The ground-breaking series reimagines the orchestral experience on screen with Canadian visionaries Measha Brueggergosman, Shawnee Kish, Nicole Lizée, and Ana Sokoloviċ who each curated a 30- minute episode using the power of music and imagery.
UNDISRUPTED will be available on CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV beginning August 27; and broadcast on ICI ARTV beginning December 2021.
The NAC Orchestra (NACO) is throwing open the doors to the symphonic experience with UNDISRUPTED, a special four-episode series produced during the pandemic and set to premiere August 27 exclusively on CBC/Radio-Canada platforms including CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV. .
UNDISRUPTED will take viewers on a musical and visual journey with powerful, diverse and contemporary stories by visionaries Measha Brueggergosman, Shawnee Kish, Nicole Lizée and Ana Sokoloviċ. They were each invited to draw on their own unique experiences using NACO as a megaphone, with mixed reality visual designs created by Montreal’s Normal Studio.
Almost overnight, the Covid-19 crisis had a devastating impact on the performing arts sector, disrupting plans for creative artists round the globe. Deeply concerned about the enormous challenge artists were facing combined with social justice issues of our times, NACO Music Director Alexander Shelley, NACO Managing Director Arna Einarsdóttir, and Creative Producer Donna Feore came together to create a project that would give voice to artists in an “undisrupted” way.
“Our society has been confronted with fundamental questions about equity, representation, accessibility, and we at the NAC were interested in how an orchestra can be driving forward the conversation and become a catalyst for change. UNDISRUPTED serves to underscore the strength, the breadth and diversity of creative voices in this country,” says Alexander Shelley, Music Director of the NAC Orchestra. “We wanted to create a project that engages in a profound way with the Canadian public and demonstrates how a symphony orchestra can become a vehicle for powerful storytelling and a tool for social inclusion.”
“This project was born out of the desire to respond to these times of disruption, by pushing the boundaries and exploring the digital medium to present orchestral music in a completely new and unexpected way,” says Arna Einarsdóttir, Managing Director of the NAC Orchestra. “We feel it is an important step in fulfilling our commitment to engage with audiences across multiple platforms and work with artists from diverse backgrounds. UNDISRUPTED perfectly captures the collaborative nature of our Orchestra, which strives to explore and expand diversity in our musical genre. We are grateful to CBC/Radio-Canada who is partnering with us to release and share UNDISRUPTED to a broad audience. We also thank the NAC National Creation Fund and wonderful donors who made this production possible.”
Uncensored. Undivided. UNDISRUPTED
The four leading artists were offered a blank canvas to curate their 30-minute episodes in which they each explored compelling narratives, offering unique and personal perspectives of the world. They were each empowered to collaborate with a wide variety of performing and visual artists to amplify their stories.
International award-winning Soprano Measha Brueggergosman’s episode is a rediscovery of her Black Loyalist heritage in Nova Scotia, evoking the Maritime traumatic experience, and pairing together themes such as generational poverty and unquenchable hope. She collaborated with hip-hop artist Jay Vernon, violinist and composer/arranger Edwin Huizinga, and composer/arranger Aaron Davis to create poignant new works where opera meets hip-hop.
Mohawk and Two-Spirit singer-songwriter Shawnee Kish collaborates with young Indigenous artists who have never performed on a stage before, bringing them on a journey of self discovery using music as medicine. Immersed in a nature-inspired setting, Shawnee’s episode is a walk in the wild where struggle and pain meet strength and the warrior spirit.
Montreal-based composer and filmmaker Nicole Lizée wrote the music, screenplay and directed her episode, a magic realist odyssey titled A Guide to the Orchestra. It tells the story of a mysterious character attending an NAC Orchestra rehearsal, uncovering portals, labyrinths and a mystical universe throughout the NAC building. Notions of identity, memory, folklore and the line between fantasy and reality twist and distort.
Composer Ana Sokoloviċ creates a 30-minute symphony for her episode which brings the viewer on an allegorical journey to dedramatize the current pandemic by contextualizing it in the history of humanity. Featured in this piece is Canadian soprano and 2020 CBC Music “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30”, Ema Nikolovska.
An immersive experience like no other!
