As a follow-up to Frank Peebles front-page news article in last Thursday's Citizen, I would like to expand on the PGSO's vision for a sustainable future, a vision hammered out through a strategic planning process which took place from December to February.
As a board, we are committed to developing the PGSO into an excellent orchestra fully comprised of musicians who live and work in Prince George and northern B.C. The time has come. Our city has matured; so has our orchestra. We want the artistic director of the PGSO to reside in the north, rather than the model we've followed for many years which has been to have the artistic direction set by non-resident music directors who fly in a few days before a concert necessitating a compressed and often stressful rehearsal schedule relying on a variable but significant number of "import" musicians to supplement our own local musicians in order to meet the program demands. It has become obvious to the board that this model is simply not sustainable from a financial point of view. And artistically, this model has done nothing to develop the skills and confidence of our own dedicated musicians who live and work in our region. We have a talented core of both professional and community musicians and are planning on expanding the numbers of both. In the beginning we will continue to import a few musicians to supplement our orchestra as needed but our focus will be on developing the size and skill of our own group of local and regional musicians.
We have all enjoyed the work of our very talented maestro, Dr. Kevin Zakresky who spent his high school years in Prince George and was mentored as a teenager by musicians and conductors associated with the PGSO. We are happy to be able to say we gave Dr. Zakresky his first symphonic conducting contract. Artistically, his time with us was nothing but a success. Financially, his three years have proven to be a repeat of the pattern of instability that the PGSO has seen throughout its forty-five year existence. It is simply time to try a new model.
We welcome Jose Delgado-Guevara as Interim Music Director, the first local conductor since John Unsworth's reign in the late 1980s. Mr. Delgado-Guevara's mandate from the board is to fill the vacant principal violist position, bringing the professional core to their full complement of nine musicians; to advertise, audition and contract more community players; to continue to develop the side-by-side program that offers young musicians the opportunity to play with our orchestra; and to begin to build the quality of our orchestra from within by holding weekly rehearsals for musicians throughout the concert year, giving more opportunity for our professional musicians to provide leadership and teaching to our community players and allowing our community players the rehearsal time they need to feel confident in performance.
The complete three-year strategic plan is posted on the PGSO website at www.pgso.com. I invite you to read it in full. We believe it is a plan that will allow the people of Prince George and northern B.C. to continue hearing excellent live symphonic music for many years to come.
Teresa Saunders
PGSO Board Chair
Prince George
