Orchestras Canada

Last week, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra learned that it had been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, as one of six North American orchestras performing at the 2014 Spring for Music Festival. The WSO will give its first performance in Carnegie Hall since 1979 on May 8, 2014.

S4M began in 2011, and is designed as a celebration of the quality and creativity of North American orchestras. Orchestras are invited to participate on the basis of the imagination and boldness of their proposed programs, as judged by an expert panel of evaluators. The Orchestre symphonique de Montreal closed out the 2011 festival, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will be featured in 2012.

The WSO will perform three works that have also been featured at its annual New Music Festival: Derek Charke’s 13 Inuit Throat Song Games featuring throat singer Tanya Tagaq, WSO Composer-in-Residence Vincent Ho’s The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie as well as R. Murray Schafer’s Symphony No. 1. And, of course, WSO music director Alexander Mickelthwate will conduct.

For more information, please visit springformusic.com.

Late last week, the Ontario Arts Council announced the winner of the 2012 Oscar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance: Toronto-based cellist Shauna Rolston. The $20,000 award was presented on January 30 at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival, where Ms Rolston performed the world premiere of a new cello concert by WSO resident composer Vincent Ho. Widely recognized as one of Canada’s most unique musical talents, Ms Rolston has commissioned more than 50 new works for cello, performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and was the featured artist at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. In addition to her touring and performance schedule, Shauna is also Professor of Cello and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at The Banff Centre.

January 28 to February 3, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presents its 21st annual New Music Festival (NMF) – this year focusing on music from Nordic cultures, particularly Iceland.

The festival is a typically intrepid NMF mix, marrying outstanding local and Canadian artists with distinguished international visitors. Here’s a quick rundown:

Local stars: the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, led by Alexander Mickelthwate; the Canadian Mennonite University Chorus; Prairie Voices; WSO principal violist Daniel Scholz (featured in Giya Kancheli’s Styx); Groundswell Ensemble; and composers Vincent Ho, Jim Hiscott, Gordon Fitzell, Michael Matthews, Diana Macintosh, and Jesse Plessis (a student at Brandon University who recently won the Canadian Music Centre’s Emerging Composer award).

Canadian guests: cellist Shauna Rolston (performing a new concerto by Vincent Ho for carbon fibre cello and orchestra), dance troupe La La La Human Steps, composers Alexina Louie and Tim Hecker.

International visitors: violinist Jennifer Koh, composers Kaija Saariaho, Daniel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Gavin Bryars, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson

Venues: Centennial Concert Hall, Westminster United Church, Winnipeg Art Gallery

In line with Glenn Buhr’s long ago comment that “the New Music Festival is better than Christmas: it lasts longer, and it’s way cheaper”, Festival passes are a distinct bargain: $99 (regular) $89 (senior) $59 (student). For more information please visit newmusicfestival.ca.

Again this December, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has hit the road for a four-concert Holiday Express Tour, led by resident conductor Richard Lee. The orchestra performed holiday favourites in Steinbach and Beausejour last week, led by resident conductor Richard Lee and featuring soprano Ashley Klassen. This week, guest conductor Yuri Klaz and a quartet of soloists will join the orchestra and a number of specially-prepared local choirs in highlights from Handel’s Messiah. (We imagine the logistical complexities of this, and offer a quiet salute to all those who have made it possible!)

These performances are presented in partnership with the Steinbach Arts Council, Sunrise School Division, Virden Community Arts Council, and Southern Manitoba Concert Series.

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.

October 11 to 14, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presents its third annual Indigenous Festival, exploring new and old music traditions from China, Mexico and North America.

The festival includes a free performance at the Forks, a wonderfully diverse youth night at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, and A Night of Song and Dance at the Centennial Concert Hall, presented as part of the orchestra’s Masterworks series. Guests at this latter event include Camerata Nova, vocalist Cory Campbell, pipa player Wu Man, Odette Heyn-Projects and Bolero Dance Theatre – and the program will be conducted by WSO music director Alexander Mickelthwate. For more information about the festival, please visit www.wso.ca.

For the sixth year in a row, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (and its music director, Alexander Mickelthwate) will perform its Up Close and Orchestral concerts in seven different schools, reaching five public school divisions.

The program introduces students in grades 9-12 to orchestral music in a unique, up close and personal way and also features the winner of the WSO’s annual Student Soloist Competition. This year, flautist Jaena Kim will join the orchestra to perform the final section of Doppler’s Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise Op.26.

Voluntary students will have the opportunity to make their “WSO debut” as either the guest conductor during Bizet’s Toreador March from Carmen or as the “anvil pounding” guest artist during Verdi’s Anvil Chorus.

Participating students will also enjoy – free of charge – the WSO’s first Soundbytes concert of the 2011-12 season on November 26: Rock Owes the Classics. A leading Canadian rock historian, John Einarson, will take the audience on a guided tour of classical music chosen by renowned rock groups like the Beatles, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol Harum and more.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has announced a new partnership with the city’s Seven Oaks School Division to launch Manitoba’s first­-ever Sistema-­inspired program. The program – slated to start in October – will include an intensive, free, three­-hour daily program, at which members of the WSO will teach. Their efforts are supported by staff provided by the school division. Speaking about the new program, teacher Kristjanna Oleson (who will be leading the program at Elwick Community School) said, “Our goal is to expose students to musical communities in Winnipeg, to expand their borders and to enrich their lives with meaningful relationships.”

For more information about the WSO’s plans, please visit cbc.ca.