NAC Presents songwriters plus orchestra shows
Songwriter-plus-orchestra shows part of eclectic, gender-balanced NAC Presents season
Singer-songwriters Patrick Watson, Johnny Reid, Lynn Miles and Tom Wilson, and the Montreal band Stars, will perform with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under a new collaboration that’s part of the gender-balanced and genre-blurring 2018-19 season of the NAC Presents concert series.
The four songwriter-meetsorchestra concerts, entitled Sessions, are among the highlights of the NAC Presents’ fall and winter season. More than 50 performances were announced as part of Wednesday ’s initial season launch.
“If there’s any kind of vision to the series, it’s wanting to look at what I’m considering the now and the next generation of Canadian artists,” said Heather Gibson, executive producer of NAC Presents. “A lot of people hear the term singer-songwriter and associate it with the roots and folk tradition, but I think we’re trying to expand that with some of the pop and indie sensibility. I don’t want to be a gatekeeper in this job.”
The orchestra concerts have been in the works for more than a year, and are part of an effort to develop new audiences for both the artist and orchestra. The performances also fulfil Gibson’s desire to “archive some of the country’s great songwriters.” Miles, for example, has been commissioned to create orchestra charts for several of her tunes. She will share her first NACO bill with Wilson, the deepvoiced Junkhouse and Blackie and the Rodeo Kings singer.
“We’re commissioning these works with Lynn, and it’s the first of a series of shows with her where eventually she’ll have a full show in Southam Hall by herself with the orchestra,” Gibson said.
Other artists headed to the NAC over the next year include critically acclaimed Canadians such as the Indigenous DJ crew A Tribe Called Red, indie soul troubadour Bahamas, jazz singer Holly Cole, husband-and-wife duo Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida, with their Moon vs Sun project, returning favourite Jill Barber, and Quebec folk-pop singer Safia Nolin.
Gibson said she wouldn’t be doing her job properly if there wasn’t a balance between male and female artists in the lineup. “I think that it’s important that I continue to try and get closer to programming a reflection of the nation as far as gender and diversity in particular go,” she said.
In her third season on the job, the producer is also working on expanding the number of world-music acts performing as part of the series, including a return appearance by Afro-soul Montrealer Laetitia Zonzambe, who’s originally from the Central African Republic.
Representing the Ottawa music scene in the series are Boyhood, aka Caylie Runciman, singersongwriter Kalle Mattson, bilingual folkies Moonfruits, funk outfit Slack Bridges, with Rita Carter, big-band soul purveyors The Commotions, theatrical popsters the PepTides, Indigenous hiphop hero Cody Coyote and country maven Tara Shannon, to name a few.
Gibson said she’s committed to being part of local music industry. “My personal opinion is that we need to contribute to the local music scene. We can’t just be this entity that brings music from the rest of the country. We have to support and develop artists who live here.
“I don’t want to be a special-occasion place where you just come as an audience member on special occasions, or you come as an artist to perform for one thing,” she added. “I want us to be part of the fabric of your career. The NAC has tremendous resources at its disposal to help grow and develop talent in this country.”
One popular feature of NAC Presents that’s continuing is Fridays at the Fourth, in which emerging artists perform at the Fourth Stage with an affordable ticket price, usually $15. Gibson said she was surprised by the number of people who bought last-minute tickets at the door during this year’s series. NAC patrons traditionally buy tickets in advance.
“I’m pleased that we have a tremendous walk-up at those shows,” she said. “It’s weird for an arts centre but it’s also what I wanted to have happen. You can go out for beers or dinner, then go across the street and see a show for $15.”
Pre-sale tickets are on sale now. Regular sales commence at 10 a.m. Friday, available at the NAC box office, nac-cna.ca and ticketmaster.ca.
Complete details on prices and dates are available at nac-cna.ca.