The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 3: Russell Smith's Speech

By the time the well-known journalist, novelist, cultural commentator, and Globe and Mail columnist Russell Smith spoke, the crowd had reached at least 250 by my estimate. Kudos to everyone that showed up in the cold and rainy weather outside the CBC building, including a fair number of students from both the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music. Here is Russell's speech in its entirety:




If you want to check out the first two speeches at the April 11 rally, you can view them here and here. After Russell Smith spoke, I filmed less than a minute of composer James Rolfe's speech when my camera's card registered that it was full. Other speakers on Friday included Ivars Taurins of Tafelmusik and composer Ruth Watson Henderson.

The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 2: Bob Stevenson's Speech

Here is more footage I took on Friday afternoon at the rally in Toronto to save classical music at the CBC. This speech is from Robert W. Stevenson, Artistic Director of Arraymusic and head of the Toronto Coalition of New Music Presenters.



The next speech from Friday's protest I'll be posting is by Russell Smith, columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Kathleen Rudolph's speech
Russell Smith's speech

Take the poll: Do you agree with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to dismantle the CBC Radio Orchestra?

The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 1: Kathleen Rudolph's Speech

Here is footage of CBC Radio Orchestra principal flutist and Glenn Gould School faculty member Kathleen Rudolph speaking at Friday's Toronto rally to save classical music at the CBC, filmed by myself in front of the CBC building on Front Street. Kathleen was the first speaker this afternoon, and most of the people present at the rally so far were behind me on the street, since we had moments before been asked by CBC security to congregate away from the building. Once more people arrived, the entire area was filled with at least 250 people, as subsequent videos will show.



See also:

Bob Stevenson's speech
Russell Smith's speech

Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Printable Posters

Here's yet another way to show your support for both the CBC Radio Orchestra and the cause of classical music on the airwaves in Canada: put up posters. Bill Horne has very generously created and made available several posters on pdf files that you can easily print out and copy:

-the poster shown at left
-another poster with a list of organizations and public officials to contact
-a Northerners Support the CBC Radio Orchestra poster (watch it in action on this video)

And while you're at it, please don't forget to sign the petitions to Save the CBC Radio Orchestra and Restore CBC Radio 2. Then fill out the CBC Radio Orchestra poll and learn the truth about where public opinion stands regarding this matter.

Los Marimbistas de Wells

One of the saddest outcomes of the CBC classical music cuts is that residents of small towns across Canada and the northern United States will lose much of their access to classical music. Here are two amateur percussionists from the northern British Columbia town of Wells playing a short piece (in the snow, no less!) in support of the CBC Radio Orchestra.



(Thanks, Bill!)

Colin Miles at the Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Rally in Vancouver

From the rally held Tuesday morning in Vancouver, here is footage of a speech by Colin Miles, BC Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre, on the impact that the loss of the CBC Radio Orchestra will have on the musical life of Canada.



From an account of the demonstration in the Vancouver weekly The Georgia Straight:

A national uproar has ensued from the news that the Vancouver-based CBC Radio Orchestra is to be dismantled, with protesters lobbing accusations of censorship at the national broadcaster.

(Thanks, Cindy!)

CBC Radio Orchestra Poll Results

Last week, I started a poll that asked the question:

Do you agree with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to dismantle the CBC Radio Orchestra?

Vizu polls are designed so that they can be replicated (click on the Copy Poll link after you've voted and you can customize and copy the html code) Thanks to John Oliver for reposting the poll on his main site as well as his standonguardforcbcradio blog (did anyone else copy the code?)

As of the time of writing, here are the poll's results so far after 398 votes:

• 3% Yes
• 97% No

Pictured at left is a Google Map of the North American votes so far from the results page of the poll (Red=Yes, Green=No). Although I guessed that the Yes votes would be less than 50%, I had no idea that there would be not even 5% support. A big thanks to everyone from the US who voted!

This poll has no end date, so the results are ongoing. I invite all bloggers and webmasters to post the code for this poll so we can get a more accurate picture of the popularity of the CBC's decision to fold the Radio Orchestra.

