Big Little Concerts 2026
June 25 — July 16, 2026Each year, in the weeks leading up to the tour, NYO Canada students and faculty mount a series of nearly daily chamber music concerts as part of their tour preparation. These concerts are offered free to the community, which has supported and hosted the Training Institute. Visitors to big LITTLE Concerts enjoy varied, challenging repertoire performed by NYO Canada students and faculty as they share their love of music with the community and work to build cohesion and fine-tune skills in advance of a full-blown national tour.
Location
Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Schedule
Date
Location
Performance Notes
Admission Info
New Orford String Quartet
Beethoven, Op. 18 No. 2
Janáček, Quartet No. 1
Intermission
Cecilia Livingston, After the Wind
Mendelssohn, Op. 80
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Student Concert
Mark Applebaum, Gone Dog Gone
Michael Oesterle, Carrousel
Mozart, String Quartet in C major “Dissonance,” K. 465 (mvts. 1 & 3)
Goepfart, Wind Quartet
Hindemith, Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24 No. 2
Nielsen, Woodwind Quintet, Op. 43
Herbert Haufrecht, Suite for Brass Quintet
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Formosa Quartet
Shelley Washington, SAY
Wynton Marsalis, At the Octoroon Balls
- Mating Calls and Delta Rhythms
- Creole Contradanzas
- Many Gone
- Hellbound Highball
- Blue Lights on the Bayou
- Rampart St. Row House Rag
A Formosa Quartet Set: Blueish Groove*
(*)An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements. Musical surprises to be expected, and works will be announced from the stage!
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Student Concert
Renaissance Works for Bass Septet
Prokofiev, String Quartet No. 2, mvts. 1–2
Caroline Lizotte, Raga
Anna Clyne, Primula Vulgaris
Cécile Chaminade, Pas de cymbales, Op. 36, No. 2
Reena Esmail, Tuttarana
Brahms, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Student Concert
Lau, Little Feng Huang (winter movement)
Runswick, Strauss in the Doghouse
William Grant Still, Lyric Quartet (1960)
Milhaud, La Cheminée du Roi René
Ernő Dohnányi, Piano Quintet No. 2, mvt. 2
Richard Strauss, String Quartet, Op. 2, mvts. 1–2
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Student Concert
Red Norvo, Red Norvo Suite
Elgar, String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 (1918), mvts. 1–3
Françaix, Wind Quartet
Bozza, Suite Française
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Faculty Concert
Repertoire to be announced.
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.
Gryphon Trio with James Campbell
Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted to support NYO Canada’s young musicians.