Orchestras Canada

Last season, we were charmed to report that Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra had an asteroid named in its honour.  We’re equally delighted to report that Tafelmusik will now have some company in outer space:  at its concerts this weekend, the Victoria Symphony will be presented with a certificate confirming that it’s got its own asteroid, [...]

Read the full story

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has announced a new partnership with four restaurants, to provide concert patrons with a themed music and dining experience at the Centennial Concert Hall.  Each of the four restaurants will be offering a three course meal that is themed to a specific WSO concert – offering patrons a unique opportunity to [...]

Read the full story

Last Friday, the Canada Council for the Arts released its annual report for 2008-09.  While we’ll be parsing the document in greater detail in the weeks to come, here are some highlights.  In 2008-09, the Council awarded 6168 grants to artists and arts organizations in 689 communities across Canada.  Forty-eight Canadian orchestras (and one orchestral [...]

Read the full story

Last week, Orchestras Canada Executive Director Katherine Carleton spent three busy days in Ottawa – taking one day to meet with MPs (including Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Heritage critics Pablo Rodriguez [Liberal] and Charlie Angus [NDP]) and policy staff, and two days in the annual National Arts Service Organization meetings with over 60 [...]

Read the full story

The Niagara Symphony has announced the appointment of Karen A. Bannister to the new position of Resource Development Manager effective November 9, 2009 – completing the Symphony’s new administrative team.  Ms Bannister holds a Bachelor of Arts, Honors degree in Drama from Queen’s University and a Psychology degree from McMaster University. She is also a [...]

Read the full story

There’s a nice article about Music Director Edwin Outwater and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in this week’s issue of Maclean’s.  You can find it here.

Read the full story

Two of Canada’s better-travelled orchestras have headed to Mexico this month for the 37th annual Festival international Cervantino de Guanajuato.  Both the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and Tafelmusik will perform at the festival, which brings together over 2000 artists from 30 different countries and is generally considered to be Latin America’s premiere multidisciplinary festival.  The [...]

Read the full story

Last weekend, Symphony Nova Scotia travelled to two communities on Cape Breton Island to give the world premiere performances of guitarist-composer Scott Macmillan‘s Suite Silver Dart.  The new work commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in Canada:  spearheaded by Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association, the first flight of the [...]

Read the full story

The Orchestre symphonique de Quebec held its annual general meeting of members on September 25 – and the OSQ had good news to share.    Buoyed by successful fundraising events and strong attendance, the OSQ recorded its second consecutive operating surplus in 2008-09, and eliminated almost $250,000 from its accumulated deficit.  The deficit is now [...]

Read the full story

The Saskatoon Symphony (SSO) has announced that Victor Sawa (currently music director of both the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Sudbury Symphony) will also assume the position of SSO music director in the 2010/11 season. In making the announcement, the SSO noted that it “was unable to incur the costs associated with a  full-scale search [...]

Read the full story