Canada orchestra files for bankruptcy
NewsThe Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra Association, which suspended its season last weekend in a flurry of emails without officially telling the musicians, has now gone bust.
Attempts to raise $2 million in a week to keep the orchestra alive came to naught.
Sad day for Ontario, Canada, and music off the beaten track.
There are half a million citizens left without music.
Remember Lord Kitchener’s slogan: ‘Your country needs YOU.’
How sad. Thinking of all the orchestra’s musicians no longer in work today.
You’d think a country such as Canada could somehow find 2 millions to help this orchestra. Does Canada as a state subsidize the arts at all, or is everything dependent on private donations, as in the US? My best wishes to my fellow musicians. It’s a sad time for the arts, trying to survive in a world dominated by vacuousness and philistinism.
In general, the balance of funding in Canada is less towards private donations and more towards grant funding– we simply don’t have the tradition of massive private philanthropy that the upper echelon of US society does. Overall probably a good thing– organizations are less in the pocket of individual rich people– but it means catastrophe when the grants dry up even a little. There’s tons of wealth in KW, but it’s tech wealth that wants to make investments, not old money that wants to see a family name on a building.
So $2 million would be peanuts for the massively wealthy; a few families putting in a few $100k each would hardly affect their investment portfolios yet garner widespread thanks for rescuing local jobs and musical culture. That said, the $2 million would probably have done no more than temporarily paper over a serious deficit…
Probably. Problem is, most of the people in a position to help in this case simply don’t give a shit about widespread thanks. Popularity in their local communities means nothing to them.
Unlike the US, there is quite a lot of funding from all levels of government in Canada for many orchestras, including the many smaller ones in that region. The issue isn’t government support, but a lack of sufficient public support and private donations locally. Because of this, there have been several orchestras in that area that have had to scale back or go under. Important to note here that their foundation is is still there with a mandate to provide music to the community so there is money available. Whether they use it to start a new orchestra with a sustainable contract or pay for larger groups to come in and play concerts is the question now. Time will tell
Most arts institutions on Canada are heavily subsidised by public funding. While there are some wealthy and generous philanthropists, and Canadians as a whole are generous donors to good causes, punching well above their weight in things like humanitarian crises, there is not the widespread culture of major, ongoing (tax-deductible) donations to the arts that is found in the US, where public funding is low relative to that in most civilised countries.
All very well recalling Kitchener’s saying, Norman, but “le mot de Cambronne” at Waterloo seems more appropriate in these circumstances – “merde”.
This is heartbreaking for those talented and hard working musicians .
Rejoice!
One leeech less in the orchestra landscape. Hopefully this is motivation for many of the overworked, underpaid, monotone musicians regurgitating the same 4 pieces every year to retrain into something more productive and on the weekends actually perform forward thinking music.
Another step in the right direction.
why are you on a music news website if you hate music and musicians…
I think you’re just looking for attention. Lame.
The fact that the KWS Board agreed to a new contract in mid-August shows them to be fraudsters and liars. The fact that they would not face the musicians shows them to be cowards. Shame on them all!
What would be the advantage to them? Their claim seems to be that asking for concessions in negotiations wouldn’t have done anything to cover the shortfall, and if they were going to continue at all they needed a big grant or donation. Which makes sense as far as it goes, but “fyi, we’re considering insolvency” does seem like a reasonable thing to mention during negotiations. I’ve seen multiple people claim this as evidence of fraud, but seeing as all the symphony’s assets are now out of the control of the former board, I don’t really see how many of them could have benefited personally from keeping it a secret until the last moment.
Hi. Just read this. The name of the orchestra is NOT Canada Orchestra. It is the Kitchener-Waterloo Orchestra, located in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario, a major Canadian province. Many Canadian arts organizations depend on provincial and federal grants. However, in time, these sources dry up. There are lots of wealthy individuals in this area. Time will tell if any of them step up to save this marvellous orchestra.
Seems to me that there is a larger issue at play than just economics. It has to do with mid-size communities in comparison to major metropolitan places.
The major metro orchestras can still, for the most part stay true to the orchestral tradition because of the pooling of economic resources in population centers. Their “exploration of off mainstream programming” is usually nothing more than an exercise in virtue signaling. In the mid-size communities, however, they have no choice but to dramatically alter their programming philosophy (i.e. Brahms/Radiohead, live movie soundtracks are just two examples although there are certainly other valid approaches–South Dakota Symphony) to keep audience numbers relevant and their economic heads above the water. It’s absolutely crucial music directors realize this or pay the price of being out of a job.
What do they say is the only constant on which you can rely? Change?
Unfortunately people here would rather go to hockey games than to live classical music concerts. I’m ashamed of my country because of this.
One observation in all of this: where the heck was the Executive Director? The board president, the music director, the musicians union, the PR person on the staff, all interacting with the media — but total silence from the ED. Did he just leave in the dead of night?
How did their board manage to keep the financial crisis a secret for so long? You don’t just “suddenly” come up short $2 million.
They didn’t keep it a secret– it was being discussed in government months ago. The musicians were also aware the orchestra was in bad financial shape; however, orchestra musicians tend to get used to bad financial news, and convince themselves that since the news is always bad and the place hasn’t gone bust yet, it never will.
That said, the fact that there were contract negotiations concluded recently without management thinking to mention that they were considering bankruptcy is pretty weird.
It will not be the last one… while people keep thinking that orchestras should be banked by philanthropy and the State, will be just a harsh decline. The orchestra has to pay its own bills with public and events. If no one is willing to pay, the math is quite simple, but not easy to accept.
Truly unfortunate and one wonders how many other fine arts institutions in Canada will be similarly stressed given our continuing economic downturn.The closest excellent symphony is The Hamilton Philharmonic approx 50 min driving fr K-W in optimal conditions.