Volume 30 Issue 3 | December 2024 & January 2025

FOR OPENERSWhen boards

FOR OPENERSWhen boards go overboard,and some hopefully happier talesSpeaking for myself, in a world where so much news iscompeting for my eyeballs and aching ears all the time,my capacity for enjoying granularity or nuance instories is at an all time low – as I dare say it is for “all of youout there in vacuumland” as Allan McFee (remember AllanMcFee?) used to call us on his show. It was called “EclecticCircus” and ran on CBC Radio (remember radio?) for 20years from 1965 to 1985.I only had the pleasure of his company for ten of his 20years. I found him on my radio dial (remember radios?)right after I arrived in town in 1975 and he became aconstant companion for a good long while, I remember.I remember my radio too. It cost me .88 and I boughtit on my third day in Canada, at Honest Ed’s (rememberEd?). I also remember the exact price because “88 cent sale”was the Honest Ed’s bargain-hunter gimmick of the week.Everything on sale was 88c or a variation of the theme:three UNBREAKABLE! enameled 9.5” dinner plates (white onthe inside, blue underneath) for 88 cents; three mugs and glasses(not unbreakable); three knife-fork-and-spoon sets; etcetera, etcetera,etcetera.At first I thought the three-thing was weird, but I very quickly cameto like it because of how comfortable it made me feel – as though Ihad already lived here for long enough to have broken or lost one ofevery set of cutlery or crockery I owned.As you know, quartets, not trios, are the most stable formation forchamber ensembles, playing bridge, water glasses etc. So if someonein your quartet moves on or dies, you immediately go out and replacethem. Unless you are the Amadeus String Quartet who, when thathappened with one of their founding members, disbanded instead,thereby becoming legendary.But where was I? Honest Ed’s … radio … Allan McFee … vacuumland ...Ah yes! Short attention span. In today’s world where thousands ofstories are waiting to suction our eyeballs, there is no time for nuance.A story either lands heads or tails and it’s done. We move on.Here’s an example: 15 months ago when the Kitchener WaterlooSymphony Orchestra (KWSO) declared bankruptcy, all the headlinessaid the same thing, so that was the end of that. Too bad. File it underbad news and move on. Except the musicians in the orchestra refusedto do that.And now there’s a whole new set of headlines: KSWObounces back! or KSWO returns! or KSWO returns frombankruptcy! And so we vacuumlanders file the storyunder good news instead, right next to Kitchener WaterlooChamber Music Society celebrates their 50th anniversaryseason. Fifty years! That’s even older than my radio.Ok, then, what should a nuanced, coin-on-edge storyheadline about the KSO say instead? Maybe this: OntarioSuperior Court Judge Rules that KWSO bankruptcy canbe annulled.Which means what exactly?“It’s as if the bankruptcy never happened,” explains BillPoole, the new chair of the KWSO board. “Our incorporationdocuments and our charitable registration numberexist, and so we’re ready to start business again as if nothinghas happened. With the added benefit that we have no debtat this point.”Let me be very clear, I am not knocking Bill Poole. He’sone of the good guys in what’s happening now, to undo lastyear’s debacle where the bankruptcy announcement took place onlydays before rehearsals were due to start, and after accepting seasonsubscribers’ money (and fees for enrollment in the Symphony’s YouthOrchestra) past the point when the decision to declare bankruptcymust surely already have been known.Yes, the bankruptcy annulment is very very good news; as anyonewho has ever applied for charitable status can tell you, starting fromscratch is tough. And it’s good news that the new board has made astart in rebuilding trust with the orchestra’s major donors and localsupporters. And with the musicians of the KWSO (who are the realheroes of this past year in terms of keeping the brand alive by keepingthe music going, however and wherever they could).But organizational good news is not inevitably musical good news.Concerts between now and next summer will be sporadic (like thetwo announced for this fall), and are taking place in the “intimate”surrounds of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church (450 seats) not inKitchener’s Centre in the Square (1800 seats) – the orchestra’s homefor the last 44 years.“We would all do well to remember,” one community membertold me “that Centre in the Square would not likely have come intoexistence 44 years ago, were it not for the rock-solid existence ofT'KARONTOFor thousands of years before European settlement, T’karonto (The Meeting Place) was part of the traditional territory of manyNations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit River, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples,and remains their home to this day, as it now is for many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples.This Meeting Place lies within the territory governed by the Sewatokwa’tshera’t (Dish with One Spoon) treaty between theAnishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee – a Treaty which bound them to share the territory and protect the land. SubsequentIndigenous Nations and Peoples, and all newcomers are invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship, respect andreconciliation. We are grateful to live and work here, helping spread the word about the healing power of music in this place.8 | December 2024 & January 2025 thewholenote.com