No matter what your opinion is, there's still plenty of time to vote, which you can do on the sidebar to the right or on the poll's original post.

You Can't Argue With Numbers

Here are links to two rapidly growing Facebook groups that are showing that classical music fans can be young, passionate, vocal, committed, and militant in the face of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation apparently determined to wage war on the future of classical music in Canada.

Save Classical Music at the CBC Facebook group - 9605 9832 members and counting

Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Facebook group - 2701 3066 members and counting

(Facebook membership is required to join these groups)

Did the Hockey Strike Kill the CBC Orchestra?

Thanks to Laurie Townsend for writing this article and for asking for it to be reposted here. Laurie is the Concerts and Communications Manager at the University of British Columbia School of Music and writes about the importance of the CBC Radio Orchestra and its importance over the last few decades as a vehicle for emerging artists.

Did the Hockey Strike Kill the CBC Orchestra?
Thoughts on hearing the announcement of the demise of the CBC Radio Orchestra


CBC and Hockey are two of Canada’s National institutions. Watching “Hockey Night in Canada” is a national pastime and the CBC relies heavily on the advertising revenues for the games they broadcast on TV. The CBC budget took a hard hit when the 2004-2005 season of NHL Hockey was cancelled. Is it possible that the CBC Vancouver Orchestra (recently renamed the CBC Radio Orchestra) was affected by the loss of these TV revenues? I could not help wondering about the trickle down effect during the hockey strike three years ago and it came to mind again yesterday [March 27th] when CBC executives came to Vancouver to announce the elimination of the CBC Orchestra to its musicians.

News reports indicate this was an economic decision. Since CBC music broadcasting has taken a radical turn away from so called “classical music”, the economic argument for killing the CBC orchestra is not honest. Stating they will use the CBC Radio Orchestra budget (less than 1 million dollars per year [later word indicated $600,000]) to record other orchestras is not honest either as they have, in recent years, cut that amount and more from what they have spent recording Canadian orchestras. Others have written about the loss of classical music programming from CBC. With a turn away from classical music broadcasting the death of the orchestra could be considered a natural consequence, one more in the series of deaths of CBC music radio shows.

Instead of grieving today, I want to offer you an example of the CBC Radio Orchestra’s impact on Canadian culture through the stories of a few of our students at the UBC School of Music. I suspect every similar school and institution across this country could share (and I hope they do) similar stories. Stories of how CBC Radio and the CBC Radio Orchestra have nurtured the young performing and composition talents of this country, each one an argument for our national public broadcaster to reinstate the orchestra and return classical and contemporary music programming onto radio and internet broadcasting.

The UBC School of Music has had four of students win at the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in New York, auditions so prestigious and famous for helping to launch international careers that the media always reports stories about the winners. Judith Forst (B. Mus 1966, LLD 1991) won in 1968, Ben Heppner (B. Mus 1978) won in 1988, Philippe Castagner won in 2002 while still a student (is now singing with the Met in New York and starred in the VOA’s recent First Nations setting of Mozart’s Magic Flute), and just last month current third-year student Simone Osoborne won. For Forst and Heppner, the CBC has nurtured and chronicled their rise to stardom on the opera stages of the world. Before the Met, Heppner’s talent was recognized by CBC when he won the CBC Competition for Young Performers in 1979. Both Heppner and Forst have been featured soloists with the CBC Orchestra in studio sessions for broadcast, CD recordings or public performances at various times throughout their careers. Philippe Castagner recently was a soloist with the orchestra and received national exposure through CBC. One of the mandates of the orchestra has been to help develop Canadian talent by providing performance opportunities and national exposure through broadcasts. Simone Osborne may be destined for a big career on world stages, but will her public broadcaster be one of those introducing her to Canadians and nurturing her career?

