CBC Scraps Radio Orchestra
MARSHA LEDERMAN
Globe and Mail Update
Members
of the soon-to-be-dismantled CBC Radio Orchestra emerged disgusted from
a closed-door meeting with CBC executives at a Vancouver hotel last
night, where they were forced to face the music over the orchestra's
future. Once prized as the last radio orchestra in North America, the
Vancouver-based orchestra will be disbanded at the end of November.
"It is a travesty that this decision has been made. It's a travesty
that the government continues to cut the funding to the CBC. But it is
also a travesty that bureaucrats that occupy the top echelons of radio
don't have the guts to stand up for this orchestra," said violist
Andrew Brown as he emerged from the meeting, receiving an impromptu
standing ovation from other musicians who had gathered in the hotel's
lobby.
Listen, I don't mean to sound triumphant because people are losing their jobs, nor do I think 'classical' music should be completely eliminated from the CBC's music mix. But the move to fund proportionately less and less classical music at the CBC is something that is long overdue.
Violist Andrew Brown went on to say....
Brown said he believes the CBC wants to move away from funding
classical music because of its European roots and allocate more money
to multicultural representation.
And he is right, that is what is going on right now. And it's awkward process, but totally necessary.
Not too long ago, the CBC was essentially a bastion of white folk programming white music for a white audience. It was embarrassing.
Something had to change at the CBC. The dismantling of a radio symphony orchestra so that resources can be spent in other areas is one part of that change.
One more point. The folks who are arguing for the retention of classical music as the important music of the CBC often seem to be assuming a music culture in Canada that ceased existing years ago. A world where 'serious' music occupied one side of the ledger and 'pop' music occupied the other - and that the government's role (through the CBC, and the Canada Council) was to fund the serious stuff and let the pop side of the equation be handled by the private sector, (ie commercial radio).
Well, sorry, but that is not the reality of how music is made - or listened to - in Canada any more. Not just because half the population of a city like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal have citizens with different cultural definitions of 'classical' and 'pop' music (although this is an important part of the change) but also because music in Canada is now a multiplicity of evolving genres and subgenres of traditional, modern, acoustic, electric, electronic, popular, classical, alternative, underground, rootsy musics.
It's not a TSO vs Paul Anka world anymore. It's more like St Lawrence Market on a Saturday morning world.
And it's the CBC's job to reflect this.
