Orchestras Canada

Representatives from Canadian orchestras from coast to coast – St. John’s NF to Nanaimo BC – gathered in Vancouver earlier this week for the 6th annual National Orchestras Meeting, hosted by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the VSO School of Music.

The meeting had a number of components, including:

• A tour and inaugural performance at the brand new VSO School of Music;
• A gracious welcome from Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director Bramwell Tovey and Board Chair Art Willms;
• Reports and presentations by key partners and funders, including the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians, the Canadian Federation of Musicians, Musicians’ Pension Fund of Canada, CBC English Radio and Radio Music, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage;
• Presentations on game-changing initiatives by Tricia Baldwin and Randy Barnard for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Gilbert Brault from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; and Joanne Harada, Scott Good and Pierre Simard from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra;
• The season closing concert of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, featuring a new work by Scott Good, violinist James Ehnes, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1;
• An entire day devoted to the latest thinking on fundraising and audience growth initiatives, with presentations by Douglas Kinzey (Audience Strategies for the Arts); Simon Trevelyan (ST Legacy Group); Rob Gloor and Rob Severin (GSI Management); Andrea McManus (AFP International); Jack McAuliffe, Kate Prescott and David Snead (Patron Growth Initiative); Luce Moreau and Krista Thompson; and Ken Macleod and Larry Matthews (KMA Consultants);
• A sunset harbour cruise that showcased Vancouver in all its beauty;
• A thoughtful summary by rapporteur Wendy Reid (HEC Montréal);
• A plenary discussion on next steps for our national association, facilitated by new OC board chair Thérèse Boutin.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting resources from many of these sessions on our website. Watch upcoming issues of Orchestra News for more details.

In hindsight, it’s a daunting list: and none of these things would have been possible with the support, encouragement and enthusiastic participation of

• our hosts at the VSO School of Music and Vancouver Symphony – with particular thanks to VSO President and CEO Jeff Alexander and VSO School of Music Executive Director Shaun Taylor;
• our donors and sponsors, including Dr. George Freundlich and Great West Life/London Life/Canada Life;
• the Canada Council for the Arts, whose support of travel bursaries for people from smaller-budget orchestras was integral to ensuring a truly national dialogue;
• coffee break sponsors Soccer Mom Records, Cowan Insurance, and Long & McQuade;
• the planning committee: Jeff Alexander, Annemarie Petrov and Françoise Henri;
• the team of onsite volunteers, with particular thanks to C. Stephen Smith, Rob Severin, Rob Gloor, and the devoted volunteers from the Vancouver Symphony Society;
• our team of presenters, who gave generously of what they know, and were lots of fun, to boot!

We continue to confirm speakers and topics for Orchestras Canada’s National Orchestras Meeting, June 13-15 at the Vancouver Symphony School of Music. In addition to previously-announced presentations by Douglas Kinzey (Successful Strategies for Building a Subscription Audience), Ken Macleod and Larry Matthews (Moving Your Donors: Making Your Best Case for Support), Simon Trevelyan (Legacy Fundraising), and Luce Moreau and Krista Thomson (Talking to Donors), we’re also delighted to confirm that Jack McAuliffe, Kate Prescott and David Snead will be on hand to present research results from the Patron Growth Initiative that intrigued so many of us last year in Winnipeg, and Andrea McManus, first-ever Canadian chair of AFP International, will present a talk on Ethical Fundraising. And there’s more to come!

Have you registered yet? There’s still room for you!

Are you considering applying for travel support? Check out the eligibility guidelines, here.

On-line registration is now open for Orchestras Canada’s National Orchestras Meeting, scheduled to take place in Vancouver June 13-15, 2011, and hosted by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the VSO School of Music. The meetings feature workshops and presentations led by experts, music, peer meetings and updates from across the country. To learn more and register, please visit the National Meeting pages on our website at orchestrascanada.org/vancouver-2011-12.

This year, as a bonus for renewing and joining orchestra members, we mailed a USB key containing presentations from our National Orchestras Meeting, held in Winnipeg last June. We recently conducted a brief survey to determine who, if anyone, had viewed the presentations and we were delighted at the response. Members are finding the presentations and the format useful.

Don’t keep this information to yourself! The beauty of the USB key is that it’s easy to transport. Pass these presentations around to all those who may be interested: board members, marketing and development staff, etc.

On Wednesday, October 27 from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern, Orchestras Canada/Orchestres Canada will host a webinar for Canadian orchestra management personnel with Ellen Versteeg-Lytwyn, Fund Administrator, and Humbert Martins, Manager, Pension Benefits from the Musicians’ Pension Fund of Canada. Ellen and Humbert will provide a basic overview of the Fund and how it operates. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Katherine Carleton at Orchestras Canada, by phone at 416-366-8834 x226 or by email at Katherine [at] oc [dot] ca.

Orchestras Canada’s Chief Statistician, C. Stephen Smith, has set to work on the Comparative Report on the 2009-10 fiscal year, collecting financial statements, audience information and updated contextual information from OC member orchestras with annual revenues over $75,000. If your orchestra has not yet heard from Steve, and you qualify to participate, please contact the Orchestras Canada office, by phone at 416-366-8834 x221 or by email at info [at] oc [dot] ca.

The dates and location have been chosen for the National Orchestras Meeting 2011: we’ll be in Vancouver from June 13-15, hosted by the Vancouver Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony School of Music. Before the planning task force holds its first meeting, we’d like to get your thoughts on the topics you’d like to cover, the balance of the agenda you’d like to see, and the speakers from whom you’d like to hear. We’ve prepared a short questionnaire, and you can access it here. Deadline for participation is end of day, Monday, October 18.

