Preview
Resonanza: Music for Voice and Guitar
Saturday, April 17
Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
In this time of increasing government cutbacks, many performing arts organizations continue to find their all-important funding either diminishing or disappearing altogether. Additionally, "surviving," means attracting the paying public.
Two of the city’s premier performing arts groups may have discovered a solution to these problems. This spring, Voicescapes, Calgary’s Professional Vocal Ensemble, and the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary are joining forces to present Resonanza: Music for Voice and Guitar. The co-production will bring together the organizations and their respective resources, including marketing strategies and audience base.
Voicescapes artistic director, Christina Jahn, explains that the collaboration brings many benefits. She feels that the co-op allows each organization's loyal following to expand their musical horizons and be exposed to a different facet of Calgary's music community, while at the same time allowing the organizations to share the financial, administrative and marketing duties.
Guitar Society artistic director Aileen Bache agrees that there is a need for all arts organizations in the city to support one another. "Instead of competing with each other, ensembles with otherwise fragmented audiences can successfully combine their supporters," says Bache. "People who wouldn’t otherwise be aware of a particular concert series then realize it exists. Guitar audiences are introduced to the vocal series and vice versa."
Echoing this, Voicescapes’ soprano Julie Harris feels that Calgary audiences are fairly splintered and tend to know about their favourites – but not others. "Joint projects like this are a way of connecting performers who are trying to make Calgary an exciting place to live and work culturally, and audiences who want to find new concert-going experiences," she says.
This first-time collaboration will exhibit ensemble and solo works for voice and guitar featuring guitarist Ralph Maier with four vocalists from the Voicescapes ensemble: Julie Harris, Julie Freedman Smith, Jerald Fast and Paul Grindlay. Concludes Jahn: "As organizations in this music community," says Jahn. "Our ability to collaborate, co-operate, cross-promote and plan in some consideration of each other will only serve the greater good of creating a better sense of that scene in the greater public's mind." |
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