As Labour Day approaches, the excitement of new seasons starts to build. This week, three launch announcements:

The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra in Scarborough ON has announced its 25th anniversary season. Music Director Norman-Illis Reintamm will lead an 8-concert season that includes such highlights as the Finale of the Clifford Poole Piano Competition, a concert with the Canadian Jazz Quartet, a performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Peterborough Singers and Pax Christi Chorale, and Mahler‘s 5th Symphony. The CBSO maintains a strong commitment to community, working in local schools and with up-and-coming musicians. cathedralbluffs.com

The Red Deer (AB) Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 24th season in 2010-11 – and its 20th anniversary with Music Director Claude Lapalme. In tribute, the program will include some of the very first pieces that Maestro Lapalme conducted with the orchestra 20 years ago, the premiere of a new work by the Maestro, and a very special performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Also included in the RDSO season is a 3-concert Chamber Series, featuring special guests and of course, musicians of the RDSO. For more information about the orchestra, please visit their website at reddeersymphony.com

The Timmins (ON) Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2010-11 season, a season that coincides with the 10th anniversary of Music Director Matthew Jones. Once again, the “other” TSO (that’s the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) opens the Timmins orchestra’s season, as part of its commitment to regular touring in Northern Ontario – and then the hometown Timmins group takes over with six orchestral concerts and a chamber series as well. Programming highlights include a world premier by local composer Luc Arsenault, a program made up entirely of audience favourites, and solo opportunities throughout the season for a number of the orchestra’s principal musicians, who also teach at the orchestra’s Geoffrey James Lee School of Music.