Protest Rally for the CBC Radio Orchestra, April 20 2008

The following press release was issued April 16 by the Save the CBC Orchestra Committee.

Please attend if you can!

HUGE RALLY TO SAVE CBC RADIO ORCHESTRA
SUNDAY APRIL 20 AT 2 P.M. AT THE CHAN CENTRE AT UBC

Wednesday April 16, 2008 … Standing on guard for the CBC Radio Orchestra, April 20 at 2:00 pm CBC Radio Two listeners are following up on last week’s successful staging of a coast to coast National Day Of Action to demand CBC brass back down on their apparent systematic destruction of the Radio 2 network and their decision to replace it with programming completely foreign to its core audiences. The rally Sunday is a call to the CBC Board and Management to restore the CBC Radio Orchestra within a revitalized CBC Radio Two.

The rally on Sunday starting at 2:00 pm is an hour before the orchestra’s regularly scheduled, and nearly sold-out, performance at 3:00 pm.

The natural amphitheatre at the Chan entrance is a dramatic location, which will accommodate an impressive number of supporters, while allowing the 1,200 concert-goers easy access.

“It’s not the usual sort of prelude to an afternoon of live music at the Chan” said Canadian Music Centre head Colin Miles. “This situation has become a flashpoint for the general downgrading of CBC by the people who have been entrusted with our precious public broadcasting system."

“We are seeing the end of a cultural treasure that serves Canadians coast to coast and is an essential player in our musical exports to the world. Elimination of the CBC Orchestra is the destruction of our ability to tell our stories. It amounts to censorship and stifling of free expression of our composers" he stated.

“At 2 cents per year per person, how can CBC management, the board and Parliament agree to this? The issue has now been raised on the floor of the House of Commons and we will be keeping the pressure up.” added Colin Miles.

Three years ago CBC management stopped the CBC Orchestra from working in the studio to record music for broadcast and CDs and told they could only give public performances. Renting concert halls and paying for publicity to promote concerts is expensive. This orchestra has a recording studio that was built for them and well trained creative producer, recording engineer and orchestra librarian on staff. CBC management needs to be reminded what power in creating programming they have by keeping their orchestra. We are calling on CBC to restore the orchestra and get the musicians back into the studio to do what they do best for the benefit of all of Canada. As the CBC Radio Orchestra's own webpage states "With an audience as diverse as the Canadian experience, we create engaging musical radio programs, commission and perform new works as well as established classics, and showcase exceptional Canadian performers and conductors."

Rally organized by:
Save the CBC Orchestra Committee
Based in Vancouver, Reaching Across the Country

For more information:
Joan Athey 250-294-6040 to April 18 604-908-9124 April 18, 19 & 20.
Laurie Townsend 604-822-9161
www.StandOnGuardforCBC.ca

National Day of Action to protest CBC changes, April 11 2008

A National Day of Action is planned for a number of Canadian cities to protest the recent decisions by CBC Radio management to disband the CBC Radio Orchestra and to reduce classical music programming on CBC Radio Two.

The Facebook site announcing the time and locations for the protests can be found here.

Having spent the past year writing letters to CBC Radio management, members of the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and the Minister of Heritage (with very little results, I might add) I am gratified to see Canadians rising up to protest the heavy-handed actions of CBC Radio management.

Let April 11 2008 be known in future years as Canada’s classical music equivalent to France’s Bastille Day, when citizens rose up and overthrew a tyrannical bureaucracy!

The War on Classical Music

In case you missed it, it was reported in this morning’s Globe and Mail that the CBC Radio Orchestra, a 70 year old institution in Canada, would be disbanded by November 2008.

This move was apparently announced to members of the orchestra in a closed-door meeting in Vancouver last night, March 27.

The Globe and Mail reports a CBC Radio spokesman as stating: "Really, it's straight up a case of economics.We couldn't afford to maintain the orchestra.”

The spokesman is also reported to have stated, when asked if the dismantling of the orchestra was related to the move away from classical music on CBC Radio, “No, no, not at all. [The commissioned works] will be orchestral music [and] will be very much a part of what we're doing as we go on." It is not reported whether the spokesman managed to state this with a straight face or not.

Well, as Ann Landers used to write (or perhaps it was Abigail van Buren, my memory fails me), wake up and smell the coffee, people! Of course it’s related to the move away from classical music on CBC Radio! In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a well-orchestrated (no pun intended) campaign against classical music taking place within the CBC for several years now, with the first outbreak of open hostilities being the cancellation of “Music for Awhile” and “In Performance” on March 19, 2007. The latest announcements of reduced classical programming during the day and the disbanding of the CBC Radio Orchestra are just mopping-up operations in that campaign.

What can you do? Write to your Member of Parliament. Write to members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (see the link to the right). Write to the Minister of Heritage. Write to the CBC Board of Governors (see also the link to the right). Write a letter to the newspaper. Sign the petitions listed on the right. During the next election, ask the candidate in your riding what he or she plans to do to ensure that CBC management begins to be accountable to its listeners and viewers.