MCO’s new season sure to delight

Had the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra trotted out that classic cliché of marketing speak — “a season full of surprises!” — about its upcoming lineup, it would have rung true.

The MCO’s 2026-27 season takes a cinematic turn, with works by such Hollywood film-score heavy hitters as Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and even Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. It’s a treat whenever we hear Winnipeg’s cosy churches resonate with the best of these composers.

Though this isn’t really the surprising thing. The MCO has always been one of the Prairies’ leading champions of contemporary Canadian classical, and the upcoming season is especially adventurous in this respect.

In three concert programs, guest performers are also composers — acclaimed contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay on Sept. 23, Florian Hoefner Jazz Quartet on Nov. 4 and flutist and hoop dancer V. J. Sparvier-Wells on March 17 — breaking down one of classical music’s traditional divisions.

“I think the season has the DNA of the MCO, which is a mix of artists that folks will recognize as well as some great new voices, and likewise, with repertoire: we have favourites and some really fun new discoveries,” says MCO executive director Sean McManus.

The MCO, historically based at Westminster United Church (and more recently Crescent Arts Centre), also explores new venues.

Alongside MCO music director Anne Manson, McManus has programmed eight concerts this season (four conducted by Manson), across four venues — five at Crescent Arts Centre and the remainder at Desautels Concert Hall, The Forks and St. Boniface Cathedral.

It’s not hard to recognize the established favourites McManus is referring to. One of these is University of Manitoba graduate Andriana Chuchman, a former pupil of Tracy Dahl, whose unmistakable coloratura has echoed in the world’s most illustrious opera houses and concert halls alongside the likes of Placido Domingo and Juan Diego Flórez.

“Really excited to be working with Andriana again. Big (local) roots and well known by audiences here — a star,” says McManus. “She’s paired with (Iranian Canadian countertenor) Cameron Shahbazi, who’s one of the new artists, and they’re doing Stabat Mater (by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi) — which is such a dramatic and evocative piece of music.”

Their outdoor concert, within the weathered walls of St. Boniface Cathedral’s ruins, takes place May 19 — and, based on Chuchman’s precedent with the MCO, may sell out.

Another beloved regular is Simone Dinnerstein, one of America’s leading Bach pianists, whose collaborations with Philip Glass intersect with the MCO. His Piano Concerto No. 3 — co-commissioned and premièred in Canada by the MCO in 2017 — was conceived after she wowed him with her renditions of old J.S. at a private gathering.

Dinnerstein is back to reprise the Bach-inspired concerto Feb. 18, in a concert that also features Glass’s iconic score to The Hours, which the MCO recorded in 2012. (The MCO also reprises two other commissions this season by Canadians Karen Sunabacka and Vivian Fung.)

Six days later, Manson conducts another Glass-themed program with leading Canadian violinist Kerson Leong in a concert that also features two works by Pärt.

“Anne Manson, our music director, has this long connection to Philip Glass and his music. It’s his 90th birthday in 2027 and we felt that it was important to celebrate that,” says McManus.

It wouldn’t be an MCO season without at least one cello-centric concert, and this year it’s a relative newcomer — Juno nominee Stéphane Tétreault performing Cello Concerto No. 1 by Airat Ichmouratov, who takes centre stage with his little big viola Dec. 9.

By contrast, it’s been several years since audiences have seen a recorder player on MCO stages. That changes next season when virtuoso Vincent Lauzier joins the MCO on May 19 to perform Biber, Telemann and others.

“I think one of the fun things about recorders is you’ll have a table with all of the instruments laid out, right from the smallest ones to the biggest; people love to hear musicians flying on the recorder,” McManus says.

While the instrument has a deep baroque legacy, it’s perhaps most often heard today not on concert stages, but in K-6 classrooms. This concert should offer some unique opportunities for the MCO, whose always-growing community engagement work extends to schools, libraries and other community spaces, McManus says.

Tickets are on sale now for the MCO’s 2026-27 season, which has the tagline: “Voice. Place. Connection.”

“We were really thinking, not just about great artists and great repertoire, but the experience for people being together in this place, experiencing this music,” says McManus.

“The reason we do live music is so that people can get together in the same place.”

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