UNDISRUPTED will be available beginning August 27 exclusively for streaming on CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV; and broadcast on ICI ARTV beginning December 2021.
More than a filmed performance, UNDISRUPTED immerses the audience with the orchestra and the concert hall with multiple camera angles captured by audiovisual production company ProdCan Inc. and mixed reality effects created by Montreal-based Normal Studio. Normal merges the real and the virtual worlds together to bring NAC’s Southam Hall to life in a way that has never been done before. UNDISRUPTED features a daring stage design conceptualized by Normal Studio with conductor Alexander Shelley and musicians on risers placed overtop sections of the audience seating. This repositioning allowed for the nine cameras to capture unique viewpoints, thus inviting the audience to experience the Orchestra up close and personal.
“This project has been specifically developed for a digital platform because the audience could not physically be present in the hall,” explains Donna Feore, Creative Producer of UNDISRUPTED. “The intent was to keep their seats warm and to bring Southam Hall to them with a virtual experience.” As Creative Producer on this project, Donna played an essential role in supporting each curator in the crafting of their episodes. “We wanted to offer these artists complete artistic freedom, and it feels wonderful to give them the space and resources to bring their visions to life. It’s a collaboration in its highest form, working with so many artists, technicians and disciplines to make this large-scale project a success.”
UNDISRUPTED is produced by the National Arts Centre and was recorded in the spring of 2021 while public health guidelines allowed for recordings of the Orchestra, with very strict health measures in place.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
UNDISRUPTED was developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, which is a catalyst for Canadian artists to take their projects to a new level. Fueled entirely by generous donors from across the country, it makes investments in the creation of compelling and ambitious new Canadian works in theatre, dance, music and inter-disciplinary performing arts.
The National Arts Centre Foundation wishes to acknowledge and thank the donors who made UNDISRUPTED possible:
- The Janice and Earle O’Born Fund for Artistic Excellence
- Dasha Shenkman, OBE, Hon RCM
- The Hon. Hilary M. Weston and the late Mr. W. Galen Weston
- Donors to the National Arts Centre National Creation Fund
The National Arts Centre and its Orchestra is pleased to partner with CBC/Radio-Canada who will release UNDISRUPTED through the following platforms and channels: CBC Gem, ICI TOU.TV and ICI ARTV
ABOUT THE NAC ORCHESTRA
Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships.
The NAC Orchestra has recorded many of the 80+ new works commissioned since its inception, mostly from Canadian composers, for radio and on over 40 commercial recordings. These include Angela Hewitt’s 2015 JUNO Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos; the groundbreaking Life Reflected, which includes My Name is Amanda Todd by Jocelyn Morlock, winner of the 2018 JUNO for Classical Composition of the Year; from the 2019 JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes, 2019 JUNO Winner for Classical Composition of the Year; the 2020 JUNO-nominated The Bounds of Our Dreams featuring pianist Alain Lefèvre, and Clara - Robert - Johannes: Darlings of the Muses, released in 2020.
The NAC Orchestra reaches a national and international audience through its online streaming, touring, recordings, and leads a significant Music Education and Community Engagement department, whose volume of activities parallels that of its performance and artistic creation activities. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the NAC Orchestra adapted its programming with new digital initiatives including virtual masterclasses and lessons, virtual concert series (NACO Live, NACO at the Fourth), audio and video series (NACO Home Delivery, NACO Lunch Breaks, From NACO with Love), and lively online interviews led by Music Director Alexander Shelley (Musically Speaking).
ABOUT ALEXANDER SHELLEY
Alexander Shelley became Music Director of the NAC Orchestra in September 2015; he is Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and was Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra 2009–2017. Since being awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conducting Competition, Mr. Shelley has been in demand from orchestras around the world, including the Philharmonia, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Simón Bolívar, Seattle, and Houston Symphony Orchestras. He is a regular guest with the top Asian and Australasian orchestras.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
The National Arts Centre (NAC) is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams—the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety—and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation.
ABOUT CBC/RADIO-CANADA
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
MEDIA CONTACTS
National Arts Centre
Alexandra Campeau
Communications Officer, NAC Orchestra
819-213-8605
Annabelle Cloutier
Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs, National Arts Centre
613-301-2764
CBC
Winston Ma, CBC PR
647-327-7408
