For students in Carleton’s Music program, playing with classical musicians provides the unique opportunity to hone their technical skills and performance experience as they learn from professionals in their craft. This was the catalyst behind the partnership with the Carleton Music Department and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra (OSO), to allow students to train and perform alongside experienced musicians. Officially launched in Fall 2021, this collaboration will give students experience with intimate chamber ensemble and larger orchestra settings.

Located in the core of our capital city, the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC) is an exquisite venue that is home to a breadth of community partnerships. As Carleton’s premier Arts, Performance and Learning Centre, CDCC fosters creative expression for a variety of user groups including Carleton students and partners from our broader community. The OSO and CDCC collaboration is yet another example of the power of partnership to deliver diverse and inclusive programming opportunities for our users and audiences.

The purpose of this fund is to provide an experiential learning opportunity to talented students in the Bachelor of Music Program.  Students will be invited to audition for one of five chairs in the OSO, to participate in the Carleton-OSO Chamber Ensemble and in the OSO concert series. Selected students will be paid based on music union performance wages to perform in two OSO-Carleton-Ensemble-in-Residence String Quartet and Wind Quintet Concerts per year.

Collaborations between the Department of Music and broader community help to form meaningful connections between established and emerging musicians. Five wind players from the OSO will be available to mentor and teach Carleton students, helping them gain invaluable experience on the path towards fulfilling their own aspirations to be professional musicians.

Click here to read more about this partnership from the Carleton University Newsroom