Tickets Now on Sale for the 18-19 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hamilton, ON – Tickets for all Mainstage and Off the Mainstage concerts and events are on sale now. Join us on a musical journey through ancient myths, modern metropolises, childhood tales and distant lands. Through vibrant colour and boisterous energy, your live, professional orchestra draws on the vivid imagery, compelling stories and passion of people of different cultures and eras to share with the Hamilton community.

This season offers a full range of orchestral repertoire while highlighting internationally recognized talent and brings forward HPO musicians as soloists. The season kicks off with the return of Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman on Gemma Conducts Brahms and Canadian pianist Andre Laplante on Beethoven & Mozart. Darcy Hepner returns as arranger and guest conductor for From the Beatles, With Love, a concert featuring orchestral Beatles arrangements and Hamilton vocal talent.

Glorious Bach draws a grand conclusion to the 2019 Composer Festival with conductor and Bach expert Ivars Taurins. This concert features our own Concertmaster Stephen Sitarski and Associate Concertmaster Lance Ouellette as soloists.

The HPO is pleased to welcome author Roch Carrier to narrate his classic tale set to music by Composer-in-Residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte on Home for the Holidays: The Hockey Sweater, and we welcome the Dancers from the Hamilton Academy of Performing Arts to perform on Ravel & Stravinsky. Music Director Gemma New brings the mainstage program to a close with Mahler’s Fifth.

For those looking to get closer to the HPO this season, we are proud to announce our Off the Mainstage series of concerts and events. We have partnered with galleries, authors and artists to present innovative performances throughout the community. This series includes full orchestra concerts for families with our Marz Homes Family Concert Series, chamber music performances at the Art Gallery of Burlington and Gallery on the Bay, a Literary Series featuring author Gary Barwin and HPO musicians and our Intimate & Immersive concerts lead by Music Director Gemma New.

18-19 MAINSTAGE CONCERTS

September 15, 2018
Gemma Conducts Brahms
Gemma New, Conductor
Cameron Crozman, Cello

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 [Musicians’ Choice]
Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Brahms: Symphony No.1

Music Director Gemma New opens the 18-19 Season with passionate works that reveal the inner drama of the artist. Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman returns to Hamilton in a performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto while works by Beethoven and Brahms make for a visceral program spanning from mercurial moments to heroic heights.

October 20, 2018
Beethoven & Mozart
Jacques Lacombe, Conductor
Andre Laplante, Piano

Gluck: Dance of the Furies from Orphée et Euridice
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Hétu: Antinomie
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter)

Internationally-celebrated Canadian conductor Jacques Lacombe makes his HPO debut on this concert that traverses the worlds of gods, heroes and magical beasts. Canadian pianist Andre Laplante returns to Hamilton to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 radiates the joy of the god Jupiter through triumphant bursts of colour.

November 10, 2018
From Broadway to Tin Pan Alley
Gemma New, Conductor
Doug LaBrecque, Vocalist
Bach Elgar Choir, Guest Artist
Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Band, Guest Artist

Selections by Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, along with wartime favourites.
To mark the centenary of the Great War, we turn to the vivacious and popular music of the early 1900s. Tenor Doug LaBrecque brightens the stage with his impeccable vocal stylings and flair for the music of early Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and golden age jazz. We proudly honour our community’s military personnel and their families with this nostalgic music of soldiers and their sweethearts.

December 15, 2018
Home for the Holidays: The Hockey Sweater
Gemma New, Conductor
Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Guest Artist
Roch Carrier, Narrator

Featuring holiday favourites and Abigail Richardson-Schulte’s The Hockey Sweater

This winter classic returns to Hamilton! Gather with family and friends to share in the warmth and music of the holiday season. Roch Carrier joins Gemma New and the HPO to narrate his classic Canadian tale The Hockey Sweater set vividly to music by Composer-in-Residence Abigail Richardson Schulte. Audience members are encouraged to wear their favourite hockey jersey.

January 19, 2019
Glorious Bach
Ivars Taurins, Conductor
Stephen Sitarski, Violin
Lance Ouellette, Violin

Selections by J.S. Bach including Concerto for Violin, Orchestral Suite No. 3, and music from The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Hamilton’s Bach Festival closes with an evening of music that demonstrates the exquisite themes and textures of Johann Sebastien Bach. Baroque expert Ivars Taurins journeys off the beaten path to highlight his favourite works of the great composer. Discover the genius that places Bach at the pinnacle of Baroque artistry and among the most revered composers of all time.

February 16, 2019
From The Beatles, With Love
Darcy Hepner, Conductor

We’re sending all our loving to you! The music of the Fab Four returns to the HPO in time for Valentine’s Day. Experience your favourite Beatles songs arranged for live orchestra in collaboration with Hamilton artists. This fun concert experience reminds us that love is all you need.

March 16, 2019
Debussy & Holst’s The Planets
Gemma New, Conductor
McMaster University Choir, Guest Artist

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Debussy: Nocturnes
Holst: The Planets

Unveil the lush musical portraits on this program, from Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun to Nocturnes. The distinctive qualities and characters of our solar system are revealed in Holst’s The Planets. From distant landscapes to the reaches of our galaxy, this program touches upon the beauty of worlds beyond our own.

April 27, 2019
Ravel & Stravinsky
Nathan Brock, Conductor
Stephen Sitarski, Violin
Rossini: The Barber of Seville Overture
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor
Ravel: Tombeau de Couperin
Stravinsky: Jeux de Cartes

Join the HPO for an elegant evening of works and dances influenced by the style of Paris. Our own Concertmaster Stephen Sitarski performs Prokofiev’s witty and iconic Violin Concerto while Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin explores Baroque dances through an impressionist lens. Stravinsky’s ballet Jeux de Cartes concludes this concert by playfully bringing a deck of cards to life.

May 11, 2019
Mahler’s Fifth
Conductor: Gemma New
Vivier: Orion
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
 
The season closes with a powerful evening showcasing the strength and intensity of the orchestra. Music Director Gemma New explores the distinctive sound worlds of Gustav Mahler and Canadian composer Claude Vivier. From delicate expressions of love to soaring moments of triumph, Mahler’s Symphony No.5 makes for a transformational experience.

18-19 OFF THE MAINSTAGE

Marz Homes Family Concert Series
This series brings together children and their families and friends in a fun and enriching musical experience. This series is led by acclaimed Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser.

Halloween Spooktacular
October 28, 2018 (one-hour concert)

Marz Homes Family Concert Experience
February 2, 2019 (pre-concert musical activities and a one-hour concert)

Gallery Series
Experience the natural pairing of visual arts and musical expression as HPO ensembles perform at galleries across the region. Each 60-minute chamber concert is hosted by Composer-in-Residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte and starts with a curator’s presentation of the current art exhibition.

November 7, 2018, Gallery on the Bay
March 27, 2019, Art Gallery of Burlington

Literary Series
This series brings together the power of the written word with your city’s professional orchestra. Authors share their works live with HPO musicians onstage to underscore their narrative.

November 29, 2018: Gary Barwin, Yiddish for Pirates

Intimate & Immersive
Music Director Gemma New presents a fresh, casual and cutting edge orchestral experience. In this unconventional format, concert-goers are seated around the orchestra only feet from the musicians. Each program includes music by contemporary composers and well-known artists.

March 6, 2019
May 23, 2019