Call for Interest–Board of Directors

Call for Interest–Board of Directors

Now entering its 95th season, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is one of the oldest symphonic orchestras in Canada and one of the most innovative and resourceful.

The SSO actively works to build and maintain artistic, cultural, and business partnerships within Saskatoon, across Canada, and internationally. These partnerships include performing artists in multiple genres, composers and musical leaders, publishers, many businesses, multiple levels of government, First Nations, and other major arts organizations.

The SSO is seeking enthusiastic, resourceful, engaged, and forward-thinking people to join its volunteer Board of Directors. The SSO is committed to the IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Access) principles for its musicians, staff, and Board. We strive to have the face of the Board reflect the face of the community at large and we seek to remove barriers to participation in the work of the Board. 

Candidates for election to the Board must fulfill the requirements set out in the Bylaws. Previous experience on not-for-profit (NFP) boards or managerial experience at the E-VP or C-suite level would be an asset but is not required. In addition to seeking highly qualified and experienced individuals, the SSS Board seizes opportunities to mentor early career persons, particularly those engaged  in Arts management or other NFP activities. The SSO Board provides opportunities as elected directors or as invited external members of working committees. 

The volunteer Board of Directors provides strategic leadership, governance, establishes policy, exercises stewardship over the operations and financial performance of the SSO, and assesses the Board’s own effectiveness and the effectiveness of its CEO. Our leadership team is imaginative, innovative, and highly effective. 

Following our annual Board skills assessment, the Board is looking specifically for individuals with the following interests and skill sets:

  • Experience in the Arts Industry
  • Marketing and Promotion
  • Public Policy and Government Relations
  • Finance & Accounting (CPA)
  • Law
  • Resource Development
  • Capital Projects

Directors are expected to:

  • prepare for, attend, and participate in six board meetings per year, one of which is a full day Retreat;
  • serve on at least one committee and participate actively in the work of the committee and its meetings;
  • include the SSO as a top three personal philanthropic priority; and
  • be an active proponent and supporter for the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.

The SSO Board encourages Directors to engage in all activities of the organization, including its performances, benefit activities, and donor/patron support. 

Directors are elected at the AGM of the Society, which is held in September each year. The term of office is three years, renewable consecutively once for a total of six years. To be eligible for election, individuals must meet the Bylaws requirements. 

To apply for a board position or appointment to a board committee, please submit an expression of your interest, and a description of your professional experience which may be in the form of a CV or resume to board(at)saskatoonsymphony.org by August 1, 2025. Written, audio, or video submissions will all be accepted.

Short-listed applicants will be contacted and interviewed.

For additional information, please contact: Board Chair, Anne Doig, at adoig(at)ccfp.ca To review the SSS Bylaws, Board Policies, and committee TORs, please contact the office office(at)saskatoonsymphony.org.

A Special 95 for Season 95!

Created to mark the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s 95th season, this painting of the number Ninety-Five joins local artist Keitha McClocklin’s Number Series, which celebrates the personal and collective significance of the meaningful numbers in our lives. McClocklin used the Symphony’s 95th season palette of pinks, blues, indigos and purples to reflect the emotional arc of the Symphony’s programming: a journey from darkness to light, from tension to joy. Inspired by the idea that this season carries audiences from darkness to light, she built the number with layers of collage and mixed media using a street art aesthetic that speaks to spontaneity, energy and emotional release. Look closely and you’ll find visual easter eggs representing the concerts of the Symphony’s 95th season. In its bold lines and gradual colour shifts, the number becomes both a milestone and a metaphor, a vibrant celebration of the music and moments that connect us.

Keitha McClocklin is a Canadian contemporary artist who creates from her studio in Saskatoon’s Riversdale neighbourhood. She works in a range of disciplines including painting, printmaking and drawing, often weaving techniques from one discipline to another. She fluidly moves between figurative, landscape and abstraction, with her abstract realism style characterized by the use of layers, colour and mixed media. McClocklin’s works are held in public and private collections across Canada, the U.S., France, the U.K. and Indonesia.

Our New Patron Portal

We recently did the soft launch of our new patron portal. We launched a new ticketing system this spring, and this is the next step in the process, giving you greater access to your orchestra. For donations, tickets to in-person events, and more, you now have access to our new ticketing system.

For all things ConcertStream.tv, please visit ConcertStream.tv.

A select group of users was sent the following information in their email. If you did not receive this information, or have issues getting into your new account please contact us.

The good news: there is no need for you to create an account on our new system, as you already have one. You just need to set a new password. The instructions for that are below. 

Step 1

Visit https://my.saskatoonsymphony.org/authentication/password-recovery and enter the same email address we used to send you this message, then select the “Recover Password” button.