Like feeder teams for the National Hockey League, the CBC has trained and developed Canadian cultural stars (and journeyman musicians who populate chamber ensembles, orchestras and teaching positions in Canada and internationally) and trained every other kind of radio production and orchestra production team member. And here again, I can list UBC Music alumni; George Laverock and Karen Wilson, both former Producer/Managers of the CBC Orchestra in Vancouver, Don Harder, Recording Engineer for the orchestra and many members of the orchestra. Faculty members such as pianists Jane Coop and Sara Davis Buechner have been soloists with the orchestra and several members of the orchestra teach here as well. Sadly, other CBC farm teams have already been cut including the regional performance programs (West Coast Performance being the B.C region show) which was often a first recording experience for young musicians with exposure to a large public and continuing exposure for established musicians.

The current executives say the resources are so limited that they could not afford to continue having a broadcast orchestra. The amount reported is something less than one million dollars. An amount that is less than a starter house in North Vancouver. It is also less than what is spent to produce some 30-second TV commercials, and depending on the show, I understand significantly less than the cost of producing a single episode for TV. This seems such a small cost for the value that this orchestra provides for our Country. For years the orchestra has been threatened, yet past CBC executives with vision have had the courage, creativity and tenacity to keep it alive.

Did the Hockey strike kill the CBC Orchestra? I believe it led to cuts in many areas of CBC programming including the orchestra. Yet the Canada Council has recently received more funding to support Canadian Cultural institutions and even the B.C. provincial government has increased support for the arts. I would like to see the Canadian federal government increase funding to CBC so that it may fulfill its mandate to the Canadian public rather than squeeze budgets throughout the Corporation to the point of killing our national cultural jewel, the CBC Radio Orchestra.


Laurie Townsend
Concerts and Communications Manager UBC School of Music.
Formerly Orchestra Librarian of the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Production Assistant for CBC Radio Music in Vancouver, Orchestra Librarian of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and holds a B. Mus. from UBC.

March 28, 2008

----------

PS and A few facts and figures . . .

You can hear Simone Osborne sing the role of Rosalinda when UBC Opera Ensemble per performs a concert version of “Die Fledermaus” with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra May 15th at the Orpheum Theatre.

The Cutbacks have been going on for years.
The orchestra used to mostly work in the studio recording repertoire for radio broadcast and LP/CD release.

15 – 20 years ago the orchestra recorded approx 30 studio sessions and about 3 public performances each year.

Over the years the number of sessions continued to reduce until a couple of years ago the orchestra was told it could only perform publicly and then were not given the administrative or promotional support to advertise the concerts sufficiently. And in spite of this audiences at recent concerts have been very good.
This year they are giving 6 - 8 concerts.

Recording orchestras across the Country has reduced drastically over the years.
When I worked for the VSO the CBC recorded approximately 12 concerts a year.
Last year 5 were recorded. This year only the concerts of their Beethoven Festival will be recorded for radio broadcast.

Any list of artists who have performed as soloists with the CBC orchestra or have had works commissioned or performed by the orchestra in its 70 year history is a list of the who’s who of Canadian musical talent.

Some other CBC music programs cut or being cut: DiscDrive, Global Village, Sound Advice, Music in Company, Here’s to You, Studio Sparks, Choral Concert, Music for a While, Two New Hours, Symphony Hall, The Singer and the Song, Northern Lights.

Good Music is good music is good music. CBC Radio 2 (Ne CBC Stereo, CBC FM) has been broadcasting jazz, world, folk, roots and singer/songwriters in addition to its classical offerings for decades in programs dedicated to each genre. And all genres collected together with a huge audience following in shows like DiscDrive.

In September 2006 CBC recorded and broadcast the entire Wagner Ring Cycle from the new Canadian Opera Company’s theatre in Toronto.
Niche programming for an elite audience or exciting and risky programming packaged and promoted to bring the opera art form to a larger audience?
Cost - priceless

The CBC Radio Orchestra - also priceless

“Any public broadcaster,” wrote Lord Pilkington about the BBC in 1960, “whose aim is to give the public what it wants, first underestimates that audience, then debauches it!”

