Nicole Drescher (left) and Raissa Fahlman, both 18, aren’t impressed with changes at the CBC. Drescher says it’s ‘pretty careless’ of the broadcaster to axe its orchestra
When 70 or so classical music fans gathered at the CBC Calgary building to protest changes to Radio 2 and the axing of the public broadcaster’s 70-year-old orchestra, a few gnarled, knobby hands waved colourful placards.
Most of the energy, however, came from the young Calgarians who organized the rally and waved signs at Memorial Drive traffic. The age of the organizers — two university music students in their 20s — was a rallying point for those who showed up to protest the controversial CBC decisions. “Young people support CBC” was chanted over and over as classical music blasted through portable stereos. “People have ears for this,” says 21-year-old Andrew Nowry, one of the organizers. “The CBC just says no, they don’t.”
Last month the CBC announced it would disband its renowned radio orchestra — the last remaining radio orchestra in North America — by year’s end. “We have finite resources,” says CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay in a telephone interview from Toronto. “As managers, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions on how to allocate those resources.” Keay wouldn’t reveal the orchestra’s annual budget, saying only that it’s less than $1 million and more than $500,000.
Starting in September, the public broadcaster plans to reduce classical music programming on Radio 2 to a five-hour slot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to make room for new programming that will draw “from a broader, richer and diverse spectrum of music,” including jazz, folk, world and roots.
The Calgary rally was one of several happening simultaneously across the country to protest the changes. Some protesters, like Mount Royal College political science student Blake Rothwell, had family members attending rallies in other cities. “[The orchestra] is a cultural institution that we really need to keep up,” says Rothwell, 25.
Another protester, 80-year-old Jack Wilson, has listened to the CBC since its inception in 1936. That’s the year Wilson’s family got its first radio in Vancouver. “Ever since, that’s where our radio dial is set,” says Wilson.
About half of Radio 2’s aging audience is over 60, according to the CBC. “That’s what they’re using against us,” says Irene Kyle, who’s in her 60s. Kyle stresses that many of today’s aging classical music listeners learned to love the music by listening to the CBC in their younger years. “We’ve grown up with this, and it’s enriched our lives enormously,” she says.
Young protesters at the rally — several of whom addressed the crowd — were similarly unconvinced by the CBC’s rationale. “It makes me laugh,” says Ellie Zygmunt, a 20-year-old U of C music student. “It was young people that organized this. We’re not long in the tooth, and we’re not grey-haired. For us, this is exciting music. We want to keep it, and we want to be able to expose other young people to this music so that they have a chance to get excited about it as well.”
Many are worried that the CBC changes will rob Canadian musicians of the country’s main classical music venue. “They’re basically killing every opportunity I have to get my music heard,” says Irene Johansen, a local composer and music instructor.
Keay says the cross-country rallies showed “that there’s an enormous emotional commitment to Radio 2 programming.” However, he says the CBC isn’t reconsidering its decisions. “As much as we remain committed to classical music, we don’t think it’s appropriate that that be the exclusive genre available on Radio 2,” says Keay. “We know that lovers of classical music also have an appreciation for other kinds of music, as long as it’s quality music that’s intelligently presented and creatively packaged.”
The Radio 2 changes, says Keay, aren’t aimed at drawing teenage and twentysomething listeners. “We’re not looking for the 20- and 30-year-old demographic particularly,” he says. “It’s more like late 30s, 40s and 50s that we want to bring to the network.”
John Reid, the prairie regional director of the Canadian Music Centre and an occasional Fast Forward writer, says the CBC will alienate its existing audience with its “radical” changes. “It’s a fallacy to think that they’re going to gain a new audience by doing what everybody else is doing,” says Reid.
The decision to axe the orchestra has especially frustrated classical artists. “I think it’s pretty careless of them to just throw away an orchestra,” says music student Nicole Drescher, 18. Drescher hopes to eventually teach classical music to high school students. “When they’re shutting down the orchestra, how am I supposed to teach my students eventually to get jobs, and to love classical music when there’s so little support for it?” she asks.
