Nacocast: Classical Music Podcast With Sean Rice

Journalist and author Paul Wells has a fascinating conversation with composer Howard Shore about his passion for music making and acclaimed career as a composer for film, television and opera. Mr. Shore was at the National Arts Centre for the world premiere of his work The Forest: Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra which was commissioned by NAC Music Director Alexander Shelley with with Miloš Karadaglić playing the guitar.

In this archival episode from 2016, NACOcast host Sean Rice connects with composer and pianist Timo Andres whose works were performed by members of the NAC Orchestra as part the WolfGANG Sessions. During their conversation Andres discusses the inspiration and structure of his compositions Early to Rise and Safe Travels and describes himself as a very harmonic composer who is obsessed with compositional craft. Philip Glass selected Timo Andres as the recipient of The City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize in 2016 and calls Andres as “a brilliant compositional mind with a wonderful sense of interpretation of music.”

Host Sean Rice speaks with conductor Elim Chan who made her NAC main series debut in the 18-19 season. A past fellow in the NAC Orchestra’s Conductor’s Program, the Hong Kong-born musician has made her mark on the classical music circuit with her thoughtful and dynamic performances, imbued with energy and imagination. Elim and Sean discuss the experiences that shaped her journey into the world of conducting, their shared love of Mendelssohn and the newly commissioned Cello Concerto by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich.

Sean Rice, NAC Orchestra’s 2nd clarinetist, chats with Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot. At age fourteen Blake attended the NAC’s Young Artist Program and credits that experience for inspiring him to pursue a career in music. Sean and Blake discuss the pressures of music competitions, his relationship with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Blake’s passion for French composers. Pouliot’s debut album for Analekta Records featuring works by Debussy and Ravel received a 2019 JUNO nomination for Best Classical Album.

In this episode of the NACOcast Sean Rice speaks with NAC Music Director Alexander Shelley. On the occasion of its 50th Anniversary, the National Arts Centre Orchestra will embark on a European tour in May 2019. CROSSINGS: the NAC Orchestra 50th Anniversary European Tour will feature concerts and collaborative community outreach events in 7 cities and 5 countries: London, Paris, Utrecht, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Saffron Walden. On this tour, Alexander Shelley and the NAC Orchestra will break new ground for the orchestral experience with an unprecedented representation of Canadian art, artists and stories. “Crossings is emblematic of what is at the heart of this tour….We are crossing expectations, generations and distances and as we engage with new and diverse audiences, artists and young people to experience music and to make music together.”-Alexander Shelley, NAC Music Director.

Sean Rice, NAC Orchestra’s 2nd clarinetist, chats with JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung on the occasion of NACO’s performance of her composition, Earworms. Discover when Sean and Vivian first met, what Vivian has been up to in her career and family life, and her inspiration for Earworms, which was commissioned by the NAC and premiered in Southam Hall, with Alexander Shelley, in March 2018. “Earworms… musically depicts our diverted attention spans and multi-tasking lives.”

The NAC Orchestra’s Concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki and Associate Concertmaster Jessica Linnebach speak with second clarinetist Sean Rice about their lives together, and their collaboration in the NACO’s February 2019 performance of Jocelyn Morlock’s Cobalt which just happens to be taking place on Valentine’s Day. The work is written for violin duet supported by orchestra – perfect for this married couple! Tune in for good stories and a few laughs. Jocelyn Morlock’s Cobalt was composed in 2009, and was a NAC Orchestra and CBC co-commission. Premiered on April 30th, 2009 in Southam Hall in Ottawa, as part of the NAC's BC Scene, it featured violin soloists Jonathan Crow and Karl Stobbe, with the NAC Orchestra conducted by Alain Trudel.

