Classical Music Ottawa

1 (Thursday): At the NAC: The second of two performances by Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero whose skills and talent border on the mystical—she can play the classics or improvise on any musical theme her audience suggests. Tonight, Gabriela plays Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. Also on the program Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4
2 (Friday): The Cumberland Community Singers presents its Spring Mix.; The Kanata Winds Ensemble presents a varied program: Rhapsody in Blue; Lincolnshire Posy; Toccata and Fugue
2 and 3 (Friday and Saturday): The Seventeen Voyces presents a concert around the 1925 silent classic of Ben Hur with guests, Ewashko Singers, Matthew Larkin, organ, four percussionists, and three soloists. Also Carmina Burana (selections) and various works
3 (Saturday): The Parkdale Orchestra presents Journeys, a musical journey around the world. It starts in Ontario with Sketches of the Madawaska Highlands by Canadian Harold Kaufmann, and then crosses the Atlantic with Respighi's Pines of Rome, and finally ends in the Persian courts to witness a Sultan's Queen performing a delicate dance of power and seduction with a performance of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov; The Canterbury Trebles Women's Ensemble presents Why We Sing, a selection of favourite songs curated by ensemble members for their 20th anniversary; The Young String Performers Foundation presents a concert featuring works by Bottesini, Bruch, Handel-Halvorsen, Wieniawski, and Ysaÿe, and others; The Chorale Castenchel Choir presents Baroque n’ Roll, a concert featuring baroque music and the popular music it inspired. With special guests, local jazz/pop group CLEAR; Coro Vivo presents its spring concert, Voice of the Earth, including the participation of the Chinese Canadian Children's Choir of Canada and accompanied by string quartet and percussion
3 - 4 (Saturday - Sunday): Le Choeur classique de l'Outaouais presents La Nature de l'eau, featuring the world premiere of Sister Water by Glenn McClure as well as the Canadian premiere of his The Wind and Rain
4 (Sunday): The Cornwall Concert Series, presents the piano-cello duo of Cheng². Cellist Bryan Cheng and pianist Sylvie Cheng are rooted by a sibling bond that transcends the familial. The JUNO-nominated Cheng² Duo transfixes listeners through its impassioned expressivity and contagious joy; Les Concerts Ponticello present Norteño, an ensemble that features bandonéon, piano, violon, guitare and double bass. Les Concerts Ponticello always offers a light breakfast before the concert; The Bytown Voices, a community choir made up of more than 80 enthusiastic singers from across the national capital region, is celebrating its 25th season and presents two outstanding works: Vivaldi's Gloria and the Ottawa premiere of Illuminare by the award winning Elaine Hagenberg; The Strings of St. John's present a concert featuring music by Beliczay, Kalinnikov, Parry, and Keen; May 4 is the official Dutch Remembrance Day where we remember all the victims of the Second World War and among those thousands of Canadians who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the people of the Netherlands. We also remember on this day all the people who were send to concentration camps because of their race, religion, background or sexual orientation. This concert will represent works by various composers, but mainly Dutch composers from the 18th - 21st centuries; The Ottawa Regional Youth Choir presents Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. This is the earliest opera that is still being performed today; The Nepean Concert Band reminds you of the date: May the Fourth Be with You, a concert of outer-space inspired music
5 (Monday): The Musica Viva Singers presents On Wings of Song celebrating all things that rise and take flight: songbirds, angels, and of course music itself. We raise our voices to the skies in selections that range from pop song to oratorio, from Fleetwood Mac and Sarah McLachlan to Haydn and Mendelssohn; Pro Organo presents Toronto's Jonathan Oldengarm performing works by Saint-Saëns, Poglietti, Bédard and Messiaen
7 (Wednesday): For the DOMS concert, Viola, Piano, and Guitar! Andrew Paul MacDonald, Carmen Picard, and Bojana Milinov present new and Romantic-era works arranged for their unique instrumentation
8 (Thursday): The Thirteen Strings presents Forces of Nature. Conductor and harpsichordist Alexander Weimann will join Thirteen Strings in a program celebrating the power and the beauty of nature. Soprano Magali Simard-Galdès, praised everywhere for her clear, crystalline voice, will also join Thirteen Strings for the first time.; In celebration of Uruguay's 200th anniversary of indpendence, Uruguayan pianist Enrique Graf will perform at Freiman Hall on the University of Ottawa campus. His program includes works by Uruguayan composers Eduardo Gilardoni, Hector Tosar, and Eduardo Fabini. (You may have to click on the X to get access to this linked page.)
