Canada’s Queen’s University Announces Resident Artist

The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) is a full-scholarship and leading training orchestra for emerging artists aged 16 to 28. This year, it will enter its 62nd season.

Held at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, NYO Canada’s residency will run from June 19 to July 20, 2022. The program will utilize the university’s Isabel Bader Center for the Performing Arts (The Isabel) and the DAN School of Drama and Music’s Harrison-LeCaine Hall.

Their residency will include orchestral rehearsals and performances led by NYO Canada’s internationally acclaimed music director, Sascha Goetzel. 

Other activities will include student and faculty chamber music concerts, world premieres, audition training, private lessons, chamber music coaching, cultural industries workshops, masterclasses, recording and streaming, and multi-platform performance coaching on the latest professional equipment.

The audition deadline for NYO Canada’s 2022 summer program is March 1, 2022. To apply, click here.

NYO Canada was last resident at Queen’s University almost 20 years ago in 2003 — before The Isabel was built. In 2019, The Isabel hosted the joint NYO Canada and European Union Youth Orchestra concert as part of the orchestras’ Frenergy Tour which united the two groups for the first time.

“We will be providing a superb concert hall for these superb young musicians who represent the future of Canadian orchestral musicianship,” said Tricia Baldwin, director of “the Isabel,” in the press release. 

“We are also thrilled to be bringing NYO Canada to the world through high-fidelity recording and films as well as providing multi-platform performance delivery training to the young musicians interested in the field of creative producing.”

“Queen’s was a fantastic partner for more than a decade, and we look forward to returning to the campus that has since added the stunning Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, a hub of artistic ingenuity that continued its mandate even amidst a worldwide pandemic,” added NYO Canada’s president and CEO, Barbara Smith. 

“We look forward to being a part of the thriving cultural center of Kingston, and we hope to engage the population there with our orchestral and chamber concerts featuring the elite musicians of NYO Canada,” Smith said. 

A short video about NYO Canada’s residency at Queen’s can be watched below.