You may not know this, but Symphony Nova Scotia does more than just play rockin’ concerts with folk musicians at the Rebecca Cohn. What?! It’s true—not just Mangan, but Bach! Chopin! Beethoven! If you’re unacquainted with this side of our great city’s Symphony, now’s the time to say hello. Symphony Nova Scotia is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and started the season off right last week with Symphony Week, a celebration-about-town of free concerts and musical events. Symphony Week crescendoed with the Port of Wines Winemakers’ Dinner on Thursday night, a fundraiser for Symphony Nova Scotia featuring Symphony musicians.
With recent gloomy news from their Annual General Meeting on September 24, The Symphony needs all the help they can get. Symphony Nova Scotia reported they lost nearly $140,000 last season, thanks to less-than-stellar local arts funding as well as decreases in individual giving, educational sponsorship and special events.
Currently, the Symphony’s accumulated deficit is almost 7% of their annual operating budget, or around $238,000. Yikes. Check out Symphony Nova Scotia’s schedule online, and maybe buy a ticket or two to support our local orchestra. Mr. Mangan is sold out, but why not try Vivaldi or The Nutcracker instead? They’re cheap—$15—for people under thirty, and you get to tell your friends you went to a symphony show instead of the Dome on a Friday night.
If you can’t swing $15 for symphony tickets but still want all the high-brow bragging rights, the next best thing is at the Dalhousie Art Gallery. In honour of Symphony Nova Scotia’s 30th anniversary, the gallery is screening cinematic biographies of classical composers every week until Christmas. The Lives of the Artists: The Composers features films like Amadeus and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. You can check out the full schedule on their website, and it’s all for free! Get your music history fix and support our orchestra in its 30th year, whether you have the dollar bills to back it up or not.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2012.
Why does HRM give SNS the miniscule sum of $5,000 but Waye Mason gets $150,000 for his Pop Explosion ?
It’s all about scope Joeblow. More people will go to the Pop Explosion in 4 days than will go the Symphony all year. Additionally, there’s also a more narrow demographic that is interested in the Symphony. So, I say they got it right…if anything, we should increase the Pop Explosion’s funding.
jytymy – a community that seeks to attract business and well paid jobs always funds a symphony with a significant amount of money.
The Rebecca Cohn hosts 1,000 paying customers and I very much doubt the Pop Explosion generates the same box office revenue. The Pop Explosion has little impact on attracting and retaining business.
My comments also apply to the paltry HRM funding for Neptune Theatre.
Pop explosion should be given much less money and few people would notice any impact.
Waye’s last HPX was 2009, and the festival most certainly does not get $150,000 from the city (unless you’re adding up a bunch of years).