Oh Canada!

I have been the Manager of Outreach and Education for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for the past three years. I joined the CPO in its first year back after having gone through bankruptcy protection. The Outreach & Education programme had suffered serious neglect by this time and it has been an interesting, challenging, and rewarding experience to rebuild it. Through restructuring, more emphasis has been placed on outreach & education and we have come a long way. We are now happily performing education concerts to full houses, and interest in our initiatives continues to grow.

We offer a wide variety of programmes, including concerts in the Jack Singer Concert Hall for elementary schools, Open Rehearsals for secondary and post-secondary schools, school visits, school performances and family concerts. We have built formal partnerships with Mount Royal College Conservatory, the University of Calgary Music Department, and the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival, offering young performers and composers opportunities to collaborate with the CPO.

Our Community Outreach concerts are designed to reach out to communities in and around Calgary. Outreach events, such as performances in Cochrane & Airdrie, have been very successful. The CPO is constantly looking at new and meaningful ways to reach out to the public. A new initiative for outreach is to team up with a town’s local charity to help build visibility for both the charity and the orchestra within that community. When we perform in Cochrane later this season, we will be teaming up with the Cochrane Humane Society.

Although outreach and education are gaining success, the programmes are still faced with many challenges. Although both programmes generate some revenue, the costs to run each programme are significant, and we rely a great deal upon corporate sponsorship. As well, the outreach & education department is a department of one, yet we offer programmes on par with several of Canada’s larger orchestras who have more staff assigned to these initiatives.

Funding in Alberta is a major factor. Until last February, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts had not received increases in funding since the late 1980s. In fact, Alberta’s per capita support for arts and culture ranks 11th out of the thirteen provinces and territories.

The CPO’s CORE committee (Community OutReach and Education) has been a strong force in the re-building of our programmes. It is made up of CPO musicians, staff, board and the community at large. Through the dedication and efforts of these volunteers, we are confident that our work still pays off for the future success of our organization. Ultimately our greatest challenge is to make sure that the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is not the best kept secret in town. We do so much and receive very little media support.