One outcome of CBC Radio 2’s heavy emphasis on “serious” music
I started listening when I was a teenager. CBC Radio 2 is one of the reasons I have dedicated my life to working in the arts.

What can you do?

1. Write!
Send letters, e-mails, contribute to blogs (NB: Letters sent by post are counted more!)
Talk to others and encourage them to write.
I heard that one person is sending a cheque with their letter stating the money is to be used to reinstate the orchestra.
I'm still drafting my letter [Mar 30] to the CBC Executives, CBC Board, Prime Minister and Heritage Minister etc. I'm going to include a cheque with each letter expressly for the reinstatement and ongoing support of the CBC orchestra. For the cheques to the govt people it will be made payable to the Receiver General (same as when you pay your taxes) with a strong statement that I want my tax dollars to support our Public Broadcaster; for the CBC folk the cheques will be made out to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
I did a quick calculation – at the current level of activity the orchestra costs each Canadian less than 2 cents a year.
$5 represents share for 250 Canadians, $50 represents 2,500 and $100 represents 5,000.
(some addresses are included at the bottom)

2. Forward this message

3. Attend the last concerts of the Orchestra

April 20th at 3:00pm at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Programme – Great Canadian Songbook II
A programme of Canadian popular singers interpreting the music of four classic Canadian songwriters in original arrangements for orchestra by Canadian composers.
A wonderful example of the kind of creative, interesting, innovative, risky and entertaining programming that only the CBC can do and has been doing for 70 years!
And a brilliant programming idea when faced with pressure from above dictating the shift in direction CBC music content was taking. The traditional audience of the orchestra and Radio 2 must all cringe at the idea of pop music on Radio 2, what way to turn an unpalatable dictate on its head.

Look out for listings of the the Fall series of concerts which will include their last concert in November

4. Buy recordings of the orchestra and other CBC recordings by Canadian Artists (while you still can)
ie. – Mozart Horn concertos with James Sommerville and CBC Vancouver Orchestra which won Juno award or the latest recording of violin concertos with James Ehnes and the Vancouver Symphony which just won a Grammy Award. Note – CBC Records will no longer record music to be released on CD
Many fabulous CDs to choose from https://www.cbcshop.ca


Links to news stories of the announcement of the demise of the orchestra

http://www.straight.com/article-139062/a-battle-save-cbc-radio-orchestra

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080327/canada/vancouver_bc_cbc_radio_orchestra

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080328.CBCSUB28/TPStory/TPNational/Music/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080327.worchestra0327/BNStory/Entertainment/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=a7f2ce94-9b9c-41ad-973b-9fdf54094e23


Names and Addresses you can write to. . .

President CBC
Hubert T. Lacroix President and CEO,
CBC
P.O. Box 3220, Station C,
Ottawa, Ont.,
K1Y 1E4,
Phone: (613) 288-6000,

Tim Casgrain, Chair, CBC Board of Directors and other members of the CBC Board
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/directors/

The Two CBC Executives that came to Vancouver to tell the orchestra is was cut (they would have been the decision makers as well and requested board approval)
Mark Steinmetz, Director of Radio Music

P.O. Box 500, Station " A"
Toronto, Ont.
M5W 1E6

mark_steinmetz [at] cbc dot ca

Phone: (416) 205-3100, Ont.
M5W 1E6
Phone: (416) 205-3100

Jennifer McGuire, Executive Director of CBC English Radio
P.O. Box 500, Station " A"
Toronto, Ont.
M5W 1E6

jennifer_mcguire [at] cbc dot ca


CBC/Radio-Canada - English Services
Audience Relations

250 Front Street West
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario M5W 1E6
1-866-306-INFO (4636) Toll-free
416-205-6688 (TDD)
website: www.cbc.ca/contact/

CBC/Radio-Canada
Corporate Communications, Head Office

P.O. Box 3220, Station C
Ottawa, ON K1Y 1E4
613-288-6033 (General)
e-mail: liaison [at] radio-canada.ca

The Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2

Fax: 613-941-6900
e-mail pm [at] pm.gc.ca


The Honourable Josée Verner
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

