Orchestras Canada

Both Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra are on the road right now – and if you, like we, enjoy a bit of arm-chair travel, we’d invite you to follow these intrepid musicians via the blog postings they are filing from the road.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra is in the final stages of an Atlantic Canada tour, and you can stay current with their adventures here (postings in both English and French).

Tafelmusik is in the middle of a tour of the US, including a return visit to New York’s Carnegie Hall. You can find Tafel cellist Alan Whear’s occasional blog postings here.

We’ve got a pair of recommendations this week.

The first item is a report on the education programs of eight Canadian orchestras – the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra London, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. The evaluation was undertaken by Measured Outcome, an organization that undertakes collaborative, web-based research on the impact of charitable programs, and the process gave voice to the experiences of students, teachers and orchestral musicians involved in the programs.

Key learnings?
99% of participating adults and students found the programs valuable;
96% plan to return in a subsequent year;
61% of young people get their first (and only!) exposure to symphonic performance through a school visit, compared with 24% who attend with family and 15% who attend with friends;
Only 62% of the participating teachers make use of the Study Guide material provided, and of those, only 17% (or 10.5% of the total number of participating teachers) make use of the podcasts provided;
Teachers, students and performers consistently report that rowdy behavior by certain attendees detracts from the overall experience;
There are a number of opportunities to strengthen these already-valued programs.

The report was the subject of Orchestras Canada’s first webinar for the 2011-12 season, an event that brought together over 20 representatives from member orchestras from Victoria to Halifax. We are committed to continuing the discussion with our member orchestras, with the goal of strengthening their programming and their opportunities for collaboration.

You can view the report here.

Our second recommendation? A major new research report on arts engagement, commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council, and undertaken by Alan S. Brown of Wolf Brown and Ipsos-Reid. The report builds on Brown’s existing body of work on arts engagement, and traces the connection between an individual’s “personal artistic practice” (be it listening to music on the radio, selecting CDs to purchase or tracks to download, taking music lessons, interpreting the work of others while performing as a soloist or in an ensemble, or creating new works of music) and their attendance at live performances. There are some particularly compelling findings about the levels of cultural participation of Ontarians from diverse cultural groups.

And we can’t resist leaving you with this inspiring statement:

“Overall, 95% of all respondents are interested in doing more arts activities than they presently do.”

You can find the report here.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has just announced the release of a new all-Bach recording on the Analekta label, featuring counter-tenor Daniel Taylor, violinist Jeanne Lamon and oboist John Abberger.

Works on the recording include Bach’s Cantatas BWV 70 & 154, the Concerto for oboe and violin, “after BWV 1060” and the Suite for violin and strings, “after BWV 1067”

The recording was done at Humbercrest United Church in Toronto, and it marks Tafelmusik’s 78th recording. To learn more, or to order a copy of the new CD, please visit Tafelmusik’s website.

On the heels of a successful tour of Western Canada that included 8 out of 9 sold out concerts, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra sets out today, February 18, on a week-long Ontario tour. In addition to evening concerts in Kingston and Ottawa and Family Day concerts at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, Tafelmusik will enliven Ontario communities including Sharbot Lake, Port Perry, St. Mary’s, Windsor, Embro and Milton with a series of community outreach and free education concerts for elementary school students, as well as a masterclass for community musicians – the remarkable “TGIF” Kingston Community Strings, one of the five performing groups of the Kingston Symphony Association.

The orchestra is traveling with a mixed programme of baroque repertoire including music by Lully, JS Bach, CPE Bach, Fasch, and Dauvergne. John Abberger and Marco Cera will be the featured soloists in the Concerto for 2 oboes in D Minor by Vivaldi, and Abberger will join Music Director and violin soloist Jeanne Lamon for the Bach Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C Minor.

www.tafelmusik.org

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Triumphs in Florida
Earlier this week, TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra returned from a critically-acclaimed series of concerts in a six-city tour of Florida. And from all accounts, it was a smashing success! Here’s what the reviewers had to say:

“These musicians gave one of the most virtuosic, fascinating performance this reviewer has ever heard… It was certainly evident throughout the evening that this huge ensemble is a band of virtuosos, capable of executing the finest nuances of dynamics, phrasing and tonal beauties.” – Palm Beach Daily News

“The warmness in all the brass playing throughout the night was a highlight of the concert, and was never displayed better than in the symphony’s uplifting final movement, with its triumphant trumpet flourishes.” – Orlando Sentinel

“The Toronto Symphony is a first-class ensemble that gave immaculately prepared, spontaneously played performances of works by Barber, Tchaikovsky and Canadian composer Gary Kulesha under music director Peter Oundjian.” - South Florida Classical Review

