Metamorphize Our Symphony Part 1
October 6, 2023, Original Kitchener, Waterloo County/Region, Ontario, Canada
When I first heard that the former Kitchener Waterloo Symphony board had abruptly canceled Our Orchestra’s 2023-24 season, I started writing what was intended to be an Evening Muse offering: As a working title, I chose “Metamorphize Our Symphony,” and I had this graphic in mind as a key point of reference:
The work went quickly, and soon I had 800 words down without getting to the main point I wanted to make: that transformation, rather than preservation or salvation, should be the objective this time around. An 800-word submission is too long for a Letter to the Editor of our daily newspaper, but it would have been suitable for what, in the good old days, they used to call a “Second Opinion” piece. So I decided to take a chance and send what I’d written off to the Waterloo Region Record.
A couple of days later, we heard the news that the board of directors had decided to declare bankruptcy, dissolve the corporation, and walk away (except, from what I understand, from the $2.5 million endowment fund set up to support the orchestra back when the “Common Sense Revolution” was still raging, for which they have remained the trustees).
That changed everything. My submission had lost its relevance. While it is no longer suitable for a newspaper, there are some points I tried to make that may still be of some value as we ponder and deliberate over what to do next. So here it is, as submitted, with a few minor revisions:
Our Symphony Orchestra is in trouble again. It feels like it was only yesterday when we woke up to the news that the KWSO board had announced that it would need to raise $2.5 million or be forced to cease operations. It was actually October 4, 2006. The orchestra leadership launched an emergency fundraising campaign called "Save Our Symphony," and the community came through.
It is worth noting that two years earlier, the symphony and its supporters managed to weather a storm that raged for the better part of a year, set off by the abrupt firing of artistic director Martin Fischer-Dieskau.
But this isn’t 2006 or 2004, nor is it 1993, when KWSO music director emeritus Raffi Armenian left Kitchener. That was 20 years after he arrived here from Vienna to begin his work transforming our symphony into a top rank institution blessed with a world class concert hall as its instrument. What Maestro Armenian was able accomplish was built on what had been begun in 1945 to complement an institution founded in 1883 as the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestral Society and reconstituted in 1922 as the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Choir, now the Grand Philharmonic.
This is 2023, going in 2024. Our Orchestra in its current state is the product of 140 years of dedication to the achievement and enjoyment of excellence in music making in an actual, specific civic context: Downtown Kitchener, Waterloo County/Region, Ontario, Canada. To fully appreciate the orchestra’s role in the community, and its value to our general well-being, one needs to take all those decades - seven generations of working and playing music - into account. But there can be no going backward. The task ahead is not restoring, reviving or even saving what we had at any point along the way. It’s the future that matters. This crisis is an opportunity to envision the Civic Orchestra of Tomorrow.
It has been with dismay, but no surprise, that I’ve been encountering so many comments, in person and on social media, expressing anger and casting blame, especially on those who have volunteered to serve as trustees of this legacy we all share. Make no mistake: Carrying on with the business of presenting another orchestra season as usual became impossible because of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The KWSO crisis is an indication, and there are likely many more to come, of how extensive the damage has been, especially for those involved with arts and culture-related pursuits. We’re all in this together.
The KWSO board of directors isn’t to blame; our municipal mayors, chair and councilors didn’t bring this on us, any more than our Premier or our Prime Minister did. Nor is it in the power of our political leaders to undo the damage, not even if by some miracle they managed to find a way to work in concert for the first time in history (other than when we’ve been at war). We really are all in this together, including those who represent us in the various assemblies we’ve assigned power to. The miraculous concerted effort we’ll need to get through this will have to include all of us, at least everyone who cares.
Our Symphony stands out because it is so large: There is no other arts organization that even comes close to providing permanent employment to more than 50 professional artists, certainly not in our neck of the woods. It’s a miracle that this is even possible in a mid-sized, provincial, non-metropolitan urban centre in this day and age. Because of its size and stature, the orchestra can be considered the cornerstone of this area’s cultural ecosystem, and if we smartened up we would also make it a cornerstone of our identity and civic pride.
What is in danger of collapsing here, though, isn’t any single stone; it’s the whole arch that we’re being called to help keep standing. What we’re up against is misfortune, like the coronavirus, and entropy: just giving up, and letting the disruptors, the destroyers, the unbelievers, the naysayers, the fear and resentment mongers have their way.
“Save Our Symphony” in 2023 means not only keeping this particular star of wonder bright, but brushing away clouds that are threatening to obscure an entire constellation, including IMPACT, Asphalt Jungle Shorts, Kultrun, Open Ears, CAFKA, GRFF, Mel Brown, Oktoberfest, Christkindl, Kitchener Blues, Bring on the Sunshine, Waterloo Jazz, Galt Jazz, Jazz Room, Worldly Jazz, Guelph Jazz, Guelph Dance, Flamfest, Textile, IAM, NUMUS, Silence, Neruda, MT Space, Flush Ink, KPL, Idea Exchange, WPL, WR Libraries, KWMP, Royal City MP, TCP, Waterloo Concert, KWMS, Ayr-Paris, Galt Kiltie, Preston Scout, KWCMS, Cambridge SO, KWCO, Waterloo Chamber O, Guelph SO, Wellington Winds O, o@uw, Laurier SO, Nota Bene, DaCapo, Concordia, KWAG, Clay & Glass, Cambridge Galleries, Waterloo Museum (City and Seiling), Museum (THE), Button Factory, Cambridge Centre for the Arts, Registry, Hamilton Family, River Run, Raffi Armenian, Green Light, Pat the Dog, Schneider Haus, McDougall, Brubacher, Detweiler, Kilbride, McCrae, Guelph Civic, Homer Watson, Globe Studios, Gaukel Hub, Kwartzlab, Ed Video … to name examples that come immediately to mind.
“Save Our Symphony” in the present hour means save the very heart and soul of our city, our region, our community.
To be continued.