Big Picture

A few years ago I did a recording session in the big studio at the CBC in Vancouver. The folks there were extremely proud of their in-house orchestra, the only broadcast orchestra left in North America. The studio is gigantic, maybe three times the size of NPR’s Studio 4A. In fact, the entire facility is spectacular, and in many ways, spectacularly underutilized.

What will happen to the studio now that they won’t need it anymore for the orchestra? Will they keep it a studio and invite other orchestras in to perform? Who would pay for that? Or will they make it into offices? It’s too big for rock bands.

There are support groups popping up on Facebook, trying to save the CBC Radio Orchestra. There’s an online petition you can sign at this site, where you can also find out the details about demonstrations to be held all over Canada tomorrow (Friday, April 11th).

It makes me sad that the orchestra is going away. I hate to see musicians put out of work. Having to depend on the government for funding is a recipe for failure, as American orchestras discovered decades ago.

What makes me really sad, though, is the CBC’s willingness to kill fresh, live radio content that you can’t get anywhere else in the world. Canadian composers will have to find other orchestras to perform their music. And Canadian classical artists coming in to play live? fuhgeddaboutit. CBC Radio 2 is replacing much of their classical music with other genres of music.

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Perusing the latest coverage and opinionating surrounding the cuts at the CBC, including the controversial decision to shut down the CBC Radio Orchestra, a backlash to the backlash appears to be afoot. Specifically, some onlookers — even John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star — are pointing out that there might actually be some sound reasons for nixing the orchestra. Terauds writes of the overall changes at CBC:

For many Radio 2 supporters, classical music is synonymous with the CBC’s mandate to “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada.”

But that mandate also includes respecting the cultural diversity of the country. In Toronto, nearly half the population has no natural ethnic ties to Western culture.

A Los Angeles Times writer chimes in with a snarkier take and a headline that says it all: “Next thing you know, they’ll be dropping their radio ventriloquist acts too.” “…[T]ake a look at the protests that followed the announcement of the orchestra’s closing and you may ask what eon these people are living in,” writes Tim Cavanaugh.

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