A Symphony for Everyone
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You may or may not have heard of Calgary Civic Symphony. They have been part of Calgary’s cultural scene for over 40 years, and delight in the artistic strength of the beautiful concerts that they present. Fuelled by a passion for music and the asset of their volunteers (who contribute over 21 000 hours a year), they operate on a skeleton staff including only three part-time employees. With this, they bring five full-scale orchestral performances to the Jack Singer Concert Hall stage each season.
“The thing that holds it all together is that everyone is committed to playing orchestral music at a very high level,” says David Wartman, Executive Director of Calgary Civic Symphony. Though none of Calgary Civic Symphony’s orchestra members are professional orchestral performers, many perform with exception skills because they are music teachers, retired professional musicians, and highly trained enthusiasts.
“Like many organizations we’re suffering from lack of revenue, both from cancelled performances and not being able to fundraise,” says David Wartman “We have a raffle going currently that we draw for on October 18th. We stood to make about $25 000 on the raffle, but with COVID it looks like we’ll be lucky to sell half of the tickets. That will allow us to just break even.”
This is a story that’s all too true for so many of Calgary’s performing arts organizations, but for Calgary Civic Symphony, the timing was particularly unfortunate. The beginning of the 2019-20 season had brought strong ticket sales and record attendance numbers, setting the stage for a season that could have set new highs for the symphony – all to have the rug suddenly pulled out from under them.
Now Calgary Civic Symphony is exploring new potential ways of reaching their audiences, but even utilizing live streaming in conjunction with very limited live attendance might not be feasible.
“At 600 people in the concert hall, we’re barely breaking even, so at 100 (current permitted gathering numbers), Calgary Civic can’t cover the expenses involved in performing,” says David. “Even just the cost of putting tickets into people’s hands isn’t free. There are many expenses when it comes to mounting a concert.”
Calgary Civic Symphony has always operated on a philosophy of accessibility, keeping their ticket prices low, and their performance times on Sunday afternoons to allow for people who feel uncomfortable going to evening performances to attend. But even a non-profit organization must make ends meet and without the ability to hold large-scale performances, that’s just not a reality.
“We would like the opportunity to continue to contribute to the quality of life for Calgarians, and we continue to look for ways to ensure that we’re here for people when things start up again.”
If you would like to find out more about how to support Calgary Civic Symphony, or participate in their raffle, visit calgarycivicsymphony.ca