To send an e-mail from the Canadian Heritage web page go to this page. . .
http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/min/verner/contact/index_e.cfm

The Member of Parlaiment for your riding

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
attn.: Ian Morrison
Box 200/238
131 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1R8
Fax: (416) 968-7406
E-mail: friends [at] friends dot ca

Laurie Townsend
Concerts and Communications Manager
University of British Columbia
School of Music

On the Alleged Blocking of Comments at CBC In-House Blogs

Among the many comments I've been receiving, here is one that raises an important question:

Thank you, everyone, for your support of the CBC Radio Orchestra and its role in Canadian culture. Be aware that censorship is going on at the www.insidethecbc.com site. CBC Executive Mark Steinmetz has been known to block "too controversial" comments.

Make your comments known but watch out for the government censor!

Everywhere, Canada

Before I respond to the censorship accusations above, here is my own comment-blocking policy on the Collaborative Piano Blog.

1. Duplicate comments. Often Blogger experiences posting hiccups and stalls when comments are submitted. The commenter then resubmits and I have two comments to moderate.
2. Spammy comments. Often internet marketers spam the comments of high-traffic blogs in order to get hits to their sites. That's why many bloggers moderate their comments.
3. Individuals that beg for links. I prefer comments on my site to advance the conversation forward rather than be merely random plugs for other websites. If a comment is a request for a link (except in posts where I happen to be putting out a request for new classical music blog url's, for example) I'll generally delete it.
4. Vicious accusations against individuals or companies. I won't post comments that deal with outrageous comments about others.

I almost always post negative comments about myself and my writing, as I feel it makes for a better blog and a better viewpoint on the subjects I write about.

One might argue that the quoted comment above might fall within the fourth category and I should have deleted it since the comment-shredding is still only alleged, but I think that the matter at hand (the CBC Radio Orchestra affair) is important enough that the comment warrants both reposting and a full-length response from myself.

The blog in question, Inside the CBC, is in fact the "official blog of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation". It is written by freelance radio producer Tod Maffin, and by his own admission (see his about page), treads the fine line between in-house employee blog and public blog. As is the case with corporate blogs, Inside the CBC may be subject to some sort of in-house censorship in order for the company (the CBC) to present a unified public image.

Here's the part that many people will disagree with:

Inside the CBC has every right to censor comments they feel are inappropriate.

Think of newspapers--they have to pick and choose which letters to the editor they decide to print in the next day's edition. But, since they usually receive more letters than they have room to print, they need to choose which ones they use.

The blogging medium has changed all that, with commenting systems offering almost unlimited space for blog readers to post their comments. However, the fact of the matter is that owners of a publication, whether it be newspaper, magazine, e-zine, or blog, have every right to pick and choose which submitted comments are circulated.

On the other hand, as a public corporation of one of the most vibrant democracies on the planet, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation may have an ethical and democratic responsibility to maintain the freedom of speech on its in-house organs in order to reflect the views of the taxpayers that fund the public corporation.

But although I respectfully disagree with Tod's opinions on the disbanding of the CBC Radio Orchestra, as a fellow blogger I fully support Tod's responsibility towards being both a blogger and a public employee and the right to run his blog as he sees fit.

If you want to read further on the rights of bloggers, take a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's resources on Bloggers' Rights.

With the public hue and cry arising from the disbanding of the CBC Radio Orchestra, I would encourage those that wish to get the word out to use more vehicles than just blog comments to make their voice heard. These tools include starting their own blogs, using Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook groups, or publishing their own websites. We have both freedom of speech and the technology that allows the dissemination of information to an unprecedented extent. Let's use it!