You will be automatically redirected to a confirmation page with information about an email with a link to reset your password, then sign in.

Please be aware that the email will be sent from aws@upstagecrm.io, this is our new ticketing provider. Kindly add this email address to your contacts and, in case the confirmation email doesn’t appear, check your spam folder.

Step 2

  1. Once the email arrives, select the “Set Your Password and Log In” button.
  2. For security, your email address and verification code will be prefilled for you. There’s no need to enter anything in either field.
  3. Set your password, then enter it again in the confirmation field.
    Password must contain at least:
    8 characters
    1 number
    1 special character (eg. !, @, #, $, %)
    1 uppercase letter
    1 lowercase letter
  4. Select the “Reset Password” button

You will be automatically directed to the Sign In page.

Step 3

Use your email and new password to sign into your account. 

With your account now accessible, you can conveniently buy and oversee tickets, contribute to donations, and preview your tickets for upcoming events.

Access Your Account

The Prairies Performing Arts Initiative

The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra was included in a special announcement made by Prairies Economic Development Canada this morning.

Today, the Honourable Terry Duguid, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced on behalf of the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, a federal investment of over $9.5 million to support performing arts organizations across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This funding will help these organizations expand, innovate, and engage audiences in new and exciting ways.

Your SSO is one of several prairie arts organizations that received this incredible funding to help grow our audiences and increase awareness of our offerings in the community.

You can read the full press release here.

Season 95

Completely by accident, our 95th season is designed to be a series of inspirations.

Building a new season is always like putting together a puzzle. There are many pieces that need to be laid out and fit together, and before long they begin to create something that looks so much more wonderful than each individual piece could ever be.

Sometimes a single idea in a season can take years to get on stage – the pieces can’t just be forced together, there has to be a fit. And this time, everything fell into place.

Our 95th season is full of amazing music and artists that just fell into place at precisely the right time. As I say, completely by accident, this season is a series of concerts that move us emotionally from darkness to light. We’ll feel the release of turmoil and tension to joy and hope in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Brahms Symphony 1, Schumann’s Spring, Shostakovich’s epic 5th Symphony, and even an all Canadian concert to let us beam with true north pride.

The stage is set for the staggering artistry of virtuosos like Angela Cheng with Rachmaninoff for Valentines Day, cellist Stéphane Tétreault in a concerto that will melt your heart, Julia Wedman returning home for the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, our own Stephanie Unverricht in the music of Mozart, and the return of superstar Kinan Azmeh. In October the SSO is joined by one of the most legendary classical artists of all time – Grammy and Polar Music Prize winner Dame Evelyn Glennie. To celebrate her 60th birthday, Glennie is here to perform From Darkness to Light from her long time collaborator Vincent Ho.

A season to lift us up is led by a host of amazing conductors including podium partners Tania Miller, Karl Hirzer, and Judith Yan, alongside Monica Chen, Andrew Crust, Janna Sailor, Dinuk Wijeratne, and more.

We are thrilled to develop new shows with Saskatoon’s own soulful Sonia Reid and band Kashmir with the music of Led Zeppelin. We also get to present performances by returning favourites Constantinople and the renowned violinist James Ehnes. We can’t wait to perform Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, National Geographic’s The Secrets of Whales, and have the YXE Divas take the holidays by storm!

The fall starts with a major partnership with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Edmonton Opera, and the Yukon Arts Centre as we present a new semi-staged production of one of the most loved operas of all time – Tosca. A first for Saskatoon, we can’t wait to perform Puccini’s passionate and powerful masterpiece.

It’s our biggest season ever. It’s bold. It’s audacious. It features music for everyone.  

In a time when we all need reminding, we will all journey from darkness to light – and we can’t wait to share the journey with you!

Explore Season 95

SSO’s Live Streaming for 2024-2025

ConcertStream.tv continues to give incredible access to your SSO. Not only do you get to see fantastic content whenever you want, you get an up close and personal experience all from the comfort of wherever you are!

Streaming has changed the SSO forever. We love sharing our performances with viewers around the world. We are bringing our music-making to the hearts and homes of our patrons. Whether you’re live streaming the performance or watching it a second time on demand, we’ve curated an online season that highlights the best we have to offer this season.

ConcertStream.tv

Saturday, September 14, 2024
Enigma

Maestra Tania Miller returns to open our 94th season by leading the SSO in Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Pianist Sara Davis Buechner makes her long-awaited SSO debut with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert No. 1.

