The Clarinet Polka has a wild history!
Some fans of folk music may tell you that the Beer Barrel polka is the most famous polka in the world. To that, we say…there is another! The Clarinet Polka (often catalogued as “Klarinett-Polka” or …
Learning and making music with Cris Derksen
by SSO Principal Oboe Erin Brophey “When you meet Cris Derksen for the first time, you are so aware of her infectious energy. She is a force.” Erin Brophey Principal Oboe- SSO Through a Canada Council …
Watch Party Ideas for the Prairies
We loved seeing all of the folks watching Postcards from Paris at home, with family, even from their campsite! We wanted to help with ideas for how you can turn your live streaming experience into …
Meeting Murray Adaskin
Growing up in a Jewish and Latvian household, Murray Adaskin was taught from a very early age to strive for excellence and persevere towards his passions. As a young man, Adaskin showed promise on the …
The Music of Jocelyn Morlock
Over the last few years, Jocelyn Morlock’s music has become an audience favourite at the SSO. We’ve been so fortunate to play a number of her works, most recently the March 7th performance of Oisieux …
A Picasso Suite for the SSO
Harry Somers’ “Picasso Suite” was commissioned by the SSO in 1964 and received its premiere performance in Saskatoon. Since that first performance, it has gone on to be one of Canada’s most loved orchestral suites, …
Live Stream Tips & Tricks
So, you’ve bought your concertstream.tv subscription or your one-time Digital Ticket for the SSO live-streamed concert. You are settled in your favourite chair, with snacks and drinks in hand and you are ready to enjoy …
Ravel’s Mother Goose
Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite is not unlike a thoughtfully assembled box of one’s favorite assorted chocolates: each has something unique to offer our tastebuds, and all should be savored. If one has the time, sampling …
An Afternoon for a Faune
It can be said of beauty in the arts that the simpler something appears to a beholder, the greater were the creator’s efforts in cloaking the underlying complexity of their creation. Subtlety, after all, requires …
Piaf and La Vie en Rose
Imagine falling in love in Paris: a delicate series of scenes painted in soft pastels, where romance shines through every innocent moment of discovery in that bright and historic city. Do you hear the music? …
Chevalier and the Balloons
Audiences today don’t know enough Joseph Bolonge, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and we need to change that because he was an important figure in music history who’s music is making a major comeback. Chevalier de …
Musical Herstory
For centuries, the writers of musical textbooks (and the programmers of musical institutions) excluded women who composed. Women have been writing and performing music for as long as men have; so how come we don’t …
SSO in the Classroom
The SSO has a long history of engaging in music education, both through our programs and through the reach of the incredible musicians who play in the orchestra. With school music programs facing a time …
Silence Isn’t An Option
Running an arts organization these days is not for the faint of heart. Being an artist isn’t either…particularly exhausting and scary for musicians. We’ve gone silent. And it feels worse than I’m able to explain …
Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas
With 2020 being the Beethoven Year, celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth, the SSO is exploring his musical genius – and while we instantly think of Beethoven when it comes to symphonies and piano …
The SSO’s Principal Horn Carol Marie Cottin
We’ve been keeping in touch with the musicians of the SSO during the pandemic – and we got this awesome note from the SSO’s Principal Horn: Hi my name is Carol-Marie Cottin and I play …
Beat Beethoven Virtual Fun Run
WOW! Thank you to everyone who took part in our Virtual Beat Beethoven! Over the course of the week, we had nearly 200 people participate in this walk/bike/run. We want to send a special thank …
SSO For You
It’s strange to not be able to make music with your friends – and even stranger that we weren’t getting to make music FOR our friends! While we all stay home to flatten the curve, …
Classical Music Online For You
With the impact of COVID-19 being felt around the globe, its become even more clear that music is something we all need at this time – and while we can’t gather together for performances, the …
The Show Will Go On, Someday
Last Monday, if you’d told me that we’d be postponing concerts by the end of the week, I wouldn’t have believed you. It felt like the pandemic was something happening elsewhere, not here. It didn’t …
Postponing Accent with the SSO
I’m very sad to announce that we need to postpone our March 21st concert with Accent. Over the last few days, I have been working very closely with orchestras across the country, our venues, our …
Mozart’s Symphony No. 29
Accustomed as we are to the central importance attached to the later Symphonies of Mozart and Haydn, their earlier works often seem to be uncomfortably light in weight for two such masters to have created. …
Beethoven’s Septet
Although it provided an early boost to his popularity at a time he most needed it, Beethoven grew to resent the success that his Septet generated following its public premiere in Vienna, April 2, 1800. …
Beethoven’s Serenade
We tend to think of Beethoven as a very serious, determined, God-like figure: Johann Anton Stieler’s famous portrait of the composer furiously at work on the Missa solemnis; grey mane tousled; a stern, focused expression …