For tour photos and more, please visit tsoontheroad.wordpress.com.
Tafelmusik Visits Western Canada
Those indefatigable world travelers, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, are heading out on a western Canada tour today. They have concerts in Victoria (Jan. 22), Salt Spring Island (Jan. 23), Vancouver (Jan. 26), Kelowna (Jan. 27), White Rock (Jan. 28), Edmonton (Jan. 29) and Calgary (Jan. 30 and 31). On tour, Tafelmusik presents a mixed programme of baroque repertoire including music by Lully, JS Bach, CPE Bach, Fasch, and Dauvergne. John Abberger and Marco Cera will be the featured soloists in the Concerto for 2 oboes in D Minor by Vivaldi, and Abberger will join Music Director and violin soloist Jeanne Lamon for the Bach Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C Minor. Tafelmusik musicians will also be involved in Artist Training initiatives — masterclasses and workshops with the University of Victoria, the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the University of Calgary — that are part of Tafelmusik’s Baroque Mentors training programmes for emerging artists, a year-long series of masterclasses and residencies in universities across Canada. For detailed information about tour dates and venues, visit Tafelmusik’s website www.tafelmusik.org.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has just launched its new Baroque Mentors training program for emerging artists. The program is a season-long series of masterclasses in Toronto and residencies in universities across Canada, and allows emerging artists to learn directly from Tafelmusik musicians and such distinguished international artists as soprano Johannette Zomer (Holland), soprano Dorothee Mields (Germany), tenor Charles Daniels (England), baritone Peter Harvey (England), fortepianist Richard Egarr (England) and violinist Stefano Montanari (Italy).

Participating universities include the University of Toronto, University of Windsor, University of Western Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University, and University of Victoria.

Many of the students reached through Baroque Mentors are being introduced to period performance for the first time, while experienced period players or singers are able to access training at the highest level by the leading teachers in the field.

For more information about Tafelmusik and its Artist Training and Education programmes, visit tafelmusik.org.

At its recent Annual General Meeting, Tafelmusik announced its 10th consecutive operating surplus. And what a decade it has been: during this era (a time that corresponds with the administrative leadership of Tricia Baldwin), Tafelmusik has nearly doubled annual revenues from $2.6 million to $5.1 million, increased artistic activity and creative programming; remained debt-free; tabled ten consecutive balanced budgets; eliminated the accumulated deficit; created surplus funds for future artistic projects and as a cushion to ensure stability into the future; and built its Endowment to $1.6MM to provide income in perpetuity. Board Chair David Linds thanked Music Director Jeanne Lamon and all the musicians, Managing Director Tricia Baldwin and the staff team, and the Tafelmusik Board of Directors for an outstanding season that represented a string of successes at home and on the world stage.

“Tafelmusik’s vision is to be an international centre of musical excellence in period performance for generations to come,” said Tricia Baldwin, Managing Director. “The 2009/10 season underscored this vision with an impressive array of home, international touring and filming activities. Tafelmusik proudly represented Canada on international tours to Italy, Germany, Mexico, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as continuing its national touring, this time in Quebec.”

In mid-October, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra takes to the skies for performances in Malaysia, South Korea and China, making its debut at the Beijing Music Festival, and presenting an expanded version of its renowned Galileo Project that includes Mandarin narration, Chinese astronomy and music.

The Asia tour begins in Kuala Lumpur with two performances on October 18 and 19 at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and an education concert at the National Planetarium, home of the Malaysian National Space Agency (ANGKASA). On October 21 and 22, Tafelmusik makes debut at the Beijing Music Festival, including a concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. At the end of the tour, three Tafelmusik musicians will run an intensive five-day residency at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. Chinese-Canadian musician Wen Zhao and bilingual American actor Jonathan Kos-Read, a well known film and television personality in China, join Tafelmusik for the performances in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. tafelmusik.org

Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has had a busy summer – making its first-ever appearance at the Orford Festival in early August, traveling to Italy for Maestro Kent Nagano’s Reate Festival in Italy in late August, and then making its 18th annual appearance as orchestra-in-residence at the Klang und Raum Festival in Germany in early September. It’s a harbinger of travels to come: in 2010-11, the orchestra will perform in 20 cities in North America, Europe and Asia.

Speaking about the tours, Music Director Jeanne Lamon noted, “Tafelmusik is proud to represent Canada internationally. It’s really important that the best Canadian artists go out in the world to remind people that Canada is an important force culturally, as well as politically and economically. I believe we live in one of the finest countries in the world, and I’m very proud to represent Canada on the world stage. Our job as cultural ambassadors is an extremely important part of our raison d’être.”

tafelmusik.org

Following tours to Italy, Germany, Québec, Mexico and the United States earlier this season, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is now well into its fifth international tour for the 2009/2010 season, a nine-city European itinerary with stops in Belgium, Holland and Spain. While in Europe, Tafelmusik will perform repertoire by Mozart and Haydn with long-time collaborator, conductor Bruno Weil and fortepianist Ronald Brautigam.