NAC Orchestra - L’Orchestre du CNA Tickets

On Friday, June 17th, the NAC Orchestra presented a delightful concert, performing Wynton Marsalis' Tuba Concerto, featuring the NAC's own principal tubist Chris Lee, and Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony, all under Alexander Shelley's baton. The jazz-influenced concerto deeply reflects Marsalis' mastery in that genre while showing his excellent skills in structure and orchestration. The latter is particularly important given how challenging it can be to highlight the lower tones of the tuba as a lead instrument. All the while, Chris Lee's virtuosity on tuba gave the usually heavy instrument an impressive agility and fluidity across all passages, leaving room for all the musicality it deserved rather than relying on the novelty of the unusual instrumentation. Shelley's direction was of course perfectly attuned to support the tuba and beautifully complemented it. The NACO's Artistic Director then led the NACO, augmented by 50 young, upcoming musicians as part of its inaugural Mentorship program, to a superbly insightful and reverend interpretation of Mahler's 1st Symphony. The young musicians exceeded expectations in the energy, technical skill and conviction that they added to the already solid NACO roster to deliver on the wondrous storytelling that the symphony commands. Fine details were delivered with subtlety without being fastidious. Shelley delivers again and surely has NACO fans looking forward to the next time such a combo can make magic like this.

A wonderful concert. I left the concert with a real spring in my step.

Well researched and relevant theme and diverse program .

the orchestra was in great form, the acoustic excellent. I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of our chef d’orchestre

I have been to many Cirque de Soleil performances and I must say that this one was less then I expected. It was disappointing that the entire performance was delivered by 6 (or so) performers. The performers were excellent in what they did but the overall was disappointing. No details was provided on the booking itself. The NAC orchestra was excellent.

Spectacular!! No words to express how great this show was!!!

It was a good orchestra event but misleading because the website gave the video of a play type of cirque and really it was not like that at all

The type of music and the pieces Played should have been communicated to the audience. If I knew I would not have gone.

The concert was good. When will the CD and DVD stand be back at the NAC?

The performance was superb...that soprano was utterly sublime! The choir was so polished. My only issue...the concert hall was too warm. We were actually perspiring up in the Mezzanine. With a full house, I'm sure the heat could have been turned off and we would have been very comfortable. I feel like it took away from our enjoyment of the profound talent on the stage.