the KWSO and its sister organization – the then Kitchener WaterlooPhilharmonic Choir [now the Grand Philharmonic]. In fact thefederal grant that laid the foundation for the Centre in the Square wasspecifically predicated on the Centre becoming a permanent homefor the KWS.”“It is also worth pointing out that the Centre in the Square was nota major creditor under the terms of the annulment— the subscribersand the players are the two major creditors. The Centre was paid itsrent right up to the collapse. But curiously there has, so far been noresponse, encouraging or otherwise, to the bankruptcy annulmentannouncement from management at the Centre, or from the politicianson Kitchener City Council (who are the Centre’s actual landlords),or from the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge Regional Council,the ultimate political bosses in the Orchestra’s (and the Centre’s)catchment area.”Going into 2025, it will be the musicians still calling the shots asthey heroically did when the organization went AWOL. And that’sgood news. It has, after all, been their livelihoods that have taken,and continue to take, the greatest hit. But the new board is onside,the organization is intact, and public and largely local sponsorshipsupport are too. All of which is good news, as far as it goes.But for those of you out in vacuumland who still like a shot ofnuance in your news, stay tuned! The coin is still balanced on its edge.Hopefully happier?I’m not really sure why I injected that “hopefully happier”phrase into this Opener’s title, to tell the truth. Except that NewYear’s messages are supposed to be wishful, aren’t they? Especiallyafter an “annus horribilis” as the Queen on the front of the coinonce called one particularly lamentable Old Year as it slunk away.Optimism, however cautious, is every eve-of-new-year editorialist’spatriotic duty.In the case of the KWSO the happier tale seems to be well underway to being written, fingers crossed, now that the board that wentoverboard is gone. So in that one instance, our wish for them is relativelyeasy. May the New Year bring even happier headlines, muchmore music, and continued strength to the musicians’ cause.And who knows? Perhaps the emerging KWSO story can be anobject lesson for others in the arts when their organizational andartistic priorities are no longer in tune. (We’ll have more to say aboutthat in the next issue.)Grains of hopeBut I am finding it very difficult to project that one little goodnews-so-farstory onto any larger canvas, whether it be local, regional,national or global. Because what lies ahead looks even more forebodingthan the year about to drop.When the future of the planet feels like a coin toss it’s a scarythought that the best hope to wish for is that things stay on edge. Soinstead, I wish for all of us the resolve to gather grains of hope whereverwe find them. And I believe that one way of doing that is togather in the name of music.There are thousands of reasons, all around, to lapse into helplessnessor paralyzing cynicism right now. And the truly terrifying thing isthat it doesn’t take a thousand reasons to trigger that withdrawal intodespair. One can be enough.So to the music makers, and all the people who support you, I wishfor you the resolve to carry on doing what you do. So we can have thenourishment to continue doing what we do.And to you, reader, think of every listing in this magazine as apotential crumb of consolation – the opportunity to congregate for anyand all reasons from the sacred to the just plain silly. Find some peacehoweveryou can. And thanks for reading.Carrying on is what, at our best, we all do best. Viva la musica.2024/ 25 SEASONINVOCATIONSGRYPHON TRIOLARA ST. JOHN, violinAVIVA CHERNICK, vocalistwith NOA SARID, violin andSHEILA JAFFE, violaMusic by Vivian Fung, Amy Beach, Aaron Copland,Avner Dorman, James Rolfe, Robert SchumannMystical, Spiritual, InspirationalDECEMBER 5 | 7:30 PMCo-presented with Sponsored by Supported byST. LAWRENCE CENTRE FOR THE ARTS, TORONTOTICKETS FROM www.Music-Toronto.com416-366-7723 (1, 1)NAE FUNDRoman Borys,Artistic & Executive DirectorRiki Turofsky andCharles PetersenDavid Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.comthewholenote.com December 2024 & January 2025 | 9