Cathedral Bluffs Receives $31,500 Grant From Ontario Trillium Foundation
Our CBSO Board continues to work behind the scenes in order to keep
everything running towards our future re-opening. Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce that our organization has been awarded a $31,500 grant over 12 months, from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund.
This grant will allow the orchestra to rebuild and recover from impacts of
COVID-19 by renovating spaces and purchasing protective equipment, electronics for ticket scanning and contactless payment and redesigning the website to organize safe events. We will keep you updated on new developments as this project gets underway.
Even though this is great news, we still need funds to keep going into next year. Grants tend to be awarded for specific purposes and may not be used for anything else. We still need funds for other day-to-day running costs. Please consider making a donation to CBSO so that we can carry on making music for Scarborough and Greater Toronto.
Online Rehearsals Resume in January!
CBSO online rehearsals have resumed in January with some exciting repertoire on the schedule. Earlier in January, we worked on Dvorak’s 9th symphony and Holst’s Planets. Our musicians were able to play through some of the movements that we haven’t had a chance to play in a long time. In February we will be dusting off the scores of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony and ending off the month with audience favourite Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
What our members are discovering is that the rehearsals online certainly do not replace the in-person ones we are used to, but they do provide a chance for us to get together and have some much needed interaction with each other as well as offer an incentive to do some practicing on our instruments.
The technology does not allow us to play together in a traditional way, but it allows us to play together, enjoy the music, and get in shape for future concerts and rehearsals.
Comments on the virtual rehearsals have been encouraging and positive. Members have been saying that, “it’s fun to go through favourite repertoire,” and “it’s so nice to see everyone on screen!”. As for conducting, it offers its own unique challenges. Because of the video delay, the conductor has to anticipate the beat and conduct slightly ahead of the recording while keeping the baton within the confines of the screen. Despite these difficulties, everyone has made great strides in overcoming the shortcomings of the technology and have enjoyed the experience.
The Importance of Practicing Music
by Christine Fong
I have been finding it difficult to keep practicing on a regular basis when there are no concrete goals to reach such as learning challenging repertoire for an upcoming concert. That type of goal makes practicing easy because I don’t want to walk into any rehearsal unprepared. But, of course, in these circumstances, almost all performances have been stopped.
Practicing is hugely important for a number of reasons. Dr. Sean Hutchins from the Royal Conservatory of Music wrote in a recent article published in April of last year that, “Familiar routines help to ground us and provide stability, which can benefit our physical and mental health. Practicing music is one of those routines.”
Not only do we benefit from maintaining a level of playing proficiency on our instruments when we practice, but we can also reap huge benefits for our mental health and well-being. The past few months have certainly been a struggle in that department! Picking up my flute again has lifted my spirits and kept me away from the refrigerator a little more.
As we all know, playing is a physical activity too. For some of us who can practice standing up, it gets us out of our chairs and away from the computer screen!
According to Dr. Hutchins, we can lose what we have achieved in skill level if we stop playing for long periods of time. He says that, “without reinforcement, skills that have been painstakingly learned over time will be lost rather quickly. To put it another way, time spent practicing music — especially guided, focused practice — effectively counts as double towards skills retention.”
I think we can all agree that keeping our minds focused during a practice session can be helpful in keeping our minds sharp and ready to go when in-person rehearsals resume in the future.
Happy practicing everyone!!
| Your Support is Greatly Appreciated! We want to reassure our CBSO patrons and community that our CBSO Board and administrators are meeting weekly and working hard to make sure that we will be able to bring music to you in Scarborough and beyond. Thankfully our government has not forgotten about the Arts, so there are opportunities out there. Even so, we need your help to keep things running so that we can open up again in the near future. To all of our dear patrons: please consider making a donation this month in order to help us continue to be able to bring quality music to your community! The orchestra is a registered non-profit charitable organization and provides tax receipts for donations of any amount (Charity # 89036 4573 RR0001). Thank you for your support! Click on the CanadaHelps.org logo below to be redirected to the orchestra’s Canada Helps page, where you can make a one-time or recurring donation via credit card. |
