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editorial

The role of the old-fashioned newsletter is one that we wrestle with every time a deadline looms. In this day of rapid – really instant communication – most people can go to our very efficient web-master, who keeps us informed about what is going on. That is why we have turned to our history for some of our stories. We need to have some realization of our place in the music world of the National Arts Centre and in the community at large.

In this issue we revisit Elizabeth Graham Smith whose dream of concerts especially planned for school children was realized when music was still considered a bit of a “frill” in education curricula. Then we go on to look at the tremendous impact Lois and Don Harper have had on children’s musical lives right across the nation with their annual Unisong on July 1st. OrKidstra is another tremendously successful endeavour which has won kudos in the city. The people involved with all three of these tremendous endeavours are “Friends” or past and present members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

There are many more such stories out there, we know, but in this winter/spring newsletter let us celebrate the achievements of our “Friends” and associates.

THE SOUND OF MUSICStudent Matinées

Sara Jennings in her well-researched book “Art and Politics, the History of the National Arts Centre”, talks about the breadth and scale of the education

program devised in 1999 when Claire Speed was promoted to her post in the Music Department and won such superlative reviews with the Young Artists Program. What her book does not take into account was the effort that went into establishing the grass roots of student matinées.

While the Orchestra was establishing itself in the city and the country, they were more concerned with their playing as a group and with the “people in the seats”, already covered in Con Brio’s accounts of the efforts of pioneer NACOA members, Evelyn Greenberg and Trudi Le Caine.

Music education was not in the forefront of the school curriculum either, although many individual schools had excellent bands and choirs.

Elizabeth Graham-Smith was a piano teacher who returned to Ottawa from studies in the United States in the 70s with her husband and family – thrilled to know that Ottawa had such a prestigious orchestra and that her two children could grow up in a rich cultural atmosphere. She became a member of the Friends of NACO Board (then called NACOA) in the 80s when Lois Harper was its president and immediately began to explore the possibilities for school children that the orchestra presented.

Money was tight. There were already small groups of musicians who went into the schools; there were specific programs where students could buy tickets at a lower rate; there was the odd “Adventure in Music” concert where parents could bring their children, but there was no organized attempt at student programs – music tailored for their

Editor: Jean Seasons conbrio@friendsofnaco.caAssociate Editor: Lise Bazinet

Con Brio

in this issue

Editorial ........................... 1

Thank You, Steve ............. 2

Red Hot ........................... 3

newsletter of friends of the national arts Centre orChestra spring 2012

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understanding and appreciation.

With the backing of NACOA (who agreed to help to raise funds for this endeavour with raffles and used book sales), Elizabeth set about to make student matinées a part of the life of the National Arts Centre. There was no education department at that time, so Elizabeth became the liaison between NACOA and the NAC. She set up an office at home and she established a rapport with the schools to interest them in school concerts, found out all there was to know about bus scheduling and appropriate repertoires. The first concerts in the early 80s were for Grades 4 to 8 but they were expanded to include concerts for younger students. They became very popular and schools as far away as Brockville and Renfrew made repeated trips down the highway to Ottawa.

It has been more than twenty-five years since Elizabeth toiled at this labour of love and she says “Pinchas Zukerman and the Orchestra were able to build on this school base that we helped to establish. I am very proud of the Friends of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.”

Music Unifies the Country - Unisong

It was sixteen years ago that Lois and Don Harper made their dream come true – and each year it has grown until it is now a part of the country’s traditions of July 1st in Ottawa. That dream is Unisong, a patriotic choral festival where choirs of children (and some adults) converge on the city for five days to celebrate that special day in song. At least one

The sound of musiccontinued from page 1

choir from each province (and sometimes the territories) come as proud representatives of their city, region and province. Many of us have thrilled to hear them at the NAC, Parliament Hill and various milieus on that special day and week as they sing their hearts out.

The amount of planning and organization that goes into housing, feeding, sight-seeing for the hundreds of singers that descend on the city is tremendous and an army of “Friends” assist Lois and Don. All of the choristers take back memories that last a lifetime and begin friendships that span the country.

Lois and Don owned Congress Travel and for this huge enterprise they created a new division called Arts Bureau for the Continents (ABC). In the early days of NACOA, they created many interesting trips for our members and always supplemented NACOA’s funds with money they earned on them. “Friends” who have been, and some still are, associated with Unisong include: Dr. Barbara Clark (who organized the Children’s afternoon pre-concert activities for years and was appointed to the Order of Canada for life-time work with children’s choirs), Hyacinthe Wade Howard, Muriel and Steve Barber, Tina Creber...

