Sound advice

Canada’s National Arts Centre is serious about education — and its flagship Orchestra is training the next crop of top musicians, writes Charlotte Smith

- Charlotte Smith

Say the phrase ‘teaching hospital’ and what comes to mind? Earnest young medics in white coats with clipboards, eager to hone their skills... Perhaps, ifyou're from a certain generation, the young Dr Carter serving his surgical residency under a scowling and exacting Dr Benton in the hugely popular Chicago-based 1990s TV series ER. What probably won't leap to mind is music and the arts. And yet a teaching hospital is exactly how those in charge of the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, Canada, view their mission.

‘Everything we touch, every production we stage, should encompass personal development,’ says Nelson McDougall, NAC managing director. ‘There aren't a lot of programmes like ours in the world — not filling those important gaps for young professionals.’ These days, of course, you'd be hard pressed to find an orchestra or opera house without an education and outreach division — and the great majority of arts institutions understand the value of making cultural connections, serving their local community and enriching lives. But the NAC is different. Here, under the leadership of its president Christopher Deacon, personal development informs all programming, touring and commissioning throughout its integrated theatre, dance and music divisions. And nowhere is the teaching hospital concept better encapsulated than in the NAC’s Orchestra, launched in 1969, and its Mentorship Program.