About CBC Radio Orchestra
CBC Radio Orchestra (CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra 1938-80; CBC Vancouver Orchestra 1980-2000). Longest-lived regularly performing Canadian radio orchestra, and last remaining radio orchestra in North America. Other CBC radio orchestras included the CBC Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg orchestras, all of which were eliminated by the early 1990s by federal budget cuts.
The CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1938 by Ira Dilworth, who appointed John Avison conductor. Similar orchestras in Vancouver had antedated the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra: the CNRV Concert Orchestra (pre-1934) under Percy Harvey; another, heard around 1935 on CRCV’s ‘Jewels of the Madonna,’ with Jean de Rimanoczy as conductor; and the CBR Concert Orchestra. The CBR Symphony Orchestra, founded also by Dilworth and conducted by Arthur Benjamin, flourished in the early 1940s. The CBC Radio Orchestra originally comprised 25 musicians and was increased to 35 in 1952.
Their concerts are still regularly broadcast on CBC Radio Two, and also on occasion on Radio One and CBC TV’s arts program “Opening Night.” The musicians, of the CBC Radio Orchestra are among the best sight-readers in North America.
The CBC Radio Orchestra exists because no other Canadian orchestra does what it does. The CBC Radio Orchestra exists for the very same reasons the CBC exists:
- It operates outside of commercial imperatives
- Its programming is by definition challenging and engaging and not driven by the ratings equivalent of the need to fill concert halls
- The orchestra is unrepentantly Canadian; it seeks and celebrates original Canadian voices and shares their musical stories with listeners in every nook and cranny of the country. Its vision is truly national.
- It constantly strives for excellence. There is no other orchestra in the country that has the expressive range, flexibility or appetite for such a wide range of repertoire
- The orchestra is the very essence of the CBC - creative, committed to excellence, flexible and responsive to the needs of programmers and ultimately the audience it serves. If we can’t afford the orchestra, then the argument can easily be made that we can’t afford the CBC. There are a dozens of other broadcasters in the country. None serve the Canadian audience the way CBC Radio does. There may well be 46 professional and amateur orchestras in the country; none serve Canadian musical culture in the same invaluable way.
- The orchestra is very agile, a rapid response ensemble. This orchestra can be given a program idea, develop repertoire list, get the orchestra into studio to record the music, have it edited and to a broadcast home within a short period of time. From idea to completed product can be as fast as a month. No other orchestra in Canada can be as responsive and deliver the quality.
The orchestra is an asset to CBC, not a liability.
A point of fact - the orchestra once worked 30 weeks a year. It has been reduced to 6 – 8 concerts a year and forbidden to produce any studio sessions for broadcast by CBC management in their progressive and continual cut backs in funding and programming direction changes over the years.
[Excerpt from the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Full article can be found here.]
Letter from CBC Radio Orchestra Principal Conductor Alain Trudel written April 1st, 2008
April 1st, 2008
Dear members of my orchestra, colleagues, and music lovers across the country,
Over the past few days I have received your many communications concerning the untimely demise of the CBC Radio Orchestra (CRO). I want to thank you so much for your concern and love for the Orchestra. I am very moved to see how many people understand the importance of the CRO (celebrating it’s 70th anniversary this season) for Canadians of all musical backgrounds.
The musicians, and myself are, of course, devastated by the loss of our mandate from the CBC, which first gave us life. In this time of shock and obvious distress, I think it is important to articulate, as clearly as possible, the value that our Orchestra brings to music lovers from everywhere in our country and to the CBC itself. In order to move forward, we need to grasp what it stands for and its place in our cultural life.
At this moment the CRO is one of the top orchestras in the country; an orchestra, which we as Canadians have spent seven decades building. This Orchestra is a musical jewel and a cultural landmark.
Being the only Radio Orchestra in the Americas, the CRO is the ONE music ensemble that sets the Canadian music scene apart. By its existence, its mission and its work, it helps define Canada’s uniqueness.
Throughout it history the CRO has called upon composers and performers of all cultural backgrounds from across our country, proving that music is alive in our country, even when other matters may cause despair or discouragement.
Through live performance and national broadcast exposure the CRO gives exposure to Canadian soloists and composers, sending a message of hope to all young Canadian creators and to musicians of all musical backgrounds. It shows that their voices will be heard and celebrated.
Throughout my tenure, I have insisted that we develop projects from all musical genres, including jazz, world, pop and Canadian native music.
In 2007, we started the Great Canadian Song Book, which commissioned a diverse roster of composers to create “art song” settings of works from Joni Mitchell to Neil Young, from Buffy Ste-Marie to Serge Fiori and Michel Rivard.
The CRO has developed creative projects around music from Asia and the Middle-East; around jazz improvisers as well as traditional orchestral repertoire as well as collaborating with the rapper K-os.
During the last season, we commissioned 18 works over seven concerts. Through the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is not only seen as a programmer but also as an active partner in Canadian art-making.
The CRO, through the elegance of a national broadcasting network, has reached people across our country. In September 2007, we performed a specially developed program, live, in Iqaluit on Frobisher Bay. Months later, we went to White Rock, B.C. We have received invitations from large and small communities across Canada and even from major concert halls in Europe. All of this, alas, we are now unable to entertain.
I have been fortunate in my career to work extensively in both English and French Canada, having thereby, a truly national perspective. To my great joy, in recent months the French services of the Corporation have not only become more aware of the fine work of the CRO, but have expressed a desire to embrace it. This also is a path that we cannot now pursue. However, the role of the Orchestra in building bridges across our country is something we must never forget.
Many things have been made clear in the work of the Orchestra and in your response to its closing: the importance of music in our lives, the importance of nurturing, supporting and broadcasting the diversified and astonishing talent we have in our country, the role of a national broadcaster in bringing us together, and much more. We will each have our personal reflection on the meaning of all of this, but one thing is certain: the CRO reminds us of what it is we cherish most in music and in our country.
Respectfully yours,
Alain Trudel
Principal Conductor, CBC radio Orchestra
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