Big news for the NAC Orchestra: on Jan. 27, Angela Hewitt and the NAC Orchestra were nominated for a Juno award and long-time principal cellist Amanda Forsyth officially announced her resignation on Feb. 5.
These announcements come at a busy, but very exciting time for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, as they are also preparing to announce their 2015-16 season on Feb. 24.
Hewitt, age 56, was born in Ottawa and raised in a very musical family. She began learning the piano from her mother, music teacher Marion Hewitt. Her father Godfrey Hewitt – acclaimed organist, composer and teacher – was formerly the choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral.
Hewitt attended NAC Orchestra performances after it began performing in 1969. She is now an international award-winning pianist with much of her career focused in Europe, and is currently working in Sweden.
Hewitt is nominated along with the NAC Orchestra for Best Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment) for their recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 24, also known as Hyperion. The Juno Awards will be held on Sunday, March 15 at the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, ON.
“Hewitt is a local hero as well as an international piano superstar,” says Christopher Deacon, the orchestra’s managing director. Deacon says it was “a great treat” working with her on the nominated recording.
Rosemary Thompson, communications and public affairs director for the NAC, says they were very excited to have been approached by Hewitt to record the piece.
“She could have chosen any orchestra in the world, but she wanted to do it with the NAC Orchestra . . . It’s the first recording we’ve doing in a while and for it to be automatically nominated for a Juno, it’s really exciting,” says Thompson.
Hewitt has previously won three Juno awards for solo performances. This marks her first nomination for a recording with an orchestra.
“I am happy most of all for the NAC Orchestra, because it brings to people’s attention the great work they did on this album,” Hewitt said in an email. “They are very much my ‘home town’ orchestra, and many of the players, current and former, are among my best friends.”
Ahead of the official launch later this month, Deacon tells Centretown News Hewitt is confirmed to perform during the NAC Orchestra’s 2015-16 season, though the details are not yet available.
“We do actually see quite a bit for her in the future here,” he adds.
The end of the current season will mark Forsyth’s final curtain call as the NAC Orchestra’s principal cellist. The NAC announced Forsyth’s official resignation on Feb. 5. She now plans to further her international solo and chamber music career.
Forsyth, age 48, is an internationally acclaimed cellist who has performed everywhere from London to Hong Kong. She was appointed as the NAC Orchestra’s principal cellist in 1998 after years of performing with various other Canadian orchestras.
“She raised the game of the string players . . . The weeks that she’s here in her chair, the orchestra strings sound warmer and more incisive, they’re kind of playing out more,” says Deacon.
The end of the 2014-15 season is also the last for Pinchas Zukerman – music director of the NAC Orchestra, world-renowned violinist and Forsyth’s husband.
Zukerman and Forsyth’s performance of the Brahms Double Concerto on Feb. 5 marked Forsyth’s last as a soloist with the NAC Orchestra.
The piece has a strong connection to the duo’s personal relationship.
“Pinchas and I have lived and shared this concerto with each other, performing it together for over fifteen years! Whether in Barcelona or Bulgaria . . . this double concerto has become a map of our touring schedule around the world,” Forsyth said in the NAC’s press release. “It is our swan song before we depart from our posts here in Ottawa.”
Thompson says near the beginning of their courtship, Zukerman and Forsyth would send notes to each other. When he was in Japan, Forsyth sent a note with two bars from the slow movement of the concerto. “He says that’s really when he fell in love with her,” she adds.
“Pinchas and she are really (partners) in life as much as they are in art and they have a massive touring career,” says Thompson. “It speaks to how lucky we’ve been in Ottawa to have two world-class performers in our midst.”