Earle Peach on Saving the CBC Radio Orchestra

Vancouver musician and activist Earle Peach has a simple solution to save the CBC Radio Orchestra: get 20,000 people to each donate $50 to the CBC, thereby maintaining stable funding of $1 million for the orchestra and ensuring its survival. Here is his open letter:

Folks--since obviously the decision makers at the CBC don't know their asses from lambs' quarters, they need a little help in the decision-making department. Accordingly I'm mailing in a donation of $50 to the CBC, earmarked for the CBC Radio Orchestra. The orchestra's budget is a mere $1M; that's only 20,000 donations of $50. I'm positive that that many Canadians will be willing to put up $50. Hell, I'll throw in an extra $5 to convince the current CBC board of directors to stand up to the Canadian Taliban (er, sorry, the Conservatives), and resign en masse in protest over their obvious plans to gut our national broadcaster. Let's face it, this is a fight to the finish. The Conservatives are softening the CBC up for privatization after the next election. Don't let them!

I'm mailing my cheque to

Audience Relations
250 Front Street West
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario M5W 1E6

And making it out to "CBC/Radio Canada" with a memorandum "for CBC Radio Orchestra". If you want you can also send them the first paragraph above...:>)

Please forward this message to as many folks as you can! Saving the CBC Radio Orchestra should be a piece of cake.

(Thanks, Ita!)

An Open Letter from John Oliver

Vancouver composer John Oliver has asked that I post an open letter he has written to the musical community. Here is the letter in its entirety:

Dear friends and colleagues,

Yesterday CBC management announced they are dismantling the CBC Radio Orchestra in the fall.

The CBC Radio Orchestra has commissioned and performed more Canadian music, and engaged more Canadian performers, than any other orchestra in Canada. It could easily continue to do so under the inspired direction of the dynamic conductor and music director Alain Trudel.

Please write a letter or email the CBC management and Members of Parliament.

This is an issue of cultural sovereignty. It is essential that this message be sent to Members of Parliament of all parties. The CBC belongs to the people of Canada.

Please write letters to:

Mark Steinmetz, Director, CBC Radio Music
mark_steinmetz [at] cbc dot ca
P.O. Box 500 Station A, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5W 1E6

Jennifer McGuire, Executive Director of CBC English Radio
jennifer_mcguire [at] cbc dot ca
P.O. Box 500 Station A, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5W 1E6

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
All can be reached by regular mail, free of charge, at this address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Josée Verner, Member of Parliament,
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages
Telephone: (613) 996-4151
Fax: (613) 954-2269
E-Mail: Verner.J [at] parl dot gc dot ca
E-Mail2: Min_Verner [at] pch dot gc dot ca

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
E-Mail: Harper.S [at] parl dot gc dot ca

OPPOSITION PARTIES

LIBERAL

Mauril Bélanger, Critic for Canadian Heritage, La Francophonie and Official Languages
Riding: Ottawa--Vanier
Belanger.M [at] parl dot gc dot ca
Constituency Office:
168 Charlotte St, Suite 504
Ottawa, ON K1N 8K6
(613) 947-7961
Web: www.mauril.ca

NDP

Charlie Angus, Culture Critic
818 Justice Building, House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A OA6
Tel: (613) 992-2919
angusc [at] parl dot gc dot ca

Constituency:
60 Wilson Avenue
2nd Floor
Timmins, ON P2H 2S7
Tel: (705) 268-6464
Fax: (705) 266-9125
web: http://www.ndp.ca/charlieangus

Your Member of Parliament's contact information can be found at:
http://canada.gc.ca/directories-repertoires/direct-eng.html

If anyone reading this knows CBC staff, please talk to them and encourage them to discuss and make public their views.

Dr. John Oliver, composer
New Westminster, BC

Grand Prize, 8th CBC National Young Composer's Competition - now disbanded

Symphonic Tone Poem "Raven Steals the Light" jointly commissioned by the CBC Radio Orchestra and the Music in the Morning Concert Society

"Unseen Rain" for mezzo-soprano and orchestra jointly commissioned by the CBC Radio Orchestra and the Music in the Morning Concert Society; performed by Judith Forst and the CBC Radio Orchestra under the direction of Mario Bernardi and recorded on CBC compact disk SM5191

A big thanks to John Oliver for caring enough about the future of music in Vancouver and Canada to compile this information and send it out to the musical community.