9 (Friday): The Seaway Valley Singers present their spring concert, Over the Rainbow
10 (Saturday): The Ottaw Bach Choir presents Gloria, featuring a selection of Italian-influenced baroque masterpieces, including Vivaldi'sGloria, Handel's Laudate pueri, and Chiara Margherita Cozzolani's Dixit Dominus à 8. Joined by Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra and soloists, this concert reflects the vibrant energy and passion of the Italian baroque style, and closes the season with splendour!; The Kanata Choral Society presents From Palestrina to Rutter, a remarkable concert showcasing a sweeping journey through the history of choral music. This program features a captivating selection of works spanning centuries, from the Renaissance polyphony of Palestrina, through the Baroque music of Bach and Handel, the Classical music of Mozart, Brahms' Romantic harmonies to the contemporary compositions of John Rutter and Arvo Pärt, among others.; The Ottawa Children's Choir presents its spring concert, The Beauty of the Earth; The Nepean Choir presents Sea to Sea to Sea, featuring music of Canadians from every province and territory of all backgrounds from sea to sea to sea, with a diversity of styles, genres and languages; Ensemble Prisme presents an evening devoted to the Baroque, featuring Bach, Handel, and Zalenka; The Kanata Symphony Orchestra present a concert with the theme of "Water" featuring works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, and Dvorak; The Canadian Centennial Choir presents music inspired by nature; The Cantiamo Womens's Choir presents A Mother's Heart, celebrating the experiences of motherhood – the sorrowful, the humorous, the joyful – and most of all the love
10 and 11 (Saturday and Sunday): Collines en musique presents 'Sunjata's Time': Music for String Quartet. I invite you to click anywhere here and read the full description of this concert -- it promises to be a very, very fascinating exploration into a whole other world of the string quartet!
11 (Sunday): The Ottawa Choral Society presents A Family Affair, scintillating pairings of works by husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, fathers and sons. The composers will include works created individually by Gustav and Imogen Holst; Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn; Franz Josef and Michael Haydn; Thomas and Randy Newman; and Lili and Nadia Boulanger...and others!
13 (Tuesday): Chamberfest's City Series presents Steinway Young Artists. This concert includes performers you may not have yet heard, but will soon follow! On offer today are works by beloved composers of the romantic era including Chopin and Rachmaninoff, performed by participants of the Steinway Young Performers Club
14 (Wednesday): For the DOMS concert, the Colin Perry Quintet performs rare and familiar jazz songs from the 1920s and 30s, rooted in tradition yet with spontaneous originality
14 - 15 (Wednesday - Thursday): At the NAC: This special concert provides a front-row ticket to the Orchestra's upcoming international tour. Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son — whose popularity at home rivals that of K-pop stars — returns to perform a jazzy masterpiece by Ravel, his concerto in G. Also two musical poems showcase Strauss's expert ability to tell vivid stories through music: Death and Transfiguration, and Don Juan. Finally Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy's Dark Nights, Bright Stars, Vast Universe rounds out the evening
17 (Saturday): The Maple Leaf Brass Band presents a concert as part of Norway Day celebrations
18 (Sunday): Les Concerts Ponticello present Quatuor de Guitares du Canada (Canadian Guitar Quartet?). Bach, Mozart and Patrick Roux are featured composers. Les Concerts Ponticello always offers a light breakfast before the concert; St Barnabas Apostle and Martyr presents Solemn Evensong and Benediction with music including Bring Us, O Lord God, an eight-part setting for double choir by William Henry Harris, and from the Short Evening Service the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Orlando Gibbons. All are welcome!
