North Bay Symphony Orchestra

Message from the President

North Bay Symphony Society (NBSO)
Annual General meeting
Season 2010-2011

Thanks North Bay Symphony!

It is the unique and powerful combination of the following peoples’ interest and efforts that has allowed NBSO to fulfill the vision “Inspiring Community Through Music” in 2010/2011.

Thanks to our talented musicians.

Thanks to many wonderful community volunteers for fundraising, advertising, and front-of-house at concerts.

Thanks to our many sponsors and advertisers.

Thanks to our supportive donors.

Thanks to the enthusiastic audience.

Thanks to our staff: Thomas Jones, Music Director; Christian Robinson, Concert Master; Paul Baker, Marketing Director; Jordan Wyshniowsky, String School Teacher; Kay Heuer and Caleb Smith, String School Certified Teachers; and Geoff Sinclair and Matthew Whitehead, Section Coordinators.

Thanks to the hardworking Board and members of their committees: Marketing, Artistic, Education and String Retreat.

MUSIC!

A wonderful 5 concert season was the heart of our NBSO activities:

September 14 – Toronto Symphony Orchestra
We loved having the TSO here, and they loved being here for an evening concert, 3 school concerts and educational outreach in schools.

October 23 – Cheers for us!
Our sixth biennial Young Performer's Competition highlighted local talented musicians as soloists; this was part of our pursuit of excellence in the support of local musicians.

December 11 – Christmas Snowman
Music of the season included a performance of Howard Blake's 'The Snowman', featuring a boy soprano, and 'The Snowman' movie.

February 26 – The Heart’s Jewel
Canadian violinist Erica Raum played the beautiful Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto “the heart’s jewel” in this concert of romantic masterworks.

April 9 – A European Tour: Resonant Classics
A full concert of the lighter classics featuring evocative sounds of great European countries - lovely music to hear and to play.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

In addition to the five-concert season, we worked on these strategic directions as part of a three-year plan:
1.Board Development and Succession Planning
• Continues to the Board decision-making process
• Board members served, based on a set Term of Office.

2. Ensure Sustainability
• Applied for grants from federal, provincial, municipal, private grant and foundation sources.
• Submitted funding proposals, and raised funds for the strategic priorities of the NBSO.
• Raised a contingency fund for NBSO operations.

3. Develop and Support Musicians
• Continuing outreach campaign to attract all qualified players in North Bay and area to join the orchestra, and drafted a musician personnel policy.
• Developed and supported local string musicians to cover all required parts in the NBSO; implemented a String Retreat.
• Improved attendance levels at orchestra rehearsals
• Continued a String School Certified Teacher program
• Offered a Youth Orchestra experience for students, and adult learner opportunities in Gateway Strings.

4. Develop a Plan and Priorities for Outreach and Education
• Continued the educational outreach from the previous year

5. Develop Artistic Programs and Partnerships
• Planned the annual concert seasons a full year in advance.
• Implemented a Chamber music series with two concerts.
• Explored partnership possibilities with Nipissing University

6. Build Community Awareness and Connection
• Built connections and relationships with the local French and Italian language and ethnic communities

7. Strengthen NBSO Organizational Structure
• Updated the database of volunteers and revised the Processes document.

OUTREACH AND PROJECTS

The Strategic Planning and continuing work on previous initiatives has resulted in these outreach projects:

SYMPHONY STRING SCHOOL

The school continued with one teacher giving private lessons, group lessons and adult chamber groups. Three capable local musicians were trained by the Music Director to teach beginning violin students (recruited by the teachers, a few students only).
A grant was received on March 1 2010 from the Trillium Foundation to recruit and train 2 professional string school teachers over 2 years, involving at least 50 new students. We were unable to locate a string school teacher so the grant was deferred for a year.

CHILDREN’S CONCERT

A children’s concert was performed in one elementary school, with students from other areas schools attending. Children had a more intimate experience with string instruments and young string players.. There was no cost to the school because of Foundation support.

SCHOOL PROGRAMMES

For the seventh year, Grade 4 "Instruments of the Orchestra" was organized with 3 musicians visiting over 30 classrooms in North Bay and area. They demonstrated instruments during this week-long unit. We were supported by 2 sponsoring companies in the community and a foundation. Grade 5 "Rhythms in Use" continued for the second year; in 2 classroom visits, a musician got students involved in creating, writing and performing rhythms with found instruments.

GATEWAY STRINGS

In 2010-2011, “Gateway Strings”, an intergenerational, intermediate string orchestra, played a spring concert in June, with chamber music from the AHHA string quartet.

STRING RETREAT

A new venture, a chamber music string retreat in Mattawa, was led by Music Director Tom Jones and coached by the members of the Silver Birch String Quartet. Participants from across Northern Ontario were involved in performing as small ensembles, string orchestra and listening to chamber concerts.