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MIXING
BUSINE$$
WITH (MUSICAL)
PLEASURE
Canada loves its classical music festivals: there are over 150 of them every summer, and more during the rest of the year. To feed the
growing appetite for them, new festivals still crop up now and then; a notable recent addition Kent Nagano’s Knowlton Festival,
inaugurated just last summer. On the other end of the equation there are those festivals that have passed the test of time: Orford
Festival has been around since 1951, and the Scotiafest, Festival of the Sound, and Elora Festival all celebrate their 30th anniversaries
this summer. How does each festival find and carve out its particular niche? In a time of recession, finding the money to
operate a short annual event that harnesses year-round resources can get tough. La Scena Musicale gets right to the source and
finds out what challenges these festivals face what innovative solutions they offer are as they aim to attract the best artists.
BEHIND THE SCENES OF FIVE OF CANADA’S TOP MUSIC FESTIVALS
SCOTIAFEST
GIVING BACK
Crystal Chan
Inspired by the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom
festival, Managing and Artistic Director
Christopher Wilcox started the maritime fest
that’s featured the likes of Pierre Boulez, Philip
Glass, Christos Hatzis, and R. Murray Schafer:
Scotiafest (June 1-14). About 60 concerts, open
recitals, masterclasses, and round tables take
place during the festival.
This year, 200 musicians are gathering in
Halifax to perform Mahler’s grand Second
Symphony. Bombastic musical guests include
Jaroslav Tuma, an organist who recently set the
world record for playing five concerts in one day
CÉLÉBRATION DU
350 E ANNIVERSAIRE
DE NAISSANCE
DE HENRY PURCELL !
514 845-7171
www.montrealbaroque.com
38 Juin 2009 June
in five different
countries
and superstar
pianist John
Novacek. The
Elmer Iseler Singers from Toronto are also performing,
as is the nucleus of the festival, its own
Supernova string quartet.
Scotiafest’s an in-town type of festival: the concert
hall is small for most concerts, and tickets sell
out fast in the community so they largely do not
target audiences elsewhere in Canada. It has
attracted national attention, however; when Pierre
Boulez came from Paris with his contemporary
ensemble, the festival started attracting more
widespread international
attention. In 1991 the
Globe & Mail called the
festival the greatest music
event in Canada’s history.
The festival certainly
aims to give back to the
local community. In the
winter, there are weekly
chamber music concerts.
Nonprofit and amateur
groups come to the Music
Room, Scotiafest’s premiere 110-seat hall, equipped
with a recording studio and boasting high-level
acoustics, to record as well as perform. Scotiafest also
arranges open rehearsals and concerts at schools,
retirement homes, and parks as well as transportation
for students to attend concerts. During the summer
festival, the Young Artist Program brings together
aspiring and high-calibre musicians. This summer
74 students from across North America, Europe, and
South America will participate in two weeks of private
lessons, masterclasses, and concerts with concertmasters
and star artists.
Wilcox stressed that this type of educationally
transformative experience was, for him, the highlight
of what the Scotiafest experience can offer.
“I was in New York, and Pierre [Boulez] was conducting
the Chicago symphony at Carnegie Hall,”
he said. “I was in a dress rehearsal and pianist
John Novacek said,‘I’d like you to meet a friend of
mine,’ and introduced me to the principal violist.
He took a look at me and said: ‘Chris Wilcox! I
can’t believe it’s you! I was a student at Scotiafest
in ‘82.’ That kind of thing just thrills me to death.
He was a student here and now he’s the principal
violist of one of the greatest orchestras in the
world.” Another great ‘student’ of Scotiafest is the
St. Lawrence String Quartet, who studied at the
festival in 1986. www.scotiafestival.ns.ca