Orchestras Canada

Not one, but two Canadian orchestras, are welcoming the visit of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to Canada this week. The royal couple was welcomed to Saint John, NB by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra; and tonight (May 23), they’ll hear the Regina Symphony Orchestra perform the world premiere of a new work by a member of the RSO at the RCMP Depot Division Drill Hall. The official Royal Tour itinerary notes that “this event will provide Their Royal Highnesses with the opportunity to enjoy a performance of the Regina Symphony Orchestra for the first time since His Royal Highness became the ensemble’s patron in 2008.”

The Regina Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with the the Music Department at the University of Regina, will present its first-ever Living Music Under Living Skies – a festival of new Canadian music and 20th century masterworks – March 21-24. The festival, co-founded by Pauline Minevich and Alain Perron, is directed by Dr. Minevich.

The festival program will include performances by artists and groups including the RSO’s Chamber Players; award winning Brandon pianist Megumi Masaki; Montreal’s Trio Fibonacci; Regina-based audio and new media collective Holophon; Dr. Sophie Bouffard, soprano; University of Regina’s music students; and Composer in Residence Denis Gougeon, funded by the SOCAN Foundation.

For more information, please visit reginasymphony.com.

Taron Cochrane, Creative Marketing & Promotions Manager at the Regina Symphony Orchestra, is responsible for the RSO’s highly engaging social media presence – and he was recently featured in a podcast entitled “Nothing’s impossible for the Regina Symphony”. You can listen to Taron’s thoughts here.

Bryan Croft, who has served as general manager of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra for the last eight years, is moving on. In February, Bryan will begin work as managing director of the Toronto-based Artists’ Health Centre Foundation – and will also be stepping down from the Orchestras Canada board. We wish Bryan all the best in his new position.

This week brought a pair of media releases about new and innovative community engagement programs developed by two western Canadian orchestras: the Regina Symphony Orchestra (RSO) and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO).

The RSO’s new program is entitled The Piapot Project, and it’s a multi-faceted effort to engage students at the Payepot School in making, understanding and hearing music, in close partnership with Piapot First Nation Chief Jeremy Fourhourns and the Band Council. The program includes weekly classes in music history, theory and performance, led by the RSO’s concertmaster, Eduard Minevich, and Ramses Calderon; regular trips to RSO concerts, at which the students can go backstage and meet musicians; and concerts by RSO musicians at Payepot School throughout the year. As well, 2012 marks the first year of a new Piapot Festival – a free one-day event featuring Regina Symphony Orchestra musicians, the “Amadeus Youth Orchestra” from Regina, and young musicians and dancers from other First Nations communities. In addition, the festival will offer storytelling, visual art displays, a Hip Hop workshop, face painting, and a kids’ area. At the end of the festival, all artists and musicians will band together to deliver an enormous, awe-inspiring collective performance.

The Regina Symphony Orchestra intends to use the Piapot Project as a model for music education programs at other First Nations schools in Saskatchewan. The Education and Outreach program initiatives also include over 40 concerts in Regina schools, a rural Saskatchewan education and concert program, and a “Build the Band” program at Campbell Collegiate.

Meanwhile, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra has just launched a new partnership with the LINKages Society of Alberta in a new project that will connect more than 400 Calgary junior and senior high school students with senior citizens through the shared experience of music.

According to the CPO’s media release, “LINKages promotes friendships and understanding between generations by pairing isolated seniors with teenagers in thoughtful programs that encourage intergenerational communication. These meaningful activities provide companionship and entertainment for both seniors and students alike while also instilling the values of volunteering in young people.”

Through this partnership, the CPO and LINKages will present ten performances by a pair of CPO musicians, with each presentation held at a different seniors’ residence or activity centre throughout the city. Each program will be attended by the seniors of the venue and group of students from the participating junior or senior high school.

“LINKages Society is excited about the partnership with the CPO,” says Debra Armstrong, that group’s Executive Director. “Young people are still developing their musical appreciation and exposing them to these opportunities opens dialogue to the historical significance of the times; from songs of the War, to the songs of protest during the 60’s, to present pop culture icons. What a treat for all ages!”

Conductor Alain Trudel, already serving as the music director of Orchestra London and the Orchestre symphonique de Laval and conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, has just been announced as the new conductor of the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, effective September 2012. Speaking about the appointment, Orchestra London executive director Joe Swan noted that the orchestra has always had a good relationship with the University of Western Ontario, “but this will give us a much deeper working relationship. So we’re delighted about it.”

The Regina Symphony Orchestra has announced a career transition for its long-time and well-loved concertmaster Eduard Minevich. After 13 years with the orchestra (as well as 10, 11 and 6 years each as concertmaster with the KW Symphony, Orchestra London and the Leningrad Concert Orchestra respectively), Minevich will step down as RSO concertmaster at the end of the 2011-12 season – but he will stay on with the organization, leading its new Piapot project (through which he’s teaching violin to young students, arranging music and performing as soloist at the Piapot First Nation) and exploring opportunities to expand the RSO’s education programs into more communities in future seasons.

