Oh Canada!
What a wealth of issues to discuss in five days….where to start? Certainly, we all enjoy balanced budgets and the efforts by all that make that possible; we would welcome efforts on the part of the CBC to give us more air time, and loudly applaud all levels of government that would increase funding to our national and provincial arts councils, thus granting us the ability to remunerate our musicians and staff justly for the hard work they do.
But through our daily struggle to stay viable, we lose track of what I consider the major issue facing Canadian orchestras: RELEVANCE! Connecting to our respective communities in a way that will ensure a strong and viable future. Developing an individual artistic identity within the fabric of Canadian society that makes us indispensable.
Through creative team-work, the TBSO (Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra) is well on that path, but first for the non-initiated (i.e., our symphonic friends south of the border), some information about us: Thunder Bay is the smallest community in Canada (pop. 109,000) to support a fully-professional symphony orchestra; the orchestra performs approx. 50 concerts in a 24-week season, offering its musicians 168 services. For two of those weeks and with the generous support of both arts councils, we tour throughout Northwestern Ontario, a vast geographical expanse roughly the size of France, bringing live symphonic music to legion halls, churches, school auditoriums, and aboriginal community centres. Despite our modest size, we’re a regular feature on CBC Radio Two and our recent self-produced CD recording of all-Canadian compositions was nominated for a Juno Award.
Our strong commitment to Canadian musicians, guest artists, conductors, and music not only ensures our regular presence on the CBC, it makes us an integral part of the community, region and country. Through numerous community, ethnic and educational outreach projects, the TBSO has been successful over the past few seasons in increasing concert attendance and ticket sales. We’re proud to be able to say that it’s our classical music concerts in particular that have seen the most gains. The enthusiasm of our musicians, and the high quality of their playing, has been instrumental in ensuring that those who visit us for the first time become return visitors.
During the first couple of panel days I’m a guest of Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax, and thus only sporadically online. Please be patient; as of Wednesday all questions, comments, criticisms and queries will be answered!
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