20 (Tuesday): Chamberfest's City Series presents Classical Guitar Showcase: Conservatoire de Gatineau and uOttawa. Young guitarists present a vibrant programme of classical guitar solos and duos, spanning the lyrical beauty of Chopin, the sultry pulse of Argentinian tango, and the dazzling works of composer-performers Napoléon Coste and Nikita Koshkin; NACO Tour: FREE Send-Off Concert. Join the National Arts Centre Orchestra for a special send-off concert in Ottawa before they embark on their tour to Japan and Korea. Music by Brahms, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and Rachmaninoff
21 (Wednesday): For the DOMS concert, flutist Christian Paquette and pianist Frédéric Lacroix play duets including Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, Lacroix's own Night, and Ian Clarke's Orange Dawn
24 (Saturday): The New Opera Lyra presents Thoughts In The Silent Night. To mark Asian Heritage Month, in partnership with the Ottawa Chinese Business and Cultural Community, New Opera Lyra is presenting an Exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy with a concert of Contemporary Chinese Opera, featuring local artists and performers; At the NAC, the Estonian choral group Vox Clamantis performs a wide variety of music from early Gregorian chant to contemporary Estonian composers such as Arvo Pärt, Helena Tulve, Galina Grigorjeva, Tõnu Kõrvits, Tõnis Kaumann and Sven Grünberg; The Ewashko Singers present, as a tribute to William Teron, Brahms' German Requiem. Also on the program are works by Kuzmenko, Lysenko, and Leontovych; The Kanata Wind Ensemble presents Bach to the Future featuring Gershwin, Percy Grainger, and of course Bach...and others; The National Capital Concert Band will present its Spring Spectacular. The concert will showcase the band's versatility and talent. The program includes El Camino Real by Alfred Reed, a dynamic and rhythmic piece that captures the spirit of Spanish music, selections from Carousel by Richard Rogers, which will bring the magic of Broadway to the audience, music from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite and by the Four Seasons (as in Jersey Boys)
25 (Sunday): The Atlantic Voices present Shorelines, a musical tour of the harbours, bays, coves, capes, and riverbanks of the Atlantic Provinces. The program features Newfoundland classics such as "Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's" and "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" as well as contemporary gems by Stan Rogers, Robbie Smith, Buddy Wasisname, and James Gordon of Tamarack. Labrador Inuk songwriter Deantha Edmunds' moving "Song of the River" imagines her people's history as a river running down through the ages.; The Bibik Duo presents the forth concert of the season in their new music series Music Dialogues, featuring music by Beethoven, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Anna Baksheeva, violin and Natalia Bibik-Chabukiani, piano are local professional musicians and music teachers who are passionate about chamber music for violin and piano and want to build community around their performances in the capital region; The Capital Chamber Choir presents Schnittke's Concerto for Choir, a Revival Concert!; The Bibik Duo presents a program Fourth Concert In Series 'Music Dialogue'
26 (Monday): Help out the next generation of musicians by attending one of OrKidstra's year-ending concerts. This one at Heron Gate
27 (Tuesday): CANCELLED Chamberfest's City Series presents the Central Band of the Canadian Forces. This seniormost band of the Canadian Armed Forces is comprised soley of auditioned, military-qualified musicians and, in addition to their official military duties, partners regularly with organizations in Ottawa and beyond to provide enriching musical experiences in the community
28 (Wednesday): For the DOMS concert, Baritone Mark Daboll and pianist Sarah Westbrook reunite as a duo to present rarely-heard gems including songs by Poulenc, Wolf, Barber, Klein, and Berg
30 (Friday): Under the auspices of Music and Beyond the Vincent-d'Indy Youth Choir presents and exciting eclectic program of choral music featuring music of the classical repertoire as well from the Gospel, jazz, and indigenous traditions
31 (Saturday): Hypatia's Voice presents Songs of Hope, a special evening concert that offers a vibrant tapestry of choral works designed to uplift and inspire. Featuring powerful compositions that celebrate resilience and unity, this concert promises an evening of music that speaks to the heart and spirit

May, 2025