Alain Trudel
Conductor & trombonist
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CBC players to reunite for NBO's inaugural performance
September 25, 2009, 12:00 am
Re-formed orchestra to debut on B.C. Saltspring Island; will distribute via website and YouTube
Robert Everett-Green
Members of the defunct CBC Radio Orchestra tuned up again this week, for their first public appearances together as the National Broadcast Orchestra. Plans for the reformed ensemble's initial round of activities were announced Tuesday at the NBO's home base, the University of Vancouver's Chan Centre.
The orchestra's first gig will be a concert Wednesday night on Saltspring Island, where support for an ensemble to succeed the CBC's last radio orchestra was strong from the day the CBC cancelled funding, according to NBO music director Alain Trudel. The NBO is also shooting high-definition performance videos this week, to be used online as promotional materials for a gala fundraising concert on Jan. 8.
“The first rehearsal was really unbelievable,” said Trudel, who conducted the CBC orchestra's final concert last fall and was reunited with the players on Monday. “The orchestra hadn't played together for a year, and it felt like it was only yesterday.”
Trudel, who led the drive to reform the orchestra with Montreal venture capitalist Philippe Labelle, said that the NBO will focus on multimedia studio work, with perhaps three or four public concerts a year. He added that one of the NBO's main partners so far is the CBC, which will broadcast the Jan. 8 show, and which has commissioned a major new work for the orchestra by Canadian composer Michael Oesterle.
The NBO will also distribute its multimedia recordings through its own website and on YouTube. Trudel said that the NBO's webcasting format will favour short, interactive studio segments over full-length concert broadcasts.
“We're going to turn it over as fast as we can, in an efficient and artistic way, so that people can see what's happening,” Trudel said. The primary focus will be on Canadian talent, including performers and composers, he said. About half of the music played will be Canadian.
“As our country flourishes with talent, we need to have an orchestra that focuses on bringing those talented and creative Canadian artists to a worldwide audience,” Trudel said. National touring is also a priority, though before the NBO shows up in Winnipeg or Halifax it will have to secure around $1-million in annual funding.
A year ago, Trudel and Labelle (who described the orchestra as “a citizens' initiative”) thought they could have the NBO up and running by the spring of 2009. The recession has slowed the pace, and the NBO is still working on getting recognition by the Canada Revenue Agency as a not-for-profit, charitable institution.
“People keep telling me we couldn't pick a worse time to do this,” Trudel said. “I keep saying, ‘It's not easy, but it's essential.'” The NBO's Jan. 8 concert will include the premiere of Oesterle's The Sparrow's Legend ; two pieces for trumpet and orchestra by Trudel and Allan Gilliland (played with Canadian trumpeter Jens Lindemann); Prokofiev's Classical Symphony (a partial basis for Oesterle's piece); and Beethoven's recently restored Piano Concerto No. 0 , orchestrated and performed by Anton Kuerti.
The National Broadcast Orchestra plays Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the ArtSpring Theatre in Ganges, Saltspring Island, B.C.
Globe and Mail
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