Esprit Orchestra

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Originally called Esprit Contemporain, this 45 piece orchestra was founded in 1983 by Music Director and Conductor Alex PAUK with financial assistance from the Canada Council and Suncor Inc. The orchestra is devoted to developing a Canadian musical literature and to this end commissions and premieres new works each season. It ensures continued public access to these works through repeat performances, radio broadcasts, compact disc and film recordings, and national and international tours.

In its first 17 seasons the Esprit Orchestra commissioned some 55 works by 44 different composers including internationally renowned Canadians José Evangelista, John REA, R. Murray SCHAFER and Harry SOMERS. The orchestra has also collaborated with leading soloists and ensembles such as vocalists Maureen FORRESTER, Jean Stilwell and Richard MARGISON, pianists André Laplante, Jon Kimura PARKER and his brother James, violist Rivka GOLANI, flutist Robert AITKEN, NEXUS, the TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and the SOCIÉTÉ DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE DU QUÉBEC.

The Esprit Orchestra gives an annual subscription series of concerts in Toronto. Many of these performances are recorded for broadcast by the CBC and in 1999 the orchestra recorded its fifth compact disc for CBC Records. Esprit has also appeared in numerous Rhombus Media films, among them Ravel; September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill; The Eternal Earth, a film about the Canadian composer Alexina LOUIE; Last Night, an award-winning film by Don McKellar; and Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses.

In 1990 the Esprit Orchestra was given SOCAN's Award of Merit, recognizing imaginative programming of contemporary music. This was followed in 1995 with the Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award for its outstanding contribution to musical creativity. The orchestra received its first Lieutenant-Governor's Award for the Arts, for success in developing private-sector and community support, in 1996, and a second in 1998. In 2000 it remained Canada's only organization devoted entirely to contemporary orchestral repertoire.

Author DAVID OLDS


Links to Other Sites
Esprit Orchestra
The website for the Esprit Orchestra, a full-sized Canadian orchestra devoted exclusively to new music. Features musician profiles, a current concert calendar, discography, and excerpts from their recordings.

St Lawrence Centre for the Arts
The website for the St Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto. Check out the resident performing arts companies and the podcasts for ST Lawrence Centre Forums on various topics.

Facebook: Orchestras Canada
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