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National Arts Centre Orchestra performs "Prayer"

Free live-streamed event!

Our return to the shared concert experience, and the opening of our season, begins with a program moving from darkness to light. 

Throughout the centuries, the trumpet has provided a clarion call to humanity—to fight, to worship, to acclaim, or to celebrate. Principal Trumpet Karen Donnelly has composed a moving hymn for solo trumpet which leads us into the beauty and sorrow of Trevor Weston’s “Ashes” for unaccompanied voices.  Commissioned in 2002 for the choir of New York’s Trinity Wall Street, “Ashes” evokes the sound and colour of the world in ashes after the fall of the World Trade Center, and is a touchstone for remembrance as the world marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

“Ninaivanjali” is a Tamil expression that means “in memory of,” and Gabriel Dharmoo’s enigmatic creation of the same name pays tribute to Dharmoo’s Indian rhythm teacher. 

Our concert closes with Tchaikovsky’s exhilarating Symphony No. 4, dedicated to his patron and “best friend” Nadezhda von Meck. From beginning to end, this beautiful work grows persuasively from melancholy to triumph—urgent, supercharged, and jubilant.

KAREN DONNELLY New work for solo trumpet
TREVOR WESTON Ashes
VIVIAN FUNG Prayer
GABRIEL DHARMOO Ninaivanjali
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

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