Alain Trudel
Conductor & trombonist
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Broadcast orchestra revived in B.C.
September 25, 2009, 12:00 am
Broadcast orchestra revived in B.C.
CBC News
The CBC Radio Orchestra has been revived as the privately run National Broadcast Orchestra, just over a year since it last performed.
The orchestra, under the baton of Alain Trudel, has already begun recording again and was to make its first public appearance Wednesday on B.C.'s Saltspring Island.
"There's some tremendous emotion going through the orchestra, not just me — everybody there and I'm sure everybody is going to attend the concert," Trudel told CBC in an interview ahead of that first appearance.
The CBC Radio Orchestra held its final concert last spring after the CBC announced it could no longer afford to keep it running.
But Trudel said a lot of people have been working hard in the past year to keep the idea of an orchestra alive.
"We have a very precise and very unique mission in the Canadian music scene, which is to promote Canadian artists and promote Canadian music," he said.
The privately run National Broadcast Orchestra has taken up that mandate, which is distinct from those of local symphonies which serve Canada's largest cities, Trudel said.
The orchestra plans to "see people in communities and bring Canadian artists, Canadian music and focus on that," he said.
It will be based in Vancouver and has an arrangement for a home at the University of British Columbia's Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
It will also continue its recording tradition and plans to reach a wider audience with multimedia and online streaming of its work, including a high-definition video.
Montreal venture capitalist Pierre Labelle, now chair of the National Broadcast Orchestra board, played a big role in building interest for the orchestra's revival. Music fans have also lent support.
Much also depends on a Jan. 8 fundraising concert, where the orchestra hopes to raise enough money to continue.
"With the very difficult economic context that we have now, it's not something easy but it's still something essential," Trudel said.
"A lot of people are shying away from the arts, which is a shame because it defines what we are."
The orchestra still has a relationship with the CBC, he said, though a very different one than before. Its January fundraising concert will be recorded live for broadcast on CBC Radio 2, and includes the premiere of a CBC-commissioned work by Michael Oesterle, The Sparrow's Ledger.
CBC.ca
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