Volume 27 Issue 3 - December 2021 / January 2022
Many Happy Returns: the rebirth of Massey Hall -- from venue to hub; music theatre's re-emergence from postponement limbo; pianist Vikingur Ólafsson's return visit to to "Glenn Gould's hometown"; guest writer music librarian Gary Corrin is back from his post behind the scenes in the TSO library; Music for Change returns to 21C; and here we all are again! Welcome back. Fingers crossed, here we go.
Many Happy Returns: the rebirth of Massey Hall -- from venue to hub; music theatre's re-emergence from postponement limbo; pianist Vikingur Ólafsson's return visit to to "Glenn Gould's hometown"; guest writer music librarian Gary Corrin is back from his post behind the scenes in the TSO library; Music for Change returns to 21C; and here we all are again! Welcome back. Fingers crossed, here we go.
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FOR OPENERS<br />
MANY HAPPY RETURNS<br />
DAVID PERLMAN<br />
[David] - welcome back to [Massey Hall]!<br />
My name is [Jesse Kumagai], I am the [President and CEO] of [Massey<br />
Hall and Roy Thomson Hall] a [charitable non-profit organization] and I<br />
want to tell you about [last night].<br />
[Last evening], [2,500 thrilled Torontonians] gathered in the [Allan<br />
Slaight Auditorium] – a space that has brought us together for [more than<br />
1<strong>27</strong> years.]<br />
Getting to this milestone moment has been a long and challenging journey.<br />
When we closed our doors [in the summer of 2018], nobody could have<br />
predicted [what fate had in store.]<br />
Because in March of 2020, the world changed.<br />
The pandemic had a significant impact on our [project], stopping<br />
[construction] for an extended period of time, then making it so much more<br />
challenging when we resumed. It increased [the cost], interrupted our [fundraising],<br />
and delayed [our completion] – all while [Roy Thomson Hall sat<br />
dark, our business halted in its tracks]. The fact we [opened last night] is<br />
something of a minor miracle.<br />
Truthfully, there are a few elements that [are not quite finished], and<br />
under the circumstances, we could have [postponed our reopening]. But the<br />
pandemic also made us all appreciate just how important [cultural events<br />
like this] are to the fabric of our society. And as we [return to the life we<br />
once knew], this moment has taken on an entirely new significance. Nothing<br />
was going to deter us from [welcoming you back] and who better than<br />
[legendary Gordon Lightfoot] to [perform at Massey Hall’s reopening.]<br />
So I hope you’ll [forgive our imperfections], and know that in due course,<br />
[every last detail will be brought up to the standard Massey Hall deserves].<br />
And in the coming months, we will be [opening more performance venues],<br />
and [spaces for music education, community groups, and of course,<br />
artists], to realize the promise of [Allied Music Centre.]<br />
But for now, I want to thank [you all]. I want to thank you for being part of<br />
our journey, and our community. You make it all worthwhile.<br />
Let’s make some [new memories at Massey!]<br />
Here’s the thing. I hope you get a bit of a chuckle,<br />
or a smile anyway, out of the adjacent treatment of Jesse<br />
Kumagai’s heartfelt words, via email, on the occasion<br />
of the recent re-opening of Massey Hall. But I hope just<br />
as hard that the chuckle isn’t cynical. Because that’s<br />
not where I am coming from. It’s hard for me to find<br />
anything to be spiteful about here.<br />
What’s not to like, for example, about main floor<br />
seating which can be slid under the stage transforming<br />
bums-in-plush-seats conventional concert attendance for<br />
those who desire it, into standing room for those audiences<br />
who cannot imagine being comfortable not moving<br />
to the music?<br />
As Marianne McKenna principal architect of the loving<br />
and visionary restoration/renovation put it during a<br />
sneak peek guided tour for EXCLAIM! the day before the<br />
reopening: “[It’s] what “everybody” wants, but the other<br />
part of the everybody, they want to sit down. So we can do<br />
both. We’ve introduced adaptability, flexibility. This really<br />
is a hall for the 21st century.”<br />
And what’s not to like about the transformation of a<br />
great hall into a great hub, as Kumagai described it, full of<br />
“spaces for music education, community groups, and of<br />
course, artists”?<br />
Think about it. If the largest among us in the arts<br />
ecosystem can opt for visionary transformation – from<br />
concert hall to hub for community arts – then maybe we<br />
are truly emerging into a time where support for that ideal<br />
will, for once, filter all the way down. Can you imagine<br />
some version of Kumagai’s message being delivered when<br />
some not-to-distant big day dawns for an arts organization<br />
or cause that in every way you are invested in?<br />
I sure can!<br />
David Perlman can be reached, for now anyway,<br />
at publisher@thewholenote.com.<br />
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