Ottawa - my/maSCENA

Browsing: Ottawa

Ottawa articles, news, reviews

Photo: Raoul Manuel Schnell

Quatuor Despax: All in the family

By Justin Bernard on 29 May 2023 Chamber Music, Interviews, Ottawa, Strings

The kinship that unites the members of the Quatuor Despax has stood the test of time—20 years, to be exact. Dedicating itself to a wide range of musical genres over the years, the group has kept its momentum going by maintaining its ties to kin, friends and music lovers alike. For those who may not know them, they are brothers and sisters (two of each) who play the required instruments for a standard string quartet comprised of two violins, a viola and a cello. A recent meeting with them for a conversation left no doubts about the family…

John Rutter (Photo provided)

Music and Beyond: The Big Comeback!

By Charles Geyer on 26 May 2023 Classical, Contemporary, Indigenous, Ottawa

It’s back! And it promises to be as big and bold as ever. It’s Music and Beyond, Ottawa’s summer music and arts festival which—every July since its inception in 2010—has blossomed across the capital in a gloriously scatter-cast profusion of musical sounds, styles and intriguing interdisciplinary programming. “The public is ready to return,” says Julian Armour, the festival’s plucky and indefatigable founder and artistic and executive director. “We’re doing a big festival! We’re going to do about 64 different major concerts.” It’s a bracing and welcome assertion of renewal, after the scaled-back famine years of global pandemic. Rock and a…

Pablo Ziegler and Masae Shiwa (Credit: São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra)

Pablo Ziegler: Music and Beyond Welcomes Back the Piazzolla Pianist

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 May 2023 Contemporary, Ottawa, World Music

This summer, composer and Piazzolla quintet pianist Pablo Ziegler is bringing experimental Argentine tango to Ottawa. On July 4, Ziegler will host the Opening Gala: Homage to Piazzolla concert for his third Music and Beyond season. It’s his first time as the festival’s gala performer, and his first time back since the start of the pandemic. But he’s kept busy with international performances in the meantime. During lockdowns, Ziegler and his wife Masae Shiwa started experimenting as a piano duo before visiting Japan, Brazil, and Argentina for duet concerts, with New York lined up later this year. Their concert at…

Summer 2023 Canadian Festival Guide

By La Scena Musicale Team on 26 May 2023 Classical Music, Guides, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver

Newfoundland Camber Arts Woody Point, Corner Brook, May 1 to September 30 www.camberarts.ca Nickel Independent Film Festival St. John’s, June 12 to 18 www.nickelfestival.com Canada’s Big Birthday Bash St. John’s, June 30 to July 1 www.georgestreetlive.ca Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival St. John’s, July 7 to 9 www.nlfolk.com Shakespeare by the Sea Festival St. John’s, July 7 to August 20 www.shakespearebytheseafestival.com Salmon Festival Grand Falls-Windsor, July 13 to 17 www.evsalmonfestival.com Stephenville Theatre Festival Stephenville, July 14 to August 13 www.stephenvilletheatrefestival.com Annual Southern Shore Shamrock Festival Ferryland, July 22 to 23 www.ssfac.com George Street Festival St. John’s, July 27 to August…

Concert Previews

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 Classical Music, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto

Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

MontrealVoces Boreales This June, Voces Boreales invites listeners into an immersive installation at St. James United Church. Open from noon to 7 p.m., audience members will embark on an ”urban pilgrimage” to the sounds of Joby Talbot’s choral masterwork, Path of Miracles (2005), immersed in a colourful lightshow depiction of the Camino de Compostela. Listeners are invited to reflect on the piece, the context of the pilgrimage, and the beauty of the space, at their convenience during the installation’s opening hours (June 20-24). www.vocesboreales.org OSM The OSM is concluding yet another bombastic season with a performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony.…

Tomson Highway (Credit: Sean Howard)

Tomson Highway: Music and Beyond Meets “Cree Bossa Nova”

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 May 2023 Indigenous, Ottawa, World Music

In the last two years, Cree composer and playwright Tomson Highway has published two books, recorded his newest album Cree Country, won the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Theatre, and become an Order of Canada officer. With plenty of passion left, he’s now on a new mission: introducing the country to Cree bossa nova. On July 6, Highway will perform for his second season at Ottawa’s Music and Beyond festival. He last played at its summer 2018 concert, which he called a sign of the music industry’s post-pandemic “resuscitation.” He’s being accompanied by cellist and festival organizer Julian…

NAC Orchestra (Photo Credit: Curtis Perry, courtesy of the National Arts Centre)

Review | NAC Orchestra’s stellar performance of The Planets

By Zenith Wolfe on 23 May 2023 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Ottawa

It was a phenomenal night of endings and new beginnings for the National Arts Centre (NAC): the orchestra capped off both 2023’s Mentorship program and the tenure of outgoing CEO Jayne Watson with a stellar concert featuring Gustav Holst’s famous composition The Planets, as well as the Canadian premiere of Catamorphosis by Icelandic symphonist Anna Thorvaldsdóttir. The May 18 concert began with a rendition of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin du printemps. It’s one of the last works written by the French composer before her death at the young age of 24, with the orchestral version posthumously finalized by her sister,…

Newswire | NACO Music Director Alexander Shelley Contract Extended

By Newswire on 12 September 2022 Newswire, Ottawa

September 8, 2022 – OTTAWA (Canada) – The National Arts Centre (NAC) is pleased to announce a three-year contract extension for Alexander Shelley as Music Director of the NAC Orchestra, from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2026. Since taking on the role of Music Director in 2015, Alexander Shelley has led the NAC Orchestra through transformational initiatives and major tours, highlighting the ensemble’s national role and positioning it as a creative and collaborative space for Canadian composers, conductors, artists and partners. “I continue to be energized by the individual and collective brilliance of our musicians and inspired by the…

Photo: Curtis Perry

Review: NACO Returns to Ottawa

By Natasha Gauthier on 18 April 2022 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Ottawa

After performing in Toronto and New York, the National Arts Centre Orchestra brought its Truth in our Time program home to the NAC in Ottawa on April 13 and 14. For my third and last time listening to this concert, I decided to sample the April 14 Livestream. The NAC has significantly upped its videocasting game over the pandemic. Although this particular livestream had a charge attached, plenty of events have been available for free. For all the setbacks and hardships the performing arts have experienced over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, accessibility gains have been a silver lining.…

Photo: Dominick Mastrangeo

Review: NACO on Tour–New York Dispatch, Boris Brott Remembered

By Natasha Gauthier on 6 April 2022 Concert Reviews, Ottawa

The National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall concert on Tuesday night began under a dark cloud, as musicians learned of the horrific hit-and-run death of Orchestre Classique de Montréal and former Hamilton Symphony conductor Boris Brott an hour before going onstage. “I’m still processing it,” soloist James Ehnes said after the concert. “He was the first conductor I ever worked with, in 1987. From the time I was 11, he treated me with respect and gave me confidence that I had something to say that was worth hearing. It’s a tragic loss, both personally and professionally.” Canadian violinist Lara…

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next

Browsing: Ottawa

Current Issue