Enriching Lives - Orkidstra

A recent Ottawa Citizen article by Stephen Mazey celebrated OrKidstra – “a program begun in 2007 for children who have come from war-torn countries and refugee camps, children who arrived in Canada

only recently and are still struggling to learn English, children whose parents hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet. At last count, the musicians of OrKidstra speak 24 languages among them but here (at their Christmas concert) they were speaking the language that brought them together: melody and harmony.”

Headlining the article was a photograph of an energetic baton-wielding Margaret Tobolowska, former NAC cellist, composer and teacher who is now the artistic director of the program and co-founder with Tina Fedeski, flutist, and her husband, Gary McMillen, cellist of the Leading Note Foundation. Stephen Mazey goes on “creating the Foundation to operate the program, they purchased violins themselves in the first year, which they handed out along with some donated trumpets, flutes, guitars and child-sized cellos. For the first several months, the teacher – including Tobolowska and NACO musicians Susan Rupp, Karen Donnelly and others – donated their time to get the program started. In the second year, fundraising, grants, donations and sponsorships helped organizers start to pay teachers.”

This is an uplifting story as are the other two. Our Friends and associates give much of themselves. We are proud of them.

(The Leading Note Foundation was featured in a documentary, “Teaching the Life of Music”, on the Omni television channel in January.)

THANK YOU, STEVE

We hear that Steve Mazey is no longer full-time with the Ottawa Citizen. After a career of 28 years, he has chosen to explore other venues. Friends of NACO – and all music lovers in Ottawa – will miss his balanced, caring reviews although his Thursday columns will continue on a freelance basis. He was keenly interested in the doings of the Friends and made sure we had publicity for our events. “I always enjoyed writing about the support NACOA and now Friends of NACO gave to the orchestra,” he told Con Brio. We wish him well in his future endeavours.

Turkish Embassy Concert March 1, 2012

RED HOTby Melina Vacca-Pugsley, Chair of Embassy Concerts

The first day of March was not an auspicious day. Was it going to come in like a lion or a lamb?

Bad weather was forecast, with heavy snowfall threatening to keep people at home. Fortunately for those lucky enough to have secured a ticket to the Friends of NACO’s Embassy Concert, and brave enough to face the inclement weather, the temperature at the beautiful residence of the Turkish Ambassador, was red hot.

Red for Turkey, whose charming, cosmopolitan, and gracious ambassador, His Excellency Rafet Akgünay, along with his equally accomplished wife and consummate hostess, Mrs. Zeynep Akgünay, opened their elegant and spacious home and extended to us, the renowned Turkish hospitality.“First we will have food for the soul and then food for the body.” With these words, His Excellency welcomed his guests and introduced the musical artists for the evening.

Red was also the colour chosen by the internationally acclaimed and Juno Award winner, Amanda Forsyth, who, with her rare 1699 Testore cello in hand, took to the stage and amusingly introduced the first part of the program. “It’s a cold night, so I thought we’d start with something hot,” said the principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and, accompanied by pianist Jean Desmarais, proceeded to raise the temperature in the room by launching into “Suite Populaire Espagnole” by the Spanish Andalucian composer, Manuel de Falla.

Ms. Forsyth, who by her own admission, does not usually talk when performing, poignantly introduced her father’s (Malcolm Forsyth)

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Guest Performers: Amanda Forsyth, Cello and Jean Desmarais, Piano. Photo by Lois Siegel

Pop’s Cycle Eclectic. She shared amusing family anecdotes of her jazz loving father, which inspired the compositions Potpourri, Song of Light and Ripsnorter Finale.

Her final piece, “Sonata opus 119 for cello and piano”, by Sergei Prokofiev had the guests riveted.

One long time member was almost levitating, so enthralled was she by the music.

Once the final notes faded away and the audience floated back to earth, we were invited to partake of a superb buffet reception. For some of the guests, this was their first but not their last embassy concert. New members, Gerard Lavelle and Paul Schaub left with “good memories of the elegant spirit of the evening, the great warmth of the host and hostess, Jean Desmarais’ deft and definitive hand and Amanda Forsyth’s, thoughtful playing in such an intimate setting,” as well as “some of the best Turkish cuisine this side of Istanbul”. Bodies and souls nourished by excellent music, delicious food , all left feeling that they had indeed been the recipients of the Turkish tradition, which says that visitors should be treated as “Guests sent by God.”

Another journey now begins. Where will the music take us next? Perhaps to the land where Puccini’s Butterfly was tragically betrayed? Stay tuned.

Pinchas Zukerman, Dr. David Finestone, Former Liberal Senator Laurier LaPierre, Harvey Slack, First Vice-President. Photo by Lois Siegel

Zeynep Akgünay, wife of Turkish Ambassador Dr. Rafet Akgünay, Bryan Cheng, 1st Prize Winner of the Canadian Music Competition, Turkish Ambassador Dr. Rafet Akgünay. Photo by Lois Siegel