Last week, Orchestras Canada mailed out membership renewal packages to our Professional, Community and Youth Orchestra members – and today, we’d like to tell you about a special gift we’ve prepared for those who renew!

We recorded many of the sessions at our National Orchestras Meeting in Winnipeg in June – and in July and August 2010, Orchestras Canada summer student Mike Romaniak devoted seven weeks to editing the recordings, synching them with the accompanying PowerPoint presentations – and turning them into a multi-media learning resources, in both English and French. They’re now copied onto USB memory sticks, and we’ll be sending them to renewing members. Now everyone (whether you were able to attend the meetings or not) will be able to share in the learnings.

We’d like to salute the Thomas Sill Foundation, which has generously agreed to support the June 22 presentation on Alternative Dispute Resolution by Francis J. Handy at the National Orchestras Meeting.  We are grateful for their support!

On-line registration is now open for Orchestras Canada’s National Orchestras Meeting in Winnipeg, June 20-23.  You can learn more – and register on-line – here.

Cultural Careers Council Ontario has announced the launch of a career self-management course entitled The Business of Art, a course designed to provide creative workers with the business skills to plan for success and take control of their careers.  This intensive program helps creative workers from any field transfer their artistic planning skills to career and business.  The program begins on April 12, it’s being presented in Toronto, and it costs $299.00 plus $14.95 GST. Registration includes 6 workshops, one group coaching session, a manual/workbook, review of business plans and a final presentation.  To register, visit here.

The Center for Arts Management and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University is presenting a webinar entitled The Arts & Social Media, Part II: Turning Strategy Into Results, on March 23 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm Eastern.  The cost is $25 USD.  Here’s how they’re describing the session, led by Rebecca Krause-Hardie of Audienceworks:

“You’ve dabbled with social media. You’ve got a general sense of how to think about it strategically. Now what? In this session, we’ll go beyond the jargon into the nitty-gritty and practical details of executing a successful social media plan. This is a highly interactive session. As the starting point, we’ll explore your goals, questions and your projects and clarify the steps needed to turn them into reality.

In this engaging 90-minute session, you will:
Learn how to create a step by step action plan to get you going;
Look at some great case studies from other arts organizations;
Identify and define 5 practical steps you can take now to have your project soar.”

To register, you can visit the Technology in the Arts website here.

On-line registration is now open for Orchestras Canada’s National Orchestras Meeting, scheduled to take place in Winnipeg June 20-23, 2010, and co-hosted by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony.  The meetings feature workshops and presentations led by experts, music, peer meetings and updates from across the country – and all but the pre-conference session will feature simultaneous interpretation, thanks to the support of Great West Life.  We may be biased, but we think it’s a rich and wonderful program!  To learn more, please visit the Winnipeg 2010 pages on our website here.

Orchestras Canada’s donors are at the heart of our work on behalf of Canadian orchestras.  We are grateful to everyone who has made a gift to Orchestras Canada this year, and – thanks to their generosity – we are only $2142 short of our individual fundraising target for the year ending March 31.  With just over three weeks left to go, we know we can reach our goal:  but we need your help. To make a gift to Orchestras Canada, you can:

1.  Visit our giving page at CanadaHelps.org here.
2.  Call Jennifer Caines at the OC office, to make a gift by credit card: 416-366-8834 x221
3.  Mail a cheque to

Orchestras Canada/Orchestres Canada
203-460 rue College Street
Toronto, ON M6G 1A1

March 15 marks the deadline for participation in a new survey of Canadian orchestras’ community engagement programs – and we’ve already been amazed and impressed by the level of participation you’ve shown!  Many thanks to all OC members who have taken the time and contributed to this report.  At the end of January, Jennifer Caines emailed the survey to 71 orchestras; as of earlier this week, 35 orchestras have responded.  We look forward to sharing the results with you later this spring.  If you’d like more information, please get in touch with Jennifer at jennifer[at]oc[dot]ca.

Orchestra News will not be published next week, March 12.  We’ll be back with a blockbuster issue on March 19.

Orchestras Canada’s National Meeting Task Force and the OC staff team have been hard at work, finalizing plans for this year’s National Orchestras Meeting, scheduled to take place in Winnipeg June 20-23.  We are happy to let you know that:

• Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life have agreed to sponsor simultaneous interpretation at this year’s conference.  Thank you!
• We’ve submitted many, many applications to foundations, corporations and our favourite arms-length federal arts agency for travel scholarships that we can re-grant to individuals who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend the meetings.  Our fingers (and toes) are crossed, and we will let you know as soon as we know the fate of these requests.
• To facilitate your travel, we’ve negotiated group travel discounts with both Air Canada and WestJet.  You can find the OC discount codes here.
• To ensure that you’re comfortably housed during your time in Winnipeg, we’ve negotiated a great room rate ($129/night, single or double) at the historic and lovely Fort Garry Hotel – and the rate includes a sumptuous breakfast.  For information on how to book your room, please click here.
• OC has established a partnership with Arts and Cultural Industries Manitoba, through which students at the UWinnipeg Arts & Cultural Management program will be volunteering at the meetings.  As well, ACI clients will be able to register to attend certain learning sessions – helping to build our earned revenue!
• To maximize your learning and networking experience, we continue to fine-tune the meeting program.  There will be lots of time for peer-to-peer exchange, and a concert or two, along with expert (and interactive) presentations on such topics as Working Better With Your Data, Collaborations with First Nations Communities, Turning First Timers into Life Timers, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Strengthening Board-CEO Relationships.  Check out presenter biographies and session descriptions here.
• We have uploaded a google map of Winnipeg onto the Winnipeg 2010 section of our website, highlighting key meeting locations.  You can find it here.
• On-line registration will open the first week of March.