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

New Opera Documentary This Saturday on CBC Radio 2

New Opera, a documentary produced by journalist and spoken-word artist Madonna Hamel, will be airing this Saturday, January 19 on the first half-hour of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. New Opera will look at the experiences of artists and audience members in an exploration of Tapestry New Opera Works' creative process over the last year. Saturday Afternoon at the Opera begins at 1pm EST on CBC Radio 2.

CBC Radio 2 Offers Free Concerts On Demand Service

In case you missed that concert that you absolutely had to go see but were too busy or in the wrong city, CBC Radio 2 now offers Concerts On Demand on their website. This huge archive is searchable by event, artist, or genre and offers detailed information about performers along with photo galleries, related links, and track information.

The Top Classical Music Blogs in Canada

I've been following a number of classical music blogs written by Canadians for quite a long time now. Most of them have been mentioned on previous occasions and are listed on my blogroll. However, in light of Scott Spiegelberg's list of the top 53 classical music blogs on Musical Perceptions, I have decided to do a separate ranking of Canadian classical music blogs. In this respect, I am indebted to Scott for his choice of using Technorati in order to rank blogs in this niche. I have used the same type of format that he uses, but have added locations where known. Since Technorati is not a perfect ranking system, I briefly thought of including feed readership but decided against it, as inbound list and feed readership stats are like apples and oranges--a subscription account represents one person while an inbound link might result in hundreds or even thousands of visitors over time.

In addition to blogs written within Canada I decided to include expatriate blogs written by Canadians living out of the country. Campbell Vertsei's blog was the only one I could find that fit into this category.

A special mention must be made of the now defunct Chicago Canadienne written by Erin Wall in Chicago, certainly the most-read Canadian blog in this niche, ever. Although Erin stopped writing her blog and removed it from public viewing well over a year ago, Chicago Canadienne was an inspiration to me and others. Perhaps her negative experience is why nearly half the authors on the top 11 list are either anonymous or use a nom de plume.

As I mentioned on my list of the top 50 classical music feeds on Bloglines, this type of activity is not an awards ceremony to show which blogs are "better" than the others but a springboard for further reading of the sites on the list whether they are ranked or not.

Finally, I would like to put forward the idea that the classical music blogosphere in Canada represents the performers, teachers, and listeners who choose to write about their stories, views and experiences, is an integral part of the cultural life of this country, and should have the potential to be valued as much as publications in other media.

The Top 11

(blog title, Technorati ranking as of noon June 4 2007, author, location)

1. The Collaborative Piano Blog: 33 Chris Foley (Toronto/Oakville)
2. Campbell Vertesi--Bassus Canadensus: 21 Campbell Vertesi (Cincinnati)
3. PianoKnits: 7 eusebius (unknown location)
4. My Other Life: 6 soundtrk (Vancouver)
4. The Transcontinental: 6 Otto van Karajanstein (unknown location)
6. Willy or Won't he? 3 Willym (Gatineau)
7. Help! I'm a Postmodernist: 2 Margaret (Toronto)
7. Urban Flute Project: 2 Jamie Thompson (Toronto)
9. Eugene Chan on Violinist.com: 1 Eugene Chan (Burnaby)
9. s55ael: 1 anonymous (St. John's)
9. The Resonant Life: 1 Rebecca Hass (Victoria)
9. Atelier S: 1 Stuart Graham (Toronto)

Unranked on Technorati at time of writing:

Keywerx: RCM Community School Keyboard Faculty (Toronto)
CBC Radio Two Blog: various CBC hosts (across Canada)
Kelsey Z. on Violinist.com: Kelsey Z. (Okanagan)
Rhiannon Schmidt on Violinist.com: Rhiannon Schmidt (Salmon Arm)

Please note: this list includes blogs I have found over 19 months of blogging, as well as my own. It doesn't include any French-language classical music blogs written in Quebec. If you know of any other blogs that you feel should make the list (especially on MySpace or LiveJournal), please contact me either through email or comment. I'll be updating as information comes available.

Sign the Restore CBC Radio Two Petition

I just got a note on Facebook regarding a petition to restore the full range of classical programming previously available on CBC Radio Two. This spring, evening classical music (much of it live), the Arts Report, and Two New Hours were cancelled to make way for new programs. If you find these programming changes objectionable, please sign the Restore CBC Radio Two petition. Here is some of the petition's statement:

On March 19, 2007, CBC Radio 2 cancelled its excellent evening classical music programming, and the immensely informative Arts Report, and the award-winning Two New Hours. We consider that with these changes the management of our only national public broadcaster has compromised its tradition of providing stimulating and informed programming. We also believe that these changes are not consistent with the CBC mandate and the recent UNESCO treaty on cultural diversity.

The public voices of many dedicated and world-class Canadian writers, hosts, composers, producers and artists are being muted. If the changes are allowed to stand and the trend to continue, the CBC will have entirely squandered its unique capacity to represent the arts, with their inherent qualities of “complexity, depth and order”.