I’m interupting your regular jazz fest posting here to inform you about the fact that the seventy year old CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestra is being disbanded in November 2008. The pudits will tell you that radio orchestras are a dying breed (this was the last one here in the Americas, but such organizations are still flourishing in Europe). What has been forgotten is that the mandate of our national broadcaster is to promote and foster home grown Canadian talent in both the classical and jazz idioms. The CBC orchestra has been responsible for many commissions of new music by Canadian composers. Also the CBC has cut its Young Composers Competition and is currently removing most of its quality jazz and classical music programing from Radio 2.
If you care about classical and jazz art music in Canada, please sign the petition at savecbcorchestra.com