After almost a year of working behind the scenes, the new National Broadcast Orchestra has made its first splash and announced an ambitious first season of projects.

The ensemble will replace the CBC Radio Orchestra, which played its last concert on November 16, 2008.

Conductor Alain Trudel hatched a plan to revive the ensemble as the independent NBO with support from Montreal businessman Philippe Labelle and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, its home venue.

The NBO's projects will include a diverse mix of live performances (with an emphasis on regional outreach), radio broadcasts, internet broadcasts, and other specialized recording projects.

The recording and broadcasting is intended to reach beyond the National Broadcast Orchestra’s radio roots.

The NBO was set to play today (September 16) on Salt Spring Island.

But it won't debut live here in town till January 8, 2010, at the Chan, when it performs a fundraising gala/live broadcast for the CBC Radio 2, with the premiere of a CBC-commissioned work by Michael Oesterle entitled The Sparrow’s Ledger. Also on the program: new works for trumpet and orchestra by Alain Trudel and Allan Gilliland, to be performed by Canadian trumpet icon Jens Lindemann; pianist Anton Kuerti joining in on a rare Beethoven work known as Concerto No. 0; and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.

Tickets and sale dates are to be announced October 1.