Saturday, October 26, 2024
Controlled Burn

Cellist/composer Cris Derksen joins the SSO to perform her fiery new work Controlled Burn. Maestra Janna Sailor returns home to lead the orchestra in a new work by Saskatoon’s own Artist/Activist/Educator Zoey Roy.

Friday, December 13, 2024
Handel’s Messiah

Conductor Karl Hirzer leads the SSO Chorus, spectacular soloists, and your orchestra in Handel’s timeless work The Messiah. A beloved holiday tradition in Saskatoon since it was first performed here in 1913.

Saturday, January 18, 2025
The Medium

What does the future hold for you? An intimate staging of Menotti’s haunting opera The Medium. It’s a spooky two-act dramatic opera where phony psychic Madame Flora uses her clients’ grief to deceive them with the help of her daughter and a mute servant. But one night, an uncanny encounter leads to murder and madness.

Saturday, February 15, 2025
Sleeping Beauty

Violinist Timothy Chooi returns for a concert filled with music that’s perfect for you and your valentine. Led by Maestra Judith Yan, Chooi and your orchestra will wow us with Bruch’s stunning Scottish Fantasy. The romantic evening is made complete with selections from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty curated by ballet aficionado Yan herself.

Sunday, March 2, 2025
Dixit – Baroque Resonance

Maestra Cosette Justo Valdés returns to once again show us what magic she can create with your orchestra and the SSO chorus. Together they will highlight some of the greatest baroque works including Handel’s stunning Dixit Dominus.

Saturday, March 8, 2025
The Lost Birds

We’re celebrating 40 seasons with our very own concertmaster Michael Swan! He’ll take centre stage to perform Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No.1. Conductor Evan Mitchell leads your SSO, and choir, in Christopher Tin’s moving choral work The Lost Birds. Sweeping and elegiac, it’s a haunting tribute to those soaring flocks that once filled our skies, but whose songs have since been silenced.

Saturday, March 29, 2025
Pictures at an Exhibition

Conductor Karl Hirzer returns to lead your SSO in Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition. Pianist Meagan Milatz makes her way back home to the prairies to help us celebrate composer David L. McIntyre’s 75th birthday with a performance of his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Saturday, April 12, 2025
Symphonic Sci-Fi

Our favourite sci-fi shows and movies would be very different without their iconic soundtracks. We’re highlighting our favourite works from galaxies near and far! With a special guest host to lead the way, it’s going to be out of this world.

Saturday, May 3, 2025
Chopin and the New World

After his triumphant orchestral debut with us in 2021, pianist Jerry Hu returns home to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto no.1. Led by Maestra Tania Miller, your SSO will finish our mainstage series with Dvořák’s New World Symphony and Goulet’s Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Saturday, May 31, 2025
Metamorphosis

We end our season with an incredible immersive experience created by visual artist Monique Martin. She will fill St. John’s with thousands of silkscreened paper butterflies, while Maestra Judith Yan and your orchestra fill the space with incredible music.

 

 

Watch our social media for future announcements! There are more great options to come on ConcertStream.tv.

 

Collaborating For The Future

For years the SSO and Saskatoon Opera have worked closely together. Both formally and informally, the two organizations have shared a passion for presenting music experiences that shine light on the human condition.  

After many years of discussion, the two entities have joined to become one. 

What we do, what we put on stage, is beautiful and inspiring and expensive. With prairies arts organizations facing a deeply challenging lack of government supports after many years of no increased investment, the question became clear: how do we find ways to still bring opera to Saskatchewan.  

Joining forces allows our two organizations to leverage our resources to carry on presenting the thrilling human voice in operatic repertoire. 

Will it be the same? No, not quite. But change can also be a very good thing. 

In the coming years we’re thrilled to present new opera experiences in immersive productions and semi-staged concert settings that will showcase the stunning orchestral scores with their full forces. 

We have plans to expand the successful opera pub programming, continue the summer Proms, and showcase voices that need to be heard.

Our sold out performances of a new take on Menotti’s The Medium this weekend are a great example of what can happen when collaboration and ideas collide.

Watch for more information as our two organizations become one – it’s a brave new world for music in all its mediums.

Elf Week

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And we hope that your days are filled with music as we get closer to the holidays. 

We’re busy preparing for our performances of ELF and Handel’s Messiah. And in the office we’re putting the finishing touches on next season’s programming…we cannot wait to share the details of our 95th season with you!

As a charity, this time of year is very important to us. December gives us a chance to receive donations that you can claim with your 2024 taxes. One of the great things about giving to the charities you love is that you ensure that your investment stays right here in your community.

