Oh Canada!

I decided to give myself a day off from Ann’s initial list of topics, so I could read what others had written, stop orating and start discussing.

If I were to summarize/analyze the points raised so far, here’s some of what I’d come up with:

· People in the Canadian orchestra business are working hard – very hard. Wonderful concerts are happening, imaginative community engagement activities are being designed and presented, and the lives of audience members are being changed because of the music they get to hear. I think about my own recent concert-listening thrills – Calgary playing Berlioz with Measha, Montréal’s Gurrelieder, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra’s Corigliano, the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s “Nimrod” (part of a tribute to their founder and 42-year-long music director) – all amazing in their individual ways.

· The level of work being done is in no way matched by the financial rewards.

· The Canadian funding model is straining at the seams: direct government support through grants has not grown at anything like the same rate as the artistic ambitions of orchestras and the earning needs of orchestra workers.

· At the same time, only a few (and generally larger) orchestras have had the wherewithal to invest in building their development “machines” so they can compete with hospitals, universities, and religious institutions for philanthropic gifts. Smaller orchestras, orchestras in less economically vibrant communities, and those whose operations have been marked by cyclical difficulties face barriers to making these investments.

· While there has been some move towards improving the tax incentives for charitable giving (notably, the elimination of capital gains tax on gifts of securities to registered charities announced in the May 2006 federal budget), we aren’t yet in a place where these gifts are raining down on the Canadian orchestral community every day!

So where do we go with all this?

Maybe we need a group hug. Or is that just me?

Maybe we need to figure out – together – how to make a strong public case for the good work that orchestras do.

Maybe we need to work towards a serious evaluation of the legacy, role and future of public arts funding in Canada. The Canada Council for the Arts celebrates its 50th anniversary in March 2007: wouldn’t that create an interesting opportunity to ask for a 21st century Massey Commission, to consider what’s been achieved and where we go from here?