Eric Friesen presents the NAC Orchestra

With a revived commitment to commissioning and performing new music and particularly new Canadian music the NAC Orchestra is more creatively active than ever. All the forces are working in harmony - from the board, the senior administration, the creative leaders, and all who sail with the NAC- understand their mission of being Canada’s Stage, of being a truly national artistic institution, and what it takes to make it so, and to make it of value to the entire country.

NAC Administrators and music lovers answer the question "Why is it important to have a national orchestra?" The NAC recognizes people are listening to music outside of the concert hall and away from the radio. And it is by touring, educating, recording and connecting with Canadians that the NAC orchestra and its artists will fulfill its mandate of being truly national.

Eric speaks with the players themselves about this decade of transition, the 5th decade of the NAC Orchestra. Musicians share what brought them to Ottawa and why they continue to stay. This orchestra is special, not just for the quality of its performances night after night, year after year, decade after decade, but that quality is built on something quite unusual in an orchestra - a positive culture - a sense of family that isn’t in every orchestra, that’s for sure.

The fifth decade of the NAC Orchestra would see Pinchas Zukerman finish up his 16 year tenure as Music Director and give way to a new leader, Alexander Shelley. The Pinchas legacy continues to be evident in the sound of the NAC Orchestra and now in this new era, Alexander Shelly has begun to imprint his vision, his style and his approach to programming on the orchestra.

Meet the second group of three Canadian composers given the prestigious NAC Awards: Peter Paul Kaprowski, Anna Sokolovic and John Estacio. Two are immigrants to Canada from Eastern Europe and the third a first generation Portuguese Canadian. They have just begun a 3-year residency with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and will each contribute at least 3 major works in collaboration with Music Director Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Music team. Here we are looking to the present and the future, as these three composers tell us their stories and talk about their music and their dreams for new work inspired by writing for this superb orchestra.

This is the story of the composers from the last two decades of the 20th century. These are men and women who are confident of their place in Canadian culture and yet looked out to the world and embraced minimalism, the influences of pop and rock music, a new rhythmic vitality, eastern music and the new trends from western Europe and the United States. Composers from other countries continued to find Canada a welcome home. It's the era of Glenn Buhr, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Alexina Louie, Gary Kulesha, Michael Colgrass, Istvan Anhalt and many more in English Canada. And in Quebec: Jacques Hétu, Claude Vivier, Linda Bouchard, Denis Gougeon and Denys Bouliane.

As World War 2 ended, there was a great flowering in contemporary music making in Canada. For the first time, men and women declared themselves professional composers. Listen to the stories, the voices and the music of these magnificent pioneers: John Weinzweig, Harry Somers, Violet Archer, Oskar Morawetz, Srul Irving Glick, Malcolm Forsyth and many others in English Canada; Claude Champagne, Pierre Mercure, Clermont Pépin and André Prévost in Quebec. With performances from the archives of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

The NAC Orchestra has from its very early years been known outside the boundaries of Canada. In its third year of life, it made a triumphant debut in New York City. From there touring to Asia, Europe, the rest of the US and South America have won it friends and admirers. Recordings have also been part of the NAC Orchestra’s international reputation, as have great virtuosos who have come to play at the NAC and then gone away again, singing the orchestra’s praises. We hear from Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Garrick Ohlsson, among others. At the end of this program, we look to the future and see the “decade of magic” continuing.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra has, from its conception, had a mandate beyond Ottawa, a mandate to serve all Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The key national stages for the NAC Orchestra have been broadcasting, recording and touring, to which has now been added a significant presence on the internet. As part of the national mandate the NAC Orchestra has always been committed to nurturing and presenting great Canadian performers. We hear from Angela Hewitt, Jon Kimura Parker and Anton Kuerti. The national mandate has also meant commissioning and playing works by Canadian composers; R Murray Shafer, Alexina Louie and Gary Kulesha are heard from, their voices and their music.

The return of the NAC Orchestra to stability and health coincides with the arrival of a superstar violinist/conductor, and a man with a huge vision for expansion and education. Pinchas Zukerman pushes the organization to a larger greatness and a new CEO, Peter Herrendorf, and Board Chair David Leighton, help Pinchas achieve his dreams. The players, the audience, and a wave of young performers, composers and conductors all benefit. We’ll hear the singular voice and personality Pinchas Zukerman reflect on his 11 years here and find the passion for more burns brightly. Others chime in.

Through much of the 1990’s, the NAC Orchestra was led by the baroque and classical specialist from England, Trevor Pinnock. This was a time of continued financial challenges for the NAC, but Trevor Pinnock was not only a superb musician, but a man of great character and helped heal the ravages of the late 1980’s. The NAC Orchestra also shows its flexibility as gifted and colourful Principal Guest Conductor Franz Paul Decker leads them into the territory of Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith, Jean Sibelius and Johannes Brahms.

After 13 years under Bernardi, the NAC Orchestra’s new leader was another Italian: Franco Mannino. Where Bernardi had been all northern Italy - cold blue light, Mannino was all southern Italy - red hot light. Listen to the smiles that come into the voices of those who remember Mannino. Then a darkness descends on the NAC as financial woes threaten the orchestra and its ambitious programs, and the orchestra goes on strike. The young Polish Israel conductor, Gabriel Chmura, succeeds Mannino, but his stay in Ottawa is short-lived.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra was born in the cultural euphoria of the 1960’s, an off shoot of a bold Centennial Year project for our nation’s capital. Not only did Ottawa get its first arts centre complex, it acquired a world class orchestra almost instantly. Meet the bold and visionary men who created the NAC and the orchestra. Hear from Music Director Mario Bernardi and from players and music lovers alike who remember those early days, and hear excerpts from the orchestra’s audio archive.