Digital Online – A New Initiative

While the pandemic made it impossible to present our season as planned, after some consideration, it became quite apparent that even with restrictions, COVID-19 did not have to put artistic initiatives on hold. Our initial response was to send small ensembles to spread some joy in the community and create social media videos to engage with you, our audience.

It also became apparent that to continue offering more challenging and compelling works, we needed to move some of our performances online. After determining what size ensembles could gather at any one time, recording content with separate wind and string ensembles seemed the most effective way for the NSO to come together safely while offering you a quality experience. 

    Jan 08 – Quest (Composer Interview Jan 10)
    Jan 15 – Nostalgia  (Composer Interview Jan 17)
    Jan 22 – Circadian Rhythm (Composer Interview Jan 24)
    Jan 29 – Gran Partita 1/6
    Feb 1 – Gran Partita 2/6
    Feb 3 – Gran Partita 3/6
    Feb 5 – Gran Partita 4/6
    Feb 8 – Gran Partita 5/6
    Feb 10 – Gran Partita 6/6

With the NSO Strings, we saw the opportunity to continue our mission of promoting Canadian composers. As many of you know, the NSO’s approach to the programming of Canadian repertoire has been enthusiastically embraced. Brad found three works that our musicians absolutely loved playing, and we can’t wait to share them with you. These works by Alice Ho, Jocelyn Morlock, and Kelly-Marie Murphy really showcase Canadian contemporary music and will serve as a taste of what is to come in our future seasons. 

For the NSO Winds, we programmed Mozart’s Gran Partita. This is a unique offering where you’ll get to hear our wind players front and center. In addition to all the familiar faces you regularly see on stage, we had several talented subs who enthusiastically joined our players to perform this rarely programmed piece. Brad had been planning on programming this piece for some time, but the challenge was always finding pieces to program along side it. Recording this work solo for you allowed us to have a singular musical focus for Mozart’s great work. 

For months, many of us had not played music with another musician. From the first rehearsal at the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre, you could see and hear how much this meant for us to be together again.

In 2021 we will continue to push forward with more NSO first initiatives. We are thankful to all our partners, our patrons and friends of the orchestra, that have helped support us through these challenging times.

From all of us at the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, this means the world to us.

Following is our scheduled release dates for this exciting new content from the NSO to you. All videos are free to view and share. 

We will continue to update this news article with links below when the videos become available on our YouTube Channel.

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