamber Orchestra. In December 2013, the annual Christmas Concert was filmed for television and broadcast to over 140 countries on EWTN. Many of its concerts have been broadcast across Canada on CBC Radio and Radio-Canada. The orchestra’s education project, the Junior Thirteen Strings, brings together a pool of talented youngsters to work alongside the professional members of the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra. The Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra made its first recording on the Naxos label in June 2014, with a recording of Franz Beck’s six symphonies, opus 2.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – The highly anticipated tradition of the Thirteen Strings’ Christmas concert will feature glorious music and dancing this year, a fun part of celebrating this most joyful season! With a wonderful choir and the audience joining in to sing carols, this concert is bound to get you in the full spirit of the holidays.
Sunday, June 11, 2023 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Songs made known by Édith Piaf, in arrangements by Kevin Mallon
Sunday, October 15, 2017 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Metamorphoses “I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities.” Ovid Andrew Ager: The Talk of the Town- world premiere- Sesquie for Canada’s 150th Jean-Philippe Rameau: Music from Castor et Pollux* Jean-Baptiste Lully: Music from Acis & Galatée* Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen *With Junior Thirteen Strings
Sunday, June 3, 2018 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – June 3rd, 2018 , 3pm Dominion Chalmers Sunday afternoon at the opera! The orchestra presents an afternoon of opera favourites. Handel’s overture to Il pastor fido, is followed by excerpts from Mozart: Die Zauberflöte. Wagner’s sumptuous Siegfried Idyll (from his opera Siegfried) brings us to the richness of the 19th century, while violinist, Alexandre Da […]
Friday, May 4, 2018 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – The Subject is Light: 1718 – 1918 – 2018 Celebrating the centenary of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, we go to 1718 and the works of Bach and Handel. Both suffering eye problems, they turn to the Chevalier John Taylor, pioneering surgical genius or quack? Two actors will explain. The orchestra plays Bach […]
Friday, March 30, 2018 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – March 30, 2018, Good Friday The Way of the Cross Dominion Chalmers Vivaldi and Bocherini! The orchestra performs lively concerti for two violins and four violins from Vivaldi’s Opus 3 collection, L’estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration). As part of our Good Friday tradition, presenting religious masterpieces, we present Boccherini’s glorious 1781 Stabat Mater. Soprano, […]
Friday, February 23, 2018 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Galant! With elegance and poise! With guest conductor, Bernhard Gueller (Conductor at Symphony Nova Scotia) and guest pianist, Ilya Poletaev. CPE Bach: Symphony in G major, H.657 Wolgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto in C major, K. 415 Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.107 Hob.I:107 Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Serenade for Strings
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Always a favourite, this year in our Candlelight Christmas Concert, we welcome the Ottawa Regional Youth Choir and their conductor Jamie Loback. Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto grosso: ‘Fatto per la Notte di Natale’, (Christmas Concerto) Arnold Schoenberg: Weihnachtsmusik (Christmas Music) John D. Geggie: New work John Rutter: Blow, blow, thou winter wind […]
Sunday, October 15, 2017 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Metamorphoses/Métamorphoses “I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities.” Ovid Andrew Ager: The Talk of the Town- world premiere- Sesquie for Canada’s 150th Jean-Philippe Rameau: Music from Castor et Pollux* Jean-Baptiste Lully: Music from Acis & Galatée* Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen *With Junior Thirteen Strings Richard […]
Sunday, October 15, 2017 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Metamorphoses/Métamorphoses “I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities.” Ovid Andrew Ager: The Talk of the Town- world premiere- Sesquie for Canada’s 150th Jean-Philippe Rameau: Music from Castor et Pollux* Jean-Baptiste Lully: Music from Acis & Galatée* Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen *With Junior Thirteen Strings Richard […]
Friday, October 28, 2016 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Thirteen Strings invites you to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Piazzolla’s famous tango- inspired Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, featuring Ottawa violinist and international rising star, Kerson Leong. Guitarist-composer Ramses Calderon, from El Salvador, performs his new concerto, adding the spark of Central America traditional music. Thirteen Strings vous invite à célébrer le Mois du patrimoine […]
Saturday, December 17, 2016 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm – For the first time, Thirteen Strings presents Handel’s masterpiece. The holidays would not be the same without it! Rejoice! Ce sera la première fois que les Thirteen Strings présenteront le chef-d’œuvre de Haendel. Des fêtes sans cette oeuvre ne seraient pas les mêmes. Réjouissez-vous
Sunday, December 18, 2016 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm – For the first time, Thirteen Strings presents Handel’s masterpiece. The holidays would not be the same without it! Rejoice! Ce sera la première fois que les Thirteen Strings présenteront le chef-d’œuvre de Haendel. Des fêtes sans cette œuvre ne seraient pas les mêmes. Réjouissez-vous!
Friday, January 27, 2017 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – A special Concert for Peace brings music of reconciliation and hope. Including several iconic works- Barber’s Adagio and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (arranged for strings), we augment our numbers to welcome the Junior Thirteen Strings, for a more lush sound in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis. This special concert includes […]
Friday, April 14, 2017 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm – Thirteen Strings orchestra presents one of the greatest works of art of the western world. A Good Friday concert has become the orchestra’s tradition. Don’t miss this one L’orchestre Thirteen Strings interprétera l’une des plus grandes œuvres artistiques du monde occidental. Le concert du Vendredi saint est devenu une tradition chez l’orchestre. Ne le manquez pas.
Friday, May 12, 2017 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra presents the aboriginal Thunderbird legend with baroque versions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Matthew Locke and Henry Purcell. Mezzo-soprano Marion Newman explores her First Nations roots with aboriginal arts, dance and song in Dustin Peters’ exciting work “Thunderbird”. L’orchestre de chambre Thirteen Strings présente la légende autochtone de l’oiseau-tonnerre et des versions […]
Friday, June 16, 2017 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra contrasts two youthful and joyful works- Mozart’s Divertimento K.138 and Mendelssohn’s String Symphony no. 6. Juno-nominated bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly joins the orchestra in Peter-Anthony Togni’s beautifully meditative Illuminations, a contemplation on the idea of eternal light. L’Orchestre de chambre Thirteen Strings met en contraste deux œuvres pleines de jeunesse et […]
