Free tickets now available for 2017 sesquicentennial concert

Halifax, NS — NYO Canada (National Youth Orchestra) has announced that free tickets for their first concert in Halifax in more than a decade are now available at www.symphonynovascotia.ca.

Taking place the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Monday, July 31 at 7:30 pm, the concert is a key part of NYO’s TD Bank and Government of Canada-sponsored 2017 sesquicentennial tour, and will be the first time in a decade that Canada’s National Youth Orchestra has performed in Nova Scotia. Featuring performances of works including Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, the concert will be presented by Symphony Nova Scotia and has been sponsored by the Robert Pope Foundation.

“We are thrilled to be coming to Halifax for this very special tour in 2017,” says NYO Canada Executive Director Barbara Smith.

“Students from Nova Scotia have been a key part of the orchestra every year for the past 57 years, but this is the first time in a decade we’ll be able to bring the whole orchestra to Nova Scotia.”

The National Youth Orchestra is Canada’s premier training institute for orchestral musicians. Each year, the country’s best and brightest young musicians compete for a coveted place in the award-winning 100-piece orchestra. Following a gruelling six-week residential training institute, the group embarks on a tour. Thanks to generous donors, this training is offered completely free of charge, and each student receives a scholarship stipend to cover expenses, ensuring that all of those skilled enough to participate can do so, regardless of financial circumstances.

Today, more than 40 per cent of the professional musicians working in Canadian orchestras are NYO alumni. In fact, many of the players in Symphony Nova Scotia are NYO Canada alumni, as is the CEO Christopher Wilkinson.

Not only will the 2017 tour represent the most extensive in NYO history, it will represent the most artistically ambitious as well. The massive national tour will not only feature NYO’s traditional 92-piece classical youth orchestra, but also the unique and original composition The Unsilent Project, which blends the work of high-profile Indigenous artists from a variety of genres, such as film and spoken word. These artists will collaborate with the orchestra to create a first-of-its-kind, never-before-seen youth response to Truth and Reconciliation and a special message of hope and healing for Canadians.

The project will also include involvement in pre-concert community panels and partnerships with youth at risk and school groups, and will be broadcast nationwide via webcasts and social media, enabling the work to reach audiences in the tens of thousands. As well, the entire tour will be the subject of a special documentary film about the creative process, the artistic life, the tour, and the arts as agents of transformation capable of paving the way to a new kind of discourse among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Dan McKinnon
Manager, Marketing & Communications
[email protected]
416.532.4470 x 232