Orchestra
Overview
The experience of ballet – or dance of any kind – is virtually inseparable from the experience of the music that accompanies it. Whether it is the full-fledged romantic sonorities of Tchaikovsky or the abstract minimalist reveries of Philip Glass, whether it is a familiar classic or a new work never heard before, music is as vital to the meaning of ballet as the dancing itself.
“The orchestra, led by David Briskin, drew out every note in Tchaikovsky's marvelous score.” National Post
The National Ballet of Canada is fortunate in having one of the finest orchestral ensembles anywhere to provide the musical component to its many and varied productions. Overseen by Music Director and Principal Conductor David Briskin, the National Ballet Orchestra is admired not just for the incredible range and versatility of the repertoire it performs but for the dazzling brio, theatrical insight and colour it brings to the company’s work onstage. Blending the score seamlessly with the complex and shifting physical and dramatic requirements of the dancing in order to bring out the ballet’s fullest intentions and emotional shadings is the orchestra’s role, and whenever the lights go down, the National Ballet’s orchestra fulfills that role with verve, elegance and aplomb.
Members
Violins
Aaron Schwebel,
Concertmaster
Lynn Kuo,
Assistant Concertmaster
Jamie Kruspe,
Assistant Principal Second Violin
James Aylesworth
Dominique Laplante,
Jennie Baccante
Sheldon Grabke
Xiao Grabke
Nancy Kershaw
Sonia Klimasko-Leheniuk
Csaba Koczó
Yakov Lerner
Jayne Maddison
Aya Miyagawa
Wendy Rogers
Joanna Zabrowarna
Paul Zevenhuizen
Violas
Sheila Jaffe, Principal
Joshua Greenlaw,
Assistant Principal Viola
Emily Eng
Valerie Kuinka
Johann Lotter
Angela Rudden
Cellos
Maurizio Baccante, Principal
Marianne Pack, Assistant Principal Cello
Olga Laktionova
Andrew McIntosh
Elaine Thompson
Paul Widner
Basses
Tony Flynt, Principal
Jonathan Yeoh, Assistant Principal Bass
Robert Speer
Samuel-San Vachon
Flutes
Leslie J. Allt,
Principal
Maria Pelletier
Shelley Brown,
Piccolo
Oboes
Mark Rogers,
Principal
Karen Rotenberg
Lesley Young,
English Horn
Clarinets
Max Christie,
Principal
Emily Marlow
Gary Kidd,
Bass Clarinet
Bassoons
Chia-Yu Hsu,
Principal
Thomas Roy-Rochette
Horns
Jessie Brooks, Principal
Carlie Bigelow
Scott Wevers
Gary Pattison
Trumpets
Richard Sandals, Principal
Mark Dharmaratnam
Trombones
David Archer,
David R. Pell,
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Sasha Johnson, Principal
Harp
Timpani
Andrew Rasmus, Principal
Percussion
Kristofer Maddigan,
Principal
Mark Mazur
Music Librarian:
Peter Eratostene
Orchestra Personnel Manager and Music Administrator:
Raymond Tizzard
Quotes
Nijinsky
“Kudos must also go to conductor David Briskin and the National Ballet Orchestra. The music soared to glorious heights in the famous themes from Rimskij-Korsakov’s Schéhérazade, while in complete contrast, the orchestra perfectly captured the edgy modernism of excerpts from the works of Shostakovich.”
—The Globe and Mail
Romeo and Juliet
“David Briskin's fine conducting of the orchestra makes the tremendously powerful score a seamless piece with the dancing.”
—Toronto Star
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“The music, composed by Joby Talbot and rendered with the kind of skill and precision we have come to expect from the NBOC Orchestra under the baton of David Briskin, seems designed first and foremost to serve this fanciful production.” —Toronto Sun