Thank you.
I'm not going to address the critical mass issue about blocks of airtime, but I want to say something that offers at least my opinion about the radio orchestra. I'm not heavily involved in classical music, although I have an appreciation for it, and as I mentioned, some artists have recently done recording work with classical ensembles or string ensembles. I think there could conceivably be a role for a radio orchestra.
But as I see it, there are still many orchestras, and perhaps the CBC could take some of their initiative in money to bring additional support to other orchestras—the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and so on—allowing more opportunity for them to commission new work that can be recorded and broadcast, the kinds of stuff that I assume was the cornerstone of what the radio orchestra would do.
I'm not vehemently opposed to the radio orchestra, certainly. It's really a question of what they can do with other existing classical ensembles to help enhance their reality. If the CBC can do that to a multitude of other ensembles or orchestras, then I think that would be a net gain, although I'm glad I'm not the lead violinist for the radio orchestra.