VSO’s music school will help attract talent

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      The VSO’s new School of Music, which will welcome its first batch of students this fall, will help the orchestra with recruitment and retention, according to artistic director Bramwell Tovey.

      “We offered the positions in our faculty first of all to our musicians,” said Tovey. “Many of the teachers who are going to be here are going to be younger members of the orchestra who moved to the city to take the job, but of course rates of pay are not high enough to be able to buy a property. All the teaching positions [in the city] are taken, so they’ve got nowhere to teach.”

      Of the 48 faculty members contracted to teach at the school, 32 are full-time members of the VSO. Tovey said being able to offer a teaching position in addition to an orchestra seat will help attract new talent.

      The VSO School of Music, which was eight years in the making, was unveiled May 27. The $30-million 25,000-square-foot school, located at 843 Seymour Street, boasts 18 acoustically designed teaching studios, two classrooms, six practice rooms, and a two-storey-tall ensemble room. Its biggest selling feature, however, is its recital hall—acoustically and vibrationally isolated, it has a motorized flooring system allowing for four different seating configurations, ranging from a 70-seat catered-event facility to a 120-seat raked concert hall. It is also equipped with professional-grade recording equipment and sound booth, which were funded by a $365,705 grant from Heritage Canada’s Cultural Spaces Fund. The project was otherwise financed through a combination of a cultural-amenity density bonus from the City of Vancouver, corporate donors, and an amount from the province that has not yet been finalized.

      “There’s a lack of real studios for classical recording in this city,” noted Tovey. “Most of the studios are very, very dry, which is great for commercial music or multitrack stuff. But if you want to have an ambient recording that’s naturally produced...it’s almost impossible to find a sound-proof space.”

      In addition, the recital hall is rigged for broadband teleconferencing, which Tovey envisions using to connect students from across the province to master classes from visiting artists. “I have already got the agreement of many of the distinguished guest artists who are to visit the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,” he said, noting Yo-Yo Ma has already agreed.

      Registration is now open at www.vsoschoolofmusic.ca.

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