Orchestras Canada

It’s a sure sign that Christmas is coming when the Vancouver Symphony announces its annual cycle of Traditional Christmas concerts – 14 performances in six different Metro Vancouver communities.  This year, the concerts run from December 10 through 19, and will be led by VSO Assistant Conductor Evan Mitchell, with special guests Christopher Gaze (narrator), [...]

Read the full story

Four years ago, the Empress Theatre in Fort McLeod AB established a chamber music festival, currently under the artistic director of violist Rivka Golani.  In time for the festival’s 2009 season, Ms Golani decided to commission a new work for viola, narrator and strings, inspired by the history of Fort McLeod.  The resulting work is [...]

Read the full story

On December 11 and 12, music director Bernard Labadie, Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec will travel to the Stern Auditorium of New York’s Carnegie Hall for performances of two cornerstone works in their repertoire : Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  The ensemble then travels to Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Hall [...]

Read the full story

The province of British Columbia’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services completed its provincial pre-budget consultation tour, and filed its final recommendations late last week.  As we have reported in past issues of Orchestra News, the significant reductions to provincial arts funding contained in the fall 2009 budget have met with organized oppositions [...]

Read the full story

CanadaHelps Training Sessions in Vancouver and Victoria CanadaHelps, the on-line secure donations portal, is presenting a pair of workshops on online fundraising fundamentals. What does it take to successfully fundraise and market your organization online? Why do you have to ‘let go’ of the brand, and how do you do that? How do you make [...]

Read the full story

Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Announces a $12,000 award for Orchestral Conducting The Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation has announced its Award for 2010, in orchestral conducting.  This is in commemoration of the Foundation’s 25th anniversary, and in recognition of Sir Ernest MacMillan’s celebrated career as a conductor, in particular his 25 years with the [...]

Read the full story

Council Chair Jane Danzo has announced that long-time BC Arts Council Executive Director Jeremy Long will retire from the BC Public Service early in the New Year.  Stating that “Jeremy Long has served the people of British Columbia for more than 20 years,” Ms Danzo noted that “he has been eligible for retirement for the [...]

Read the full story

During the 2008 federal election campaign, advocacy efforts of the Canadian Arts Coalition – Canada’s largest consortium of arts, culture and heritage supporters – and others resulted in unprecedented media attention and public debate about the value of and need for public investment in the cultural sector. Since that time, many artists, organizations and supporters [...]

Read the full story

The intrepid people at Tafelmusik have just launched a contest to find the best 90-second video celebrating the “sing-along spirit” of their annual Sing-Along Messiah performance. As the media release says, “Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah is a Toronto tradition beloved by thousands. Now is your chance to show the world your finest Sing-Along voice by recording [...]

Read the full story

At its Annual General Meeting on October 27, 2009, incoming Tafelmusik Board Chair David Linds announced the orchestra’s 9th consecutive operating surplus. Highlights of the 2008-09 season included:  an increase in ticket revenues of 17% over the previous year; a full Toronto season of 50 concerts; seven tours, one of which included the orchestra’s sold-out [...]

Read the full story