December marks the start of the application process for the NAC’s annual Young Artist Program (Y.A.P). To highlight this wonderful training program, Charles ‘Chip’ Hamann, Principal Oboe, NAC Orchestra and YAP faculty member guest hosts this episode of the NACOcast. Chip speaks with members of the 2018 YAP Wind Program about their experience being immersed in music playing, masterclasses and networking with exceptional like-minded young artists.

Kelly Rice, Director of Development and Lars Lih, Musicologist from McGill’s Schulich School of Music visited the NAC in January 2018 to hear John Storgårds conduct the NAC Orchestra and violinist Guy Braunstein perform two iconic works: Shostakovich’s 1st Violin Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Symphony. Both composers were Russian, but had different experiences of Russia in the 20th century. Kelly gets Lars to tell us about the contrast between the two composers and how they were perceived in their time. Was Rachmaninoff a propagandist? Did Shostakovich take the wrong path? Ask yourself that next time you listen to these great works.

Sean Rice, second clarinetist of the NAC Orchestra, and Jessica Holmes, Postdoctoral Scholar of Musicology, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) met in September 2018, in the middle of the 2018 Festival Focus which saw the NAC Orchestra perform all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies. Jessica, formerly a cello performance student, has spent the last few years focusing on music history, and her specialty is now Music and Disability, with a unique expertise in music and deafness. Very appropriate for a Beethoven festival, and for the current times. Jessica is working on a book tentatively titled Music and the Margins of Sense. Find out more in this fascinating podcast conversation!

Sean Rice talks with NACO Principal Pops conductor Jack Everly about his perspectives on music and upcoming NAC Orchestra Pops concerts. Find out some interesting details about Maestro Everly’s career path (“one thing leads to the next”) and discover some of the wonderful artists with whom he’s had the pleasure to work.

Sean Rice, NAC Orchestra’s 2nd clarinetist, and NAC Music Director Alexander Shelley complete their three-episode series on Beethoven’s nine symphonies for the 2018 Beethoven Focus Festival. The seventh symphony’s funeral march starts off the conversation. The 1813 premiere of the work featured an encore of the funeral march. What made it so significant? The eighth symphony was “much better” in Beethoven’s opinion than the seventh. The harmonic architecture of its first movement is rather unusual for the day, while the next two movements are very classical. The short, quick and witty fourth movement harks back to the first movement. But the ninth… The ninth symphony is of a scale that he had never before undertaken. Sean Rice and Alexander Shelley discuss this marvelous work beginning by its last movement, and lay out the political climate in Vienna at the time, making a connection between the ninth and Beethoven’s influences. “Be embraced, you millions: this kiss is for the whole world”.

Sean Rice and Alexander Shelley continue their three-episode series about the Beethoven Symphonies on the occasion of the NAC Orchestra’s Festival Focus 2018. Symphonies 4, 5 and 6 were running in Beethoven’s head concurrently. He was a master of making a huge work out of just a scrap of a musical idea. These three symphonies are excellent examples of this methodology. Symphonies 5 and 6, forming in his mind before the fourth, were premiered on December 22, 1808. Discover how that evening unravelled, and hear Sean and Alexander rave about Beethoven’s accomplishments and contributions to the world.

Sean Rice, 2nd clarinetist of the NAC Orchestra, and Alexander Shelley, NAC Music Director, discuss Ludwig van Beethoven’s first three symphonies, putting them in context with Mozart’s and Haydn’s large volume of works. Why are Beethoven’s symphonies so significant and important? The 2018 Festival Focus is the perfect opportunity for this discussion. The first symphony is deeply rooted in classical form, quite heavily influenced by Haydn’s teachings and Mozart’s works, with four movements mirroring the expected model and a few extra instruments. The chosen key structure is quite unique and signals Beethoven’s intention of veering off the standard course. The second symphony, written in the spa town of Heilegenstadt, came at the cathartic moment when Beethoven was showing signs of losing his hearing. The third symphony, “Eroica”, dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, was an important statement about the common man. Beethoven composed from the last movement to the first, outlining the journey towards a celebra

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.