Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Ottawa (Canada)—The National Arts Centre’s Annual Report entitled Year of the North, which was tabled in Parliament this week, details the NAC’s extraordinary engagement with northern Canada in 2012–2013 through three major initiatives — the NAC Orchestra’s Northern Canada Tour, the Northern Scene festival, and the Music Alive Program in Nunavut.
From October 26 to November 4, the Orchestra embarked on the Northern Canada Tour, with six concerts and more than 65 education events in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, led by Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit. The Tour featured Canadian GRAMMY Award-winning violinist James Ehnes (on his first-ever trip to Northern Canada), as well as many northern artists, including renowned Nunavik throat singers Evie Mark and Akinisie Sivuarapik. The music featured classical repertoire, but also put northern music in the spotlight.
From April 25 to May 4, the NAC presented Northern Scene, the sixth in a series of national festivals that showcase artists from different regions of the country. Northern Scene celebrated the work of 355 artists from Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunvaut, as well as Nunavik and Nunatsiavut—musicians, actors, dancers, visual and media artsts, filmmakers, writers, craftspeople and chefs in 78 events in 25 venues. The festival also offered the chance for 60 national and international presenters and talent scouts to discover the best of northern culture, creating new performance opportunities for northern artists across the country and internationally.
And the NAC’s Music Alive Program in Nunavut, which sends northern and southern musicians to work in schools and communities, reached northern Canadians in Iqaluit, Igloolik, Rankin Inlet, Pangnirtung and Kugluktuk. Created in consultation with northern artists, boards of education and community leaders, the program also sends donated instruments to northern communities, presents community concerts to showcase northern musicians and celebrate Inuit music; organizes music workshops for teachers-in-training; funds summer music camps for children; hosts leadership summits to help young leaders encourage more music-making in their communities; and links northern students to musicians of the NAC Orchestra via broadband videoconference technology. The program has now reached more than 5,000 northern Canadians.
The 2012–2013 season also marked the most successful year to date for the NAC Foundation, which raised more than $8.6 million from donors, corporate partners and foundations from across the country. Founded in 2000, the NAC Foundation raises money to support performance, creation and learning across Canada.
“Our Year of the North took all of us at the National Arts Centre on an extraordinary journey,” said NAC President and CEO Peter Herrndorf in his Annual Report message. “It was a year in which we very deliberately set out to deepen our engagement with this most majestic and beautiful part of Canada, and the remarkable people who live there.”
“On behalf of everyone at the NAC, I would like to thank NAC Foundation CEO Jayne Watson and her wonderful volunteer board for their terrific results in fundraising this year. Their efforts to attract donors from both the public and private sectors made the Year of the North possible,” he said.
The NAC ended the year with an operating surplus of $226,000. Total box office revenue for all performances was $19,544,410, and close to 1.2 million people took part in performances, events and commercial activities at the NAC during the 2012–2013 season.
The 2012–2013 season was also a remarkable one for NAC New Media, with the download of more than 1.6 million education resources — including NAC-created study guides, teacher resource kits and other reference and learning materials — from ArtsAlive.ca, the NAC’s award-winning arts and education website.
In addition, NAC podcasts (which this year also included the new Salon Saturdays with English Theatre’s Artistic Director Jillian Keiley) continue to be hugely popular; NACOcast host Nick Atkinson’s interview with conductor and NAC Orchestra Music Director-designate Alexander Shelley broke the NAC record with 47,000 downloads in eight weeks.
Over the course of the 2012–2013 season, the NAC engaged with thousands of artists from Canada and around the world in each of its five programming streams – French Theatre, English Theatre, Music, Dance and NAC Presents.
Highlights include:
· The NAC Gala, featuring the NAC Orchestra, superstar pianist Lang Lang and sensational young Shanghai-born violinist Shi Shuai, which raised net proceeds of more than $800,000 for the National Youth and Education Trust;
· The Canadian premiere of The Tempest Replica, a co-production between NAC Dance and Crystal Pite’s acclaimed company Kidd Pivot. Based in British Columbia, Crystal is an NAC Associate Dance Artist who has been actively supported by the NAC for nearly 10 years;
· The remarkably successful third season of NAC Presents in partnership with BMO Financial Group, the concert series showcasing the country’s best emerging and established artists in contemporary music, which broke audience records with over 16,000 audience members for its 42 performances (22 of which were sold out);
· Pride and Prejudice, an NAC co-production with Theatre Calgary for 17 performers from across Canada, enjoyed a triumphant run in Calgary in October, then transferred to the NAC stage in November and became the second-highest grossing production in English Theatre history. The NAC added three performances to meet demand, including a benefit for the Actors’ Fund of Canada and the Ottawa Food Bank;
· Metamorphoses (Based on the Myths of Ovid), Jillian Keiley’s audacious directorial debut as Artistic Director of English Theatre in February. The show was highly anticipated for another reason: the play is staged in water. Edmonton designer Bretta Gerecke’s set included several pools and a swimming tank weighing 12 ½ tons. The technical challenges of the show were endless: the water elements affected everything from the fabric used in the costumes, to the buoyancy of the props, to the actors’ rehearsal venue (a local pool);
· Quebec superstar Ginette Reno’s much-anticipated appearance for two completely sold-out performances in Southam Hall in March. The audiences were thrilled to see Ginette after an absence of several years, and rewarded her with standing ovations at both performances;
· The dazzling La réunification des deux Corées by legendary playwright and director Joël Pommerat in April, an NAC French Theatre co-production with many international partners that has been a sensation in cities around the world. The audience sat onstage in two groups on either side of a brilliant set, where fragments on the theme of love unfolded in a series of magical images;
· The NAC Orchestra’s collaboration with Montreal’s l’Orchestre Métropolitain for an all-Strauss program in May, featuring 125 musicians from the two orchestras on stage together, led by Canadian superstar conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Following two performances in Ottawa, the joint program was performed in Montreal’s new Maison symphonique de Montréal on May 10;
· The 21st Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala produced by the NAC on June 1, honouring violinist and teacher Andrew Dawes, arts volunteer Jean Pierre Desrosiers, musician and producer Daniel Lanois, filmmaker Jean Pierre Lefebvre, actress Viola Léger, actor and arts advocate Eric Peterson, actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley and dancer, choreographer and teacher Menaka Thakkar.
The NAC continued to fulfill its strategic goals of fostering artistic excellence, expanding its national reach, promoting arts education, increasing earned revenues, and building a strong relationship with its audience.
The annual budget of the National Arts Centre is approximately $70 million dollars. About half comes from self-generated revenues (including NAC programming, fundraising and commercial activities), while the other half comes from an annual parliamentary appropriation.
2014-02-07
Ottawa: The NAC Annual Report details a highly successful 2012/13 season