Congratulations to Toronto artist manager Ann Summers Dossena, who has been awarded the Manager of the Year Award at the annual Awards Ceremony and Luncheon of NAPAMA – the North American Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents – and APAP – the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The presentation was made by Robert Baird, Toronto artist manager and president of NAPAMA, at the Hilton New York. From her 1958 start in New York, through her years in Rome (1968-1977) to her Toronto base since 1977, Ann Summers Dossena has been a tireless advocate for the arts for more than five decades.

The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, Market Hall, and the Kawartha Youth Orchestra have named conductor Dina Gilbert as RBC Emerging Artist for 2012, under a newly created emerging artist apprenticeship program. Ms Gilbert holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Université de Montréal. The program is a collaboration between three community arts partners, Market Hall, the Kawartha Youth Orchestra and Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. Working under the guidance of PSO and KYO music director Michael Newnham, Ms Gilbert will receive an intensive period of mentoring and gain insight into the role played by a conductor and music director of community and youth orchestras.

The social media tool Twitter is a world unto itself – and it’s a lot of fun to see how different organizations manifest themselves in that world. We’ve been delighted by the emergence of the fresh and friendly voices of a number of Canadian orchestras in that medium – and it looks as though we’re not alone!

Before the holidays, the Regina Symphony Orchestra entered its Twitter page (@ReginaSymphony) into the socialfresh.com ‘Top 10 Twitter Brands of 2011’ promotion. This promotion saw over 150 entries and although the RSO didn’t make it into the top 10, they were chosen as one of the 24 finalists alongside such notable brands as Starbucks, Pepsi and Blackberry Help!

Congratulations to the Regina Symphony Orchestra, which announced a remarkable $203,121 in funds raised for the new RSO Education & Outreach Fund following its first-ever opening night gala. Over $100,000 has been pledged towards this season’s programs, with the rest of the funds going towards future years. Five thousand students will take part in the RSO’s education programs this year. Speaking about the opening night gala, RSO Executive Director Maxim Antoshin said, “We couldn’t be happier today. In April this year, we announced the creation of the RSO Education and Outreach Fund and started working on the RSO Opening Night Gala. And now, in just 5 months, we have surpassed our goal of $120,000! Our community’s support is outstanding, our sponsors and individual donors have been extremely generous – this is definitely a great beginning.”

We had a happy update from the South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra last week, and we’re happy to share it with you:

The South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra finished its 2010-2011 season with a concert at Knox-Metropolitan Church in Regina on June 13, 2011. An enthusiastic crowd of 400 was in attendance to hear works by Bruch and Beethoven. A highlight of the evening was Bruch’s Violin concerto in G-minor performed by SSYO concerto competition winner Jessica Ramsay.

The 2011-2012 season will mark the 35th year of the SSYO, and the 24th season for Artistic Director and Conductor, Alan Denike. A total of 63 young musicians will be playing in the orchestra this year. As an indication of the high standard the group has reached, they will be performing with the Regina Symphony Orchestra again this year. String players with the SSYO will take part in the Saskatchewan Orchestra Association Honour Orchestra, and the SSYO has also been invited to return to the annual youth orchestra workshop in Banff, along with the musicians of the Calgary and Edmonton Youth Orchestras.

For more information on the SSYO, please visit their website at ssyo.ca.

While not every season opening can be as spectacular as that of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s launch of the new Maison symphonique last week, many Canadian orchestras are launching their 2011-12 seasons with particular flair. Here are a few highlights.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra, led by special guest Peter Oundjian, presented a free outdoor concert of Hope and Remembrance, starting at 8:46 a.m. on Sunday, September 11. The program – which included works by Mozart, Barber, Elgar and Brahms – was designed to “ honour every person affected on that terrible day, including all military and civilian personnel who have displayed great courage over the past decade.”

The Orchestre symphonique de Québec launches its 110th season tonight – 14 September – with a program that features OSQ associate artist Alain Lefèvre and guest conductor Rossen Milanov, in works by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Dvořák. In honour of the 40th anniversary of the Grand Théâtre de Québec, the opening festivities also include a simultaneous outdoor screening of the concert, plus pre-concert talk, plus a special intermission performance on an outdoor stage by M. Lefèvre of the solo piano version of Andre Mathieu’s Concerto de Québec.

On Saturday, September 17 the Regina Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2011-12 season with an Opening Night Gala and Concert – an event that combines music and fundraising in grand style. The Gala marks the kick-off of the new RSO Education & Outreach Fund, and the concert features the startlingly gifted teenage piano virtuoso Jan Lisiecki in a program that includes music by Chopin, Brahms and the world premiere of a new work by Regina composer, Matthew McLellan.