Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honourable members of the standing committee, for this opportunity to comment on this disastrous decision by the CBC management to discontinue the CBC Radio Orchestra.
I submit this brief as a person who has had considerable experience with the CBC Radio Orchestra. From 1980 until 1990 I was the producer in charge of the CBC Radio Orchestra, and from 1994 to 1997 I was the head of CBC records, the branch of CBC radio that produced dozens of outstanding recordings of this orchestra.
My opinions have also been informed by my experience as a board member and past president of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, a remarkable institution that is generously supported by Heritage Canada.
Speaking as the program director of Festival Vancouver, I'm acutely aware of the great contribution the CBC Radio Orchestra has made to our international music festival in five of the seven festivals we have had. We've enjoyed the partnership and were able to share costs to present concerts with great soloists, adventurous repertoire, and thrilling guest conductors. This is all lost now, and of course we are greatly disappointed.
Over the past decades the CBC Radio Orchestra has enhanced the programming and audience awareness of many independent organizations besides Festival Vancouver, such as the Music in the Morning Society, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Vancouver Cantata Singers, the Vancouver New Music Festival, and even Expo 86. These partnerships were an effective and efficient way for arts organizations to work together, as both the CBC and the independent presenting organizations were able to save money and at the same time produce events they normally could not have afforded without the partnership.
The network of CBC radio producers across the country has always been a very effective talent scouting system that has managed to provide opportunities to the best talents from every corner of the country. This sort of network does not exist in the U.S.A. and many other countries. The way it worked is that a producer in Montreal or Saskatoon, for example, would bring a talent to the attention of the producer of the CBC Radio Orchestra. In many cases this young artist would be invited to perform as a soloist with the orchestra. This feeding or funnelling of talent information to those entrusted with performing opportunities is a fundamental advantage of the CBC's network of knowledgeable staff.
The other way that talented soloists found themselves playing with the CBC Radio Orchestra was through the now defunct CBC young performers' competition. All of the past winners of the CBC's young performers' competition were automatically invited to do a concerto with the CBC Radio Orchestra. In many cases this was this first time they had the opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra. For many of them it was also the first time they gained some experience in a recording studio. This was a valuable experience, the sort that builds careers and strengthens confidence.
These people include a list of artists who are now very familiar to Canada's musical community: pianists such as Angela Cheng, William Aide, Janina Fialkowska, Richard Raymond, Jon Kimura Parker, Angela Hewitt, and Jane Coop; violinists such as Chantal Juillet, Gwen Hoebig, and Angèle Dubeau; and singers such as Judith Forst, Gabrielle Lavigne, Ingemar Korjus, Heather Thomson, Claude Corbeil, and Ben Heppner. All these people played with the CBC Radio Orchestra at the beginning of their careers, and most of them performed again many times as their careers matured.
What a showcase for Canadian talent the CBC Radio Orchestra has been. What is to become of the next generation of talented young soloists? Will they be given opportunities to play with the many orchestras across the land that have foreign music directors? I doubt it. For one thing, these orchestras do not have the talent-scouting network I mentioned: the team of CBC producers that advise the producer in charge of the CBC Radio Orchestra. Our young soloists need the CBC and the CBC Radio Orchestra to help them launch their careers.
I feel that I must comment on one aspect of this disaster that many are reluctant to talk about, and that is the loss of work for freelance musicians in Vancouver. The annual earnings of a member of the CBC Radio Orchestra were not lucrative. They were probably around $6,000 to $8,000 a year. But that was an important part of their overall income, combining with other performing work and teaching to provide a modest income, and allowing them to be part of Vancouver's thriving music scene. With the loss of this work, I would not be surprised to see some of these wonderful talents forced to move to a less expensive city where there is more support for the arts.
I'd like to comment on the CBC's role as an initiator versus a reflector.
Another aspect of this pathetic decision that is often overlooked is the devastating impact this sort of cut has on the morale of the production people working at CBC. Instead of being encouraged to be creatively involved in planning program content and choosing artists, they are just being asked to negotiate with outside music organizations and act as parasites on concerts planned by others. How demoralizing. How unsatisfying. How lacking in any sort of contribution to the national creative productivity.