Regina Symphony coming to Maryfield
Chamber players set to play Maryfield Auditorium December 8
November 19, 2024, 11:30 am
Ashley Bochek
Maryfield is hosting the Regina Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, December 8 at the Maryfield Auditorium.
Michelle Longman, of the Maryfield Auditorium committee, says the group is excited to host the RSO.
“We plan to have Regina Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players come out and do a concert,” Longman said. “The auditorium committee have been actively getting some new events and performers to the area and we thought this might be a good fit, especially around Christmas time.
“I’ve been brainstorming some new ideas of what hasn’t been done in the area and I thought the symphony would be a great fit. It has always been fun to go to the symphony in the city so why not bring the symphony to a small town?”
The event is to help fundraise for renovations for the auditorium.
“All of the events that take place at the theatre, any ticket sales go towards maintaining the building,” she said. “We have an exterior renovation that is due, so any ticket sales are a fundraiser for our building. We need new siding, doors, just some exterior maintenance so the event ticket sales will go towards that project.”
Longman says this is the first time Maryfield has hosted the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
“We haven’t had anything like the symphony before so it is very exciting. We have had other concerts and we have had comedians, hypnotists, and to my knowledge it is the first time we have had something along this line.”
Ticket sales
Longman explained the ticket prices and outlined the day of the event.
“We have tickets still available. We have sold close to 100 tickets, and there are still over 200 available. Adult tickets are $35, students are $25 and children 5-and-under are $15. Doors open at 1:30 pm December 8, and downstairs in the lower hall we are going to have a hot chocolate stand set up for $2 and this is open to anyone. You don’t have to have tickets for the symphony to get a hot chocolate. Seating for the symphony starts at 2:30 pm upstairs. It will be a 75-minute show, there is no intermission. We hope it is a sellout event!”
RSO excited
Megan McCormick, the Director of Marketing and Development with the RSO says the group is excited to perform in Maryfield this winter.
We spoke with her about the RSO performance in Maryfield. The interview follows:
Tell me about the Regina Symphony Orchestra. What is it all about?
We’re based in Regina, but we have been performing in and around Regina since the early 1900s. Our group started in 1908. We are a community musical group and it’s about 115 years since we originated. We’re the Southern Saskatchewan orchestra with professional musicians and we perform a variety of different concerts throughout the year, mostly in Regina, but traveling outside is also an important part of what we do.
We also have certain musicians that play in our large concerts and then we have a group of 12 musicians called the Regina Symphony Chamber Players who are the first chair principal of their instrument family and they’re the ones we send on the road to performances outside of the city.
How many people are a part of it?
The group going to Maryfield is 12 musicians. It depends on the music on how many musicians we may have performing at a concert. We have groups as small as two, and we have had concerts with 70 musicians and a choir of 100 people on stage. The number of artists we work with depends on what music we are playing.
Does the RSO hold auditions every year or how do you recruit new musicians?
We have auditions basically every year. We have a principal musician, assistant principal, we also have two special musicians called Concert Master, so every year depending on what we need depending on if people have retired or moved, then we will evaluate what positions we need to fill and then we do our audition process usually in September. There are different groups in the Orchestra, the string section, wind section, percussion, etc. and so the leader on each of those sections decides what auditions will look like, they play it, then they get awarded the job if they’re good. The cool thing about our auditions is they’re all done as blind auditions, so the person auditioning is actually behind a curtain while the musicians listen, so they’re hired purely off their artistry and ability to perform the selection. That has helped with gender equality—you’re hired solely on your talent for the position, so it is a unique process.
Where have you performed?
We made a big trip recently to Weyburn. Saskatoon has their own orchestra, so we stick to southern Saskatchewan. We have been all over the place like Swift Current, places of all sizes, Yorkton, Moose Jaw is a common destination for us because they have great venues for us to perform in and close enough to Regina that it is easy to do. We have also been to Strasbourg and Wolseley. We try to get to as many communities as we can. Over the past few years, it has been a little bit more challenging to get out of the city as much. We have been really excited these past few years to travel a bit more.
What is your role?
I am the Director of Marketing and Development so my role is to talk about the orchestra and get people excited and sell tickets. We are a charitable organization, so I am often looking for donations and financial support on that end, but I feel lucky that my job is to talk about how great the symphony is.
Why did you decide to perform in Maryfield?
The community came on our radar because we have a partnership with Brandon University because as an orchestra, we need people who can play the instruments—and strings especially, the violin, viola, cello—we increasingly need to get creative in finding people to come to Regina and play with us and Brandon University has a strong strings program.
Last year, there was a road trip plan to go to Brandon and meet with some of the students and Maryfield is on that side of the province and the idea got sparked to go perform there, and then again with the past few years we have had to make pivots, but now we’re supporting making a special trip out there just to go to the Maryfield Auditorium and help support a fundraising effort there.
We will be performing in Maryfield December 8.
The unique part is watching people perform who have made Saskatchewan their home. I think it is so special to get to share it with so many communities.
What kind of music and instruments will we see in Maryfield?
There will be 12 musicians, our Concert Master and Assistant Concert Master will play the violin, and another, so three violins will be played, a cello, a viola, and double bass is the string section, then we have flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon for the winds, and French horn and trumpet for the brass section.
They’re called the Chamber Players which is a type of classical music.
It is a smaller type of music group and tends to be a lot older music. They’re going to be playing music by Tchaikovsky from the Sleeping Beauty ballet and they will also be doing the Nutcracker Suite.
It is definitely like classical, but energetic and there will be two pieces from ballets so there will be that rhythmic element. It will be a fun program.
A great part of this too is our Concert Master is essentially first violin, he hosts the program so we’re always aware that people might not be familiar with this type of music, so I can say this group of musicians does a really great job of inviting people in or he may tell you a story where the music came from or the composer.
If you know it, that is great, and if you don’t, that is fine and the musicians will make sure that you’re taken care of.