NACO director Alexander Shelley launches festival of Roaring 20s music

Flappers, gangsters and speakeasies may be hallmarks of the Roaring 20s, but for Alexander Shelley, newly minted Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, it's an era that produced some of the most exciting and influential sounds in the history of music.

To prove it, Shelley is launching a festival devoted to the music of the Roaring 20s at the NAC on Thursday.

'Music exploded in all different directions'

In the aftermath of the carnage of the First World War, and the prosperity of the post war years, a cross fertilization of ideas and sounds spread across the globe, according to Shelley.

"The 1920s was a time when music exploded in all different directions," said Shelley.

"At that point in history, suddenly the world was a much more open place, you could hear recordings from music that was recorded on the other side of the world, you visit parts of the world more easily than ever before."

From Elgar, Sibelius and Stravinsky to Gershwin, Cole Porter and Charlie Chaplin, the great names of the era's music will be performed by the NACO, under Shelley's baton.

Shelley said that on both sides of the Atlantic musicians inspired each other, as American jazz mingled with the DNA of European melody.

"For the first time a lot of composers felt unbridled, they felt free in their willingness to engage in music they never heard before," said Shelley.

Shelley has promised a lot of excitement and surprises, including his own turn at the keyboard, performing some Cole Porter standards.

Here he is sharing some of the highlights of the festival.

Special guests will include violinst James Ehnes, pianist Peter Jablonski and singer Sophie Milman. Charlie Chaplin's score for his silent film classic City Lights, will be performed by the orchestra on Oct. 14, while the movie is screened.

The Roaring 20s festival runs from Oct. 8 -17 at the National Arts Centre.