National Arts Centre Orchestra to tour U.K. in 2014
Fresh off its first tour in China, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra is setting its sights on the U.K. for 2014.
The Ottawa-based NACO has announced plans to tour the U.K. in October 2014 — with Charles, Prince of Wales, as the orchestra's royal patron — to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.
"Through this next international tour, Maestro Pinchas Zukerman and the musicians of the NAC Orchestra will communicate the strong cultural ties between Canada and Great Britain, and a very important chapter in our history," NAC president Peter A. Herrndorf said in a statement.
NACO music director Zukerman will lead the troupe during the five major concerts planned.
As per custom, the players will also take part in dozens of educational and outreach activities during the tour, including sessions that will link school-aged music students in Canada and the U.K.
The musical repertoire will include Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth's A Ballad of Canada, incorporating imagery from the iconic poem In Flanders Fields by Lt. Col. John McCrae.