The Pacific Baroque Orchestra has consistently demonstrated a commitment to community outreach and to the fostering of Vancouver and Canadian talent in the arts during its twenty year history.
In 2001 the PBO teamed up with the Squamish First Nations Eagle Song Dancers to present a joint concert of dance music, featuring both live native dance and music as well as French Baroque dancers and eighteenth-century Baroque music. The First Nations stories and demonstration of the role of dance in their culture alternated with comments from PBO leader Marc Destrubé about dance at the court of Louis XIV.
During the 2005-2006 season, the orchestra began a series of free-to-the-public concerts in Vancouver’s downtown east side. These concerts were funded by Arts Spirit of BC and 2010 Legacies Now, with support for specific events from the Leon and Thea Koerner foundation and the Hamber Foundations. All four concerts were performed on Friday evenings at St. James Anglican Church at Gore and East Cordova. About 200 highly enthusiastic audience members attended each concert. We also had the assistance of the UBC Learning Exchange and the Carnegie Centre, as well as St. James Anglican and several dedicated individuals, in spreading the word about these concerts to the downtown eastside community. We continue these Friday evening concerts this season.
Our Community Partnership program, now in its fourth year, allows the PBO to join forces with a volunteer-based charity by providing complimentary tickets to volunteers as a way of recognizing their contributions to the well being of our society. For the 2006-2007 season, we chose Providence Health Care as our partner. Providence Health Care volunteers contribute over 100,000 hours annually to the care of patients in six local hospitals
The orchestra has been a frequent guest at various Vancouver elementary, junior high, and high school assemblies, introducing young people to classical music and the orchestral instruments in open rehearsals. Tickets to PBO concerts are free for all concertgoers who are 16 or younger.
In 2005 the PBO commissioned a new work from Vancouver’s renowned tar player Amir Koushkani (the “tar” is a Persian instrument that resembles a lute), featuring Koushkani as soloist accompanied by the orchestra. The resulting concert, “East Meets West,” was a wonderful opportunity for two Vancouver populations that rarely intersect—the Persian community and the community of Western classical music lovers—to attend the same performance and to learn more about both cultures.
The PBO has shown a commitment to bringing top musical talent from Canada and around the world to Vancouver, and to commissioning new works from Canadian composers. In recent years guest soloists with the PBO have included a number of internationally esteemed artists in the early music scene, including Richard Egarr, Enrico Gatti, Stanley Ritchie, Nancy Argenta, Byron Schenkman, Jaap ter Linden, Jacques Ogg, Monica Huggett, Lucinda Moon, and Paul Dyer. The orchestra has also brought to Vancouver Canadian artists such as Matthew White, Suzie LeBlanc, Laura Pudwell, Colin Balzer, Tyler Duncan, and Washington McClain among others and commissioned works from Vancouver composers such as Peter Hannan, Jocelyn Morlock, Bradshaw Pack, Terri Hron, as well as Toronto composer Linda Catlin Smith. For the 2011-12 season we have commissioned a new work by the Calgary composer Christiaan Venter.
The PBO has been an ambassador for the arts scene in Vancouver through its tours of B.C. and Alberta, Washington State and eastern Canada and its participation in the International Choral Kathaumixw festival of choirs and conductors in Powell River. As well, each February the orchestra performs in Victoria’s Pacific Baroque Festival with our Artistic Director alumnus, Marc Destrubé, followed by a trip to Powell River to perform with the Powell River Choir, directed by Don James.
Comments are closed.