This December, the SSO is purposefully focusing your support in a few key areas. Our work on our strategic plan Opus 100 is the most important work we can do. While we know that you love coming to our concerts, we are called to our purpose on stage and beyond. To ensure we’re valued in our community, we’re: 

  1. Investing in our orchestra.
    We’ve been working with our musicians on a new contract that sees us focus organizational resources on pay and pension contributions for our musicians. This is, in my opinion, the most important work the SSO can do at this time. We are so lucky to have such an incredible group of musicians calling Saskatoon home, but we need to ensure that we commit to long-term financial investment in our musicians. They do incredible work, and they deserve to be properly compensated. This investment is also needed to attract and retain high-calibre musicians. 
  2. Enlivening programming
    The SSO has been working on a bigger vision for the future of what we can do for our community. Making music accessible and engaging to as many people as possible is critical to ensuring that the SSO has a future. Your gift can support tickets for young people, support the Symphony in Schools programming, and help us develop new outreach programs for adults and seniors. We want to make sure that everyone can have the benefit of the increased well-being that comes with making music.
  3. One-of-a-kind experiencesThe SSO has become known for its innovative programming that highlights music from Bach to new music, Beethoven to rap. Concerts like next spring’s Metamorphosis showcase what’s possible when we dream big – giving our audiences experiences that can only be experienced right here in Saskatoon. Bringing concerts like Harry Potter and Disney films to life ensures that so many people who have never been to the SSO now feel deeply connected to why it’s important to ensure Saskatoon has a vibrant orchestra. 
  4. Supporting production
    Without a musical home, the SSO finds itself continually spending more and more each year on production costs. Moving concerts and rehearsals from venue to venue and place to place comes with growing expenses and a great deal of our staff’s time. As we continue to grow what the SSO does for its community, we need to keep supporting this work to financially manage that growth.

It feels incredible to hear your passion in the cheers during concerts. It’s literally the best feeling in the world. We can’t tell how much you appreciate the work we do. If it were possible, we’d be coming round to all of our donors’ houses to give you a giant cheer for each and every one of of your gifts this year. That’s how much we appreciate what you do for us!

And donating ahead of December 31st allows us to automatically double your gift. Once again, we’re humbled to have your gifts matched by the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation. 

We are so grateful for your help in reaching our fundraising goal for this year’s matching campaign to ensure that the SSO doesn’t just thrive, but flourishes!

Thanks for supporting the SSO,

Mark Turner

Messiah Week

What is your favourite holiday music? 

For me, honestly, there are almost too many options! I love it all…from Sleigh Ride to All I Want for Christmas, music for Solstice and Hanukkah. But if I was forced to pick, it might be an easy choice as “Messiah Week” at the SSO is my favourite concert week of the year.

Regardless of how many times I experience Handel’s Messiah, whether as a pianist helping a singer practice this difficult music or as an audience member of a sing-along, it never fails to remind me that it is so magical. 

This music, nearly 300 years old, is evergreen. It somehow magically always feels fresh and brand new. It never gets “easier” for the performers. It never fails to lift the audience up out of their seats and throw their spirit around the room in drama and unabashed joy. 

And somehow, hundreds of years later Handel is still achieving what he always wanted to. Forget the drama, forget the spectacular music – it’s about community. 

If you’ve never been to our Sing-Along Messiah performance – I want you to join us this weekend. You don’t have to sing along…but I’d love it if you gave it a try. It’s hard! It’s a bit scary (even for those of us who know it well). But it is among the most incredible prescription for joy that you can experience. 

Sitting alongside friends and strangers, we all embark on this wild journey of music that is complex and challenging, and singing it together will fill you with joy. You’ll know things are going well, and you’ll know when things are not! You will find yourself deeply moved by being in harmony with the entire room around you, and you will likely find yourself laughing. Somehow, Handel is still binding us together. 

As an orchestra and a charity, coming together is what we do best. We’re called to find ways of connecting everyone, from musicians to audience, in something great. And just like an incredible piece of music, everything is at its greatest when we work together. 

In that goal of working together to great music, I’m asking you to make a donation to the SSO this holiday season. As a charity, these next few weeks are crucial to our continuing success. 

We have a few more weeks to receive gifts ahead of the end of the calendar year. And with our matching support from the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, making a gift is a bit like joining in for Sing-Along Messiah. It feels incredible to be part of something bigger that brings so much joy to all of us when we make music together.

Thank you so much for your incredible support,

Mark Turner

Composer Series Handel

In 2019, Denyse started to create famous composers into a series of colourful portraits in support of the SSO.
She is delighted to reveal ‘Handel’, her latest to the collection. These pieces are available in two sizes: 12 x 12 and 24 x24.

You can see the painting for yourself in the lobby at Elf in Concert!

To view and purchase prints from the full composer series visit Dervilia art + design.