Volume 19 Issue 4 - December 2013

SEEING ORANGE continued from previous pagethrives: “In the short term we are makingsure the program is addressing the needsand expectations of our members, so thatthe NHB remains an exciting and welcomingplace to make music. In the mid-term we areplanning a big trip to Europe for the summerof 2015 and the long-term goal is to stabilizethe program at seven bands. Perhaps,somehow, a fourth goal could be to make thepublic aware of the value of music as a part ofevery child’s education.Because while the evidence grows thatmusic has an important role to play in thedevelopment of the mind, music programsin our schools continue to be cut, with thesupport of an administration and populacewoefully out of touch with the facts. It looksas if you can either have music or “specialeducation,” and if you don’t have the formerthen you will need the latter.What, I asked, can be done to “stop the rot”in public school music education? The attitudethat needs to be changed, Dan observed,held both by parents and educational administrators,is that “it’s just music,” and it’s notimportant. He was once told that his weeklytime with his grade 7 and 8 music classes wasbeing rolled back because “they were gettingtoo much music.”Dan thinks the only thing that can stop theerosion of school music programs is parents.Only when they see that the lack of music inthe school system is hurting their kids in thelong term and only if they demand its restoration,will anything happen.The truth of Dan’s observation has alreadybeen noted in September’s “EducationWatch” when a June groundswell of communitymurmuring stopped the Toronto DistrictSchool Board from cutting funding for itinerantmusic teachers. One powerful voicewas that of the Coalition for Music Education.The article quotes from the Coalition’s publicstatement opposing the proposed cuts. (Readit online at thewholenote.com, or on page 57of the September issue).But there is much each of us can do tomake a difference to the state of music education.The coalition’s website (musicmakesus.ca) offers resources to support the cause.There’s an advocacy video, a message whichcan be printed in concert programs (or inmusic magazines), an order form for programinserts, a page where you can sign up as asupporter, an invitation to apply to serve onthe board of directors of the organization, andmuch more.So please, don’t just read this. Go to theCoalition’s website and get yourself up tospeed on the state of music in the publiceducation system.And while you’re at your computer votefor El Sistema Toronto’s bid for the AvivaCommunity Fund. And then vote every day,for 10 days. It takes minutes. Together we canmake a difference.Allan Pulker is chairman of theboard of The Wholenote.WE ARE ALL MUSIC’S CHILDRENNovember’s Child was Benjamin BrittenMJ BUELL[1913 – 1976} Britten with Pears, 1975.Benjamin Britten composed some of the most compelling, andwidely satisfying music of the 20th century. From huge works for big public occasions,operas, ballets, orchestral and choral works through to intimate chamber music bestsuited for almost private consumption, Britten’s music is variously (and sometimes simultaneously)for virtuosi, for amateurs, for sophisticates and school children, for reasons meritingmore ink than can be afforded here.On the heels of the Canadian Opera Company’s October production of Britten’s PeterGrimes (arguably the best opera of the 20th century) Britten was named 25 times in TheWholeNote’s November concert listings. International centenary celebrations of his life andwork are ongoing including November 22 which would have been his 100th birthday, at least200 concerts in 44 countries. Upwards of 100,000 children performed his song cycle FridayAfternoons in a live-streamed relay which started in Auckland and ended in Los Angeles.On May 26 2013 in Toronto the closing concert of Stephan Ralls and Bruce Ubukata’s“Britten Festival of Song” concluded The Aldeburgh Connection’s final season (of 31). Itincluded Friday Afternoons performed by young singers from The Canadian Children’s OperaCompany. Ralls and Ubukata’s musical and personal partnership began in 1977 when they metas musicians at Britten’s and Pears’ Aldeburgh Festival.Links to interesting online resources about the life and music of Benjamin Britten can befound with this article at thewholenote.com.CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!Megan Piercy and Frances Giles: each win a pair of MusicToronto tickets (Dec 19) to hear baritone Phillip Addis sing aprogram which will include Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake.Burton Patkau and Phyllis Russell each win a pairof Associates of the TSO tickets for “Voices of Modernismmeet the Weber Clarinet Quintet” (Jan 20), which will includeBritten’s String Quartet No.2 in C major Op 36 reviewed thisyear in The WholeNote. Tiiu Klein wins Britten – LesIlluminations; Variatons; Serenade; Now Sleeps the CrimsonPetal — featuring Barbara Hannigan, James Gilchrist, Jasperde Wall and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta led by Candida Thompson (CHANNELCLASSICS CCS SA 32213). Mary-Ann Madarash wins Britten; Shostakovich – ViolinConcertos featuring James Ehnes with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,and Kirill Karabits, conductor (ONYX 4113) Maga Primavera wins Britten – StringQuartets 1–3 played by the Takács Quartet (HYPERION CDA68004) — reviewed in this issue.We Are ALL Music’s Children would like to thank the family members and publicists who searchedfor childhood photos this year, and the artists who shared their personal stories.We’ll resume with a new contest in February.Meanwhile: please, please take a young person to hear or make music in these next few darkest weeks.CDs, headphones, iTunes cards and handsome retro-styled record players are nice holiday gifts, but thematchless feeling we get from being part of live music is the spark that ignites musical futures.68 | December 1, 2013 – February 7, 2014 thewholenote.comVICTOR PARKER, BRITTEN IMAGES COURTESY OF BRITTEN100.ORG