Tonight’s concluding concert of Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2024-25 season is like a perfect mirror, as I reflect on questions of nationalism, artistic leadership and approaches to programming.

This concert was the concluding evening of Linda Rogers’ tenure as the Executive Director, a period of remarkable success for the SPO. She joked that “I think this is the 4th time I have retired,” a reflection of how indispensable she has been.

This time perhaps it will be different as Linda’s successor Helen Nestor has been officially announced.

The concert demonstrated again how brilliant Linda can be. Although Danielle MacMillan’s beautiful picture graced the cover of the program she was unwell, unable to perform tonight. And so Linda got on the phone to find a replacement at the last minute. Mezzo-soprano Hillary Tufford was called sometime between 11:00 am and noon, agreeing to undertake Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with very little rehearsal on the day of the concert!

Yes Hillary was excellent, the SPO wonderfully attentive as conductor Ron Royer led a careful interpretation that was the highlight of the evening. Everyone seemed to be listening to one other. The cycle can sometimes sound a bit savage in places if an orchestra gets carried away: but Ron kept them in check.

But I wanted to just frame this around the evidence of organization and culture. We even had a visit from David Smith, the MPP for this Scarborough riding, a reminder of the superb support the SPO receives from multiple levels of government.

That’s Linda again, because she’s been the one filling out and sending in the grant applications.

As I think back on the concert we heard tonight, rebuilt slightly due to Danielle’s unfortunate illness, it’s clear that the SPO are superbly well-organized.

After we sang Oh Canada and heard from the MPP, we saw the short film originally meant for the second half of the evening, namely All Things Serve the Earth. I discovered that AI isn’t just plagiarism software but can sometimes do amazing creative things. In the film Brueghel’s paintings come to life, accompanied by the music of Bruno Degazio. Bruno’s music and the film were but the first original composition of the night.

The unfortunate casualty in the program was a performance of “Walk with me” from the Songs of Hope project, composed by Shreya Jha. Here’s a video showing what we lost.

So while we didn’t get to hear Danielle’s live performance of “Walk with me awhile”, we heard a bit of her singing in the video of Bruno’s song.

Before Hillary sang the Mahler cycle, we heard from the SPO playing the first of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, and after they gave us the world premiere of Rachel MacFarlane’s La Danza Nocturna, an SPO commission. Rachel composed a fun piece reminding me of Rossini in its strong dramatic statements, its energy and melodic invention, larger than life in its playfulness.

After the intermission we heard Borodin’s 2nd Symphony, featuring a great many impressive solos from the wind players, particularly horn, oboe, flute & clarinet in the Andante movement.

I was thinking about Sol Hurok, a man who influenced the way entertainment was promoted in the 20th Century. I remember hearing from an architect that the big halls built around North America were meant for star attractions, based on assumptions and business models that may be now out of date. Bigger is not necessarily better. A small local venue such as the Salvation Army Scarborough Citadel might be ideal for some things, as we saw tonight. I am again bathed in the intense sounds of this orchestra, a richness of sound I can’t get in a bigger hall, able to see facial expressions and the emotions of the artists. The community of Scarborough is a big part of the experience.

We are hearing a lot about buying Canadian. Especially at a time like this one it’s good to feel that our tax dollars are truly supporting Canadian culture.