13^th OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

July 22-August 5, 2006 / 120 concerts

 

♫ FACT SHEET ♫

 

♪        The world's largest chamber music festival features an enormous variety of concerts, presented in an informal setting in some of downtown Ottawa's most beautiful heritage churches.

♪        From the very beginning in 1994, the Festival was an immediate hit, drawing 12,000 listeners to 22 concerts and rave reviews.

♪        In 2003, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival celebrated its 10^th anniversary with 110 concerts and attracted an audience of over 60,000.

♪        The 2005 Festival was the biggest to date, with 120 concerts that attracted over 62,000 listeners.

♪        Artistic Director and cellist Julian Armour first conceived the idea in 1993 in response to the meagre accessibility during summer months to live classical music in Ottawa.

♪        Following the success of the first Festival, the Ottawa Chamber Music Society was incorporated as a not-for-profit, charitable organization.

♪        The pass system allows Festival-goers to attend several (20 or more) world-class concerts with the purchase of a single pass, $80 for adults and $40 for students.

♪        To attend Pass-plus concerts patrons pay $20 for each concert in addition to the Festival pass.

♪        Partnerships, grants, foundations, merchandising revenue and donations help keep pass prices low.

♪        It would be impossible to mount a festival of this magnitude without the help and support of hundreds of loyal volunteers.

♪        Recognized as one of Canada’s most important cultural events, many of the best chamber music ensembles from around the world have performed at Ottawa Chamber Music Society concerts including the Beaux Arts Trio; the Schubert Ensemble of London; the Canadian Brass; the Tokyo, Hagen, Juilliard, Emerson, Kronos, Kodály, Keller, Allegri and St. Lawrence string quartets; the legendary contralto, Maureen Forrester; the famed vocal group king’singers; pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Hough, Jon Kimura Parker, Louis Lortie and Jeno Jando; violinists Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers, Andrew Dawes; and cellists Janos Starker and Steven Isserlis.

♪        Without making any artistic compromises, the Festival has consistently drawn capacity audiences.

♪        People often line up two hours or more before a concert and the line is often two city blocks long.

♪        Concerts run throughout the day, some evenings as many as five 8:00 p.m. concerts are performed at the same time at different venues– if one concert is sold out then volunteers direct people to other concerts nearby.

♪        More of their concerts are broadcast nationally by CBC Radio than by any other arts organization to a total radio audience of over 20 million.