I have altered email addresses so their owners avoid spam bots, with [at] substituted for @ and "dot" substituted for periods. All addresses are for either publicly elected officials or appointed members of public corporations.

I would also invite citizens of other countries to write to the above officials as part of the CBC's extended family that have easy access to CBC programs via proximity to Canada, shortwave radio, or the internet.

Cultural Vandalism

A letter from University of British Columbia piano faculty member Sara Davis Buechner that appears in today's Vancouver Sun equates the elimination of the CBC Radio Orchestra to "cultural vandalism":

This decision by the CBC amounts to an act of cultural vandalism on a national scale. Imagine the Vancouver Art Gallery stripping its walls of Lawren Harris and Emily Carr because big-eye pictures of animals and clowns sell better. Imagine our libraries tossing out Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood because they are sometimes tough reading and lining their shelves with Harlequin romance novels that attract more readers.

You can read the entire letter here.

A Letter From Two Vancouver Residents

Ita Kane-Wilson sends along the following letter to CBC Director of Radio Mark Steinmetz from Vancouver residents Anakana and her 8-year-old son Cuan:

Dear Mark Steinmetz,

My eight year old son went off to sleep this evening humming the first movement of Vivaldi's Spring which he would have heard on CBC Radio. He listed his top three favourite pieces of music as Beethoven's 5th, Vivaldi's Spring and Bach's Joy of Man's desiring. I had to inform him on the way home from school that the people like your good self and Jennifer, who are making decisions on behalf of our publicly funded national broadcaster and thus the listening public who fund the CBC, think it's a bright idea to disband the single treasure we have in this, often otherwise dull city -- our charming and last of it's kind CBC Radio Orchestra.

What are you thinking? You're certainly not thinking of that eight year old's possibility to become further educated and enlightened on Canadian composers and musicians continued contribution to classical music. He'll never be able to sit the way he did at the Shostakovich 100 and have the excitement of knowing that what he's hearing will also in time be heard in tiny kitchens on rocky outcrops on the East coast. That intimate orchestra that is so unique and solidified an interest and love of music in a young child. An occasion where he heard loud and clear that Canadian composers and musicians are valued by their people.

I can't believe we'll never have the hope of those words ...."played by the CBC Radio Orchestra ..."

It's not the same to hear that the blah blah symphony worked with x composer. All those orchestras are tied up with heavy marketing -- the CBC Orchestra is only ever about music and Canadian music and it's unfathomable to me that you would make such [an] about face decision.

This country suffers from an incredible inferiority complex and this is just another example of not having frankly the balls to hold onto something that's valued by the public in unquantifiable ways that middle manager types cannot type up into excel spreadsheets. Of course it doesn't make financial sense, good art rarely does. That's the point, it's why you have to be brave and stand up for it.

What is happening to the CBC? They're turning on the very people who sustain it and love it.

Why not stand out and hold onto the fact that it's the last Radio Orchestra in N America. Why not allow the public to continue to love and treasure it. Why not actively promote it?

I cannot understand it, Ireland was a poor country for a very long time, yet we always had our radio orchestra. I think nations know when they need to hold onto things. I hope Canadians will send a strong message to the CBC that you haven't the right to take our radio orchestra from us.

And what about that eight year old. We are a low income family, and yet he still found his way to those composers. The continued existence of the radio orchestra offers the same to future generations of eight year olds and for him to mature with the idea that music, and esp. Canadian music actually has value for Canada. Don't give me any of this old blather about how you plan to invest the money ... just

Reverse this awful decision. Please.


Sincerely,

Anakana and Cuan (age 8)

The Canadian Music Centre's Press Release on the CBC Radio Orchestra Elimination

Here is the complete text of the Canadian Music Centre's press release in response to Thursday's axing of the CBC Radio Orchestra:

Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers Shocked By Decision to Disband CBC Radio Orchestra

March 28, 2008, Toronto, ON – Today, the Canadian Music Centre and the Canadian League of Composers are trying to come to terms with the CBC Radio’s decision to disband its orchestra – the last radio orchestra still functioning in North America. This announcement, made privately yesterday in Vancouver with less than a 24 hour notice to the orchestra’s musicians, has left much of the Canadian musical community questioning the broadcaster’s commitment to both classical music and its own broader cultural mandate.

