What is a Radio Orchestra?
We hope to include a full description of how the CBC Radio Orchestra works in CBC Studio One in Vancouver (built especially for this orchestra) to create music for radio broadcast. Thank you for your patience as we develop this page.
Until we have more information for you, here is a brief description, and a link or two:
If you have seen the historical film footage, you may have a picture in your mind Toscanini, sweat on his brow, clock on the wall in front of him, as he conducts the NBC Symphony to a grand finale of a work just as the sweep hand hits the top of the clock. Our modern radio orchestras do not often broadcast “live to air” these days except for special events. Our CBC Radio Orchestra has indeed performed “live to air” for the national network as well as occasional live broadcasts to the European Broadcasting Union. However, the nuts and bolts of the work of a radio orchestra, and the CBC Radio Orchestra was no exception until CBC Management stopped the orchestra from producing programs for radio in the studio 3 years ago, is a very intense and specialized process of rehearsal and recording of elements of works which are then crafted into radio programs by the recording engineer and producer and then presented to broadcast home shows to be packaged with their radio hosts and then broadcast to you.
One of the amazing aspects of the CBC Radio Orchestra is that the CBC has complete control of what music it records and has regularly commissioned composers to write music specifically for programming needs. This is one of the fundamental differences between the CBC having its own orchestra and going out to record orchestras across the country which program their music according to the needs and tastes of their own local audiences. Up until recently, CBC has seen value and been committed to both recording orchestras across the country and creating its own programs with the CBC Radio Orchestra by inviting Canadian composers to write for the CBCRO, and inviting Canadian performers and conductors to work with the orchestra. And the orchestra has only engaged Canadian musicians, a claim that few orchestras in Canada can claim.
A basic definition of radio orchestra from Wikipedia
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