In Tuesday’s (9/17) Ottawa Citizen, Peter Robb reports, “There is an urgent need to change the mandate that governs the National Arts Centre, maestro Pinchas Zukerman says. The mandate is defined by a 44-year-old piece of legislation that calls for the centre to be all things cultural to all regions of Canada. The centre is also governed by a board made up of political appointees from the different regions of the country. While that helps encourage culture in the regions of the country, Zukerman says it constrains the artistic growth and identity of the NAC and the orchestra he leads on the world stage.… ‘At this point it (the mandate) is really wrong.… We have all the components, what we don’t have is … an identity that calls itself Canada.’ … Zukerman made his comments in a feisty interview about the upcoming NACO season … [which] opens Sept. 19 with a concert featuring the respected pianist Yefim Bronfman.… The major event this season, though, is the tour of China. ‘For the centre (the tour) is a victory, no question,’ says Zukerman. ‘Is there going to be more open relations between, musically speaking, China and NACO?’ … He believes the NACO has achieved a world standard of playing, but ‘we have not been able to yet fulfill the need (for) the orchestra to be more acclaimed internationally.’ ”
Posted September 18, 2013