Elisabeth Bihl, CMC Executive Director, believes that “the decision to disband the CBC Radio Orchestra must have been a decision made with little to no input from the Canadian public or our music community. The orchestra may have been around for some 70 years - but since when is longevity equated automatically with having already served its purpose?”

She further states that “the need for CBC Radio to fulfill its mandate to showcase Canadian talent has not evaporated with time. If CBC management can simply destroy such a vitally important infrastructure for Canadian talent, then it must be held publicly accountable. As a government funded institution, it must see beyond its immediate actions of budget cutting and pursue its mandated cultural role – for the benefit of all Canadians.”

Jennifer McGuire, Executive Director of CBC English Radio, indicated yesterday that the money “saved” as a result of this decision will be used more efficiently by spending it on other Radio 2 musical programs. While also asserting that CBC Radio was still committed to innovative and creative Canadian music, she made no concrete indication that this funding would be used to directly support future classical music programming.

As organizations focused on the promotion of Canadian composers and their work, the Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers see this most recent CBC Radio announcement as yet another in a series of decisions made without input from the communities to which the broadcaster is ultimately accountable – both its listeners and the broader Canadian public. James Rolfe, President of the Canadian League of Composers, stated: “This is one of Canada’s finest and most-loved orchestras. It has served as a showcase and launching pad for our best composers (for example, Claude Vivier), conductors (Yannick Nezet-Séguin), and performers. The CLC deplores this short-sighted measure, which diminishes the cultural life of all of Canada, and makes a mockery of the CBC’s own mandate to promote Canadian culture.”

Ms. Bihl feels that the following statement made today (via e-mail) by Sarah Davis Buechner, a piano professor at the University, all too accurately sums up this situation: "It is a sad day in the history of this country when artists have to stand up to defend their contributions against the very institutions which were founded to foster cultural understanding, emotional connection and pride in the Canadian national character."

Established in 1959, the Canadian Music Centre exists to stimulate the awareness, appreciation and performance of Canadian music, making the music of its Associate Composers available through its music libraries and through various promotional and outreach activities. The CMC is Canada’s primary information resource, producer, distributor of concert music and sound recordings.

Founded in 1951, the Canadian League of Composers is the oldest organization in Canada that speaks for professional composers in an official capacity. It represents the interests of composers, monitoring and influencing the conditions that affect their livelihood and public image.


For further information, please contact:

Steven W. Foster,Manager of Communications & Resource Development

Phone: 416.961.6601 ext. 303 Email: sfoster [at] musiccentre dot ca

Why Is (Almost) Nobody Supporting the CBC's Classical Music Cuts?

Tod Maffin of the Inside the CBC blog seems to be the lone voice so far in actually supporting the cuts, not as a matter of economic necessity (which he dismisses, disagreeing with his superiors' rationalizations of the cuts) but as a matter of demographic choice. Where he goes horribly wrong is in fantasizing that the CBC's executives' point of view is actually supported:

First, I’m in the camp of people (and there are many) who actually support the expansion of CBC Radio Two to include different genres of music.

Oh really? Where are they? Why is it that the articles on this story so far in newspapers and blogs are almost exclusively of an extremely negative nature? Why is is that the Save Classical Music at the CBC Facebook group is now at 8500 members and counting? Why is it that the Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Facebook group already has over 550 600 members in its first day?

The reality is that CBC have in one fell swoop alienated their core listening audience of Radio 2, made enemies of much of the cultural elite of Canada, and militarized the classical music community in a manner never before seen.

And now the classical musicians of Vancouver, a city with one of the most vibrant musical communities on the continent, will have to go on with one of its best and brightest orchestras eliminated at the end of November.