OTTAWA — Concerts by world-renowned musicians Lang Lang, Itzhak Perlman and Branford Marsalis will be part of a fresh slate of offerings headlining the National Arts Centre's 2017-18 calendar.
The Ottawa-based performing arts centre has unveiled its new lineups for dance, theatre and music acts slated for the coming year. They highlight homegrown and international artists.
Israeli-American violinist Perlman will take to the stage Sept. 13-14 as part of the NAC's Signature Series performance. Billed as "a musical love letter to the movies," it will showcase the works of famed film composers including Ennio Morricone and John Williams.
Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang will have a solo recital on Feb. 27, 2018, while American master saxophonist Marsalis is slated to perform March 1-2, 2018.
The NAC will also host a series of concerts marking two important milestones: Canada's sesquicentennial and Finland's centenary.
Running from Oct. 3-14, Canada 150 and Finland 100 will be celebrated with symphonies from the late Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, musical compositions from both countries, and the world premiere of Glenn Gould's String Quartet in a new orchestral setting.
Other highlights include:
— Author Kathy Stinson and illustrator Dusan Petricic's award-winning children's book "The Man With the Violin" will be transformed into a multi-media musical work.
— The dancers of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal will pay tribute to the music and poems of Leonard Cohen with the multimedia work "Dance Me."
— Canadian exclusive performances of the late German choreographer's Pina Bausch's "Cafe Muller" and "Rite of Spring."
— Acclaimed playwright, actor, writer and director Robert Lepage will return to the NAC with the autobiographical "887" which recreates the world of a young boy growing up in 1960s Quebec.
— Drew Hayden Taylor's bittersweet sesquicentennial story "Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion." The production centres on best friends from a reserve who go on a mission to steal Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald's bones in retribution for the theft of sacred First Nations objects a half-century earlier.
— In French-language theatre, a collective of French, English, First Nations and Metis artists will also create the new play "Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show," which premieres in Ottawa this fall before embarking on a cross-Canada tour.
The Canadian Press
