toothpick orchestra makes ottawa debut.
Somewhere, a sandwich shop is playing a sad tune. On Tuesday, scientific illustrator and orchestra afficianado Go Sato, pictured above, unveiled a special gift for the National Arts Centre Orchestra: a model of the musicians made entirely of toothpicks. Sato, whose day job is at Agriculture Canada, used 12,500 toothpicks and took three years to make the miniature, which consists of 61 musicians and is based on Beethoven’s romantic orchestra. The principal cello and the principal double bass were created with the NAC Orchestra’s Amanda Forsyth and Joel Quarrington in mind. The toothpick orchestra was actually the second unique gift Sato gave to the NAC: He has also made a model of the Parliament buildings using NAC ticket stubs.