From Mark Turner – Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra

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

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:

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.
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.
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.
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

Taking Stock

It is a bit hard to believe that this coming fall marks my 10th season with the SSO. When I first took on this role, I took to our blog to share my vision for the future. But somewhere along the way I ran out of time to blog…a good problem to have because it was the result of incredible organizational growth.

As I’ve watched our orchestra and our organization grow this season, I wanted to take time to take stock of what we’ve accomplished.

Since its launch, we’ve had more than thirty-five million minutes of viewing on the ConcertStream.tv platform. Read that again. 35 million minutes of viewing. Hundreds of thousands of people from 53 countries. From online subscribers to folks who watch our free content, what we’ve been able to do is share our music with more people. Unprecedented accessibility to the SSO has changed us forever.

This season, we’ve been the lucky ones to experience some of the most sensational performances Saskatoon has ever enjoyed. Whether you danced the night away at the Music of ABBA, laughed with the Muppets, were filled with joy at Handel’s Messiah, or had your breath taken away by Jan Lisiecki, I know you’ll agree that this season has felt like a golden age.

The crowds have been incredible. Multiple sell-out concerts and full houses have left us feeling the love! Nothing beats the thrill of hearing the roar of the crowd. It’s been a season celebrating the exceptional talent that Saskatoon has to offer. With artistic partners like Ryan Davis and Danika Lorèn and performances with the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra, the SSO Chorus, the Greystone Singers, and Aurora Voce…those have been special moments that show this organization and community at its best.

Then there’s been the profound performances from your SSO musicians. The orchestra, time and time again this season, have stepped up and shown how much a symphony can mean to its community. Whether lifting up homegrown talent, helping toddlers experience the joy of music, or performing alongside a legitimate musical superstar, the musicians of your orchestra have made us all proud.

It goes without saying that an orchestra needs its audience, I actually believe that the reverse is more true. The audience needs its orchestra. What an exciting thing to be able to go to a concert (or watch it on your phone!) and experience the thrill of an orchestra in full flight. It makes our community a better place to call home.

The multiplier effect of an orchestra is astonishing. Our musicians teach, mentor, and inspire students. Those students go on to be people who understand hard work, goal setting, perseverance, and the joy of complex music. The musicians on stage have influenced the lives of countless people across our province.

Our concerts change minds, burst with emotions and imagination, and lift us up out of day-to-day life.
From a child hearing the violin for the first time, to students in schools learning about the importance of living composers, to long-time subscribers hearing new sounds and falling in love with music all over again – the outcome is remarkable.

Orchestras are living, breathing, vital artistic beings that have an exponential impact in their communities. I cannot imagine Saskatoon, and indeed Saskatchewan, without their orchestras.

This season isn’t without its challenges. The prairies are experiencing a crippling arts funding crisis. The value of music is shrinking in our education system, as it’s easy to ignore the continually growing body of evidence that musical literacy is crucial to a complete education and a student’s success. All arts organizations are feeling the deep effects and challenges of inflation. It’s hard work, and it’s worth it.

The SSO has come a long way – we’re not done. We’re focused on a robust future for music in Saskatoon, one that is filled with passion, innovation, and an ambitious plan for musical opportunities and accessibility.

In the weeks ahead we have a fundraising campaign to finish. Our Opus 100: Share in the Future campaign crossed its first matching goal in December, and then the generosity of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation shone through and extended our matching to a goal of $500,000. To date, we’ve raised over $350,000 – giving us six more weeks to raise another $150,000 to meet our goal.

I’ll come back to blogging to share my passion for the SSO, because it’s important for us to take stock of how much the SSO means and remind you how fiercely proud we should be.

See you at the symphony – soon,
Mark Turner
CEO and Creative Producer

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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 in words.

I’ve been very proud of what the SSO has accomplished in the last few weeks. Our digitally distant performances, online concert, musician chats, and Beethoven Fest have had more than 25,000 people from around the world engaging with us. We have gotten to know ourselves in a new way, and we’ve gotten to connect with some patrons in ways we never thought we could. It’s clear that our SSO for You online portal is not only here to stay, but lets us grow and connect in more ways.

Musicians around the world went silent, and immediately the world turned to music…with streamed concerts and playlists meaning more than ever. It has been extra hard for a world on the cusp of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven.

The pandemic, and its effects on the SSO and music worldwide, has made me do a lot of reflecting about Beethoven. Musicians and music lovers alike know his music, often intimately, down to every last nuance. But there’s much still to consider from the man who changed music.

Just after turning 30, his hearing was slipping away. Nothing is more vital and more critical to a musician than their hearing. As each year passed, he worked harder, explored more, he pushed the limits of music. He performed and conducted premieres that he had to self produce just to make sure his music was heard. His life kept getting more challenging, and often he was his own worst enemy. To him, the world went silent. But his own world was musically vivid.

As his ability to communicate through music became increasingly challenging, Beethoven turned his face to the storm. He wrote. He wrote music that challenged the establishment, he wrote music that changed the way musicians took on their craft, and he wrote music that would go on to change the world forever.

He had something so crucial taken away from him, and he could not give up.

The SSO, like orchestras around the globe, had to go silent. And right now, it’s impossible to know what will happen next. There are great glimmers of hope around the world, with orchestras soon hosting concerts with up to 55% of audience in their halls. But none of us know what will happen next.

Over the last few weeks, the SSO team has become galvanized in the knowledge that we can’t give up.

We hope we can present the concerts we have planned this fall, with adaptations that keep us all safe. But, if we can’t, we have multiple “plan B’s” in the works – concerts that showcase the innovation, creativity, and beautiful music making that the SSO brings to its community. We are exploring ways to digitally capture our school shows, seniors homes, and outreach programming so that we can keep bringing musical experiences to everyone who needs it.

We will make music for you no matter what. We will look to ensure that our concerts are safe for patrons and musicians alike. We will push our creativity to new bounds. We will innovate and explore and face the challenge with determination. Like Beethoven, silence isn’t an option.

It might be different. It might feel strange at first. It will be creative. It will be worth the work and worth the wait.

It may not change the world, but it will make a difference.

Thank you for supporting the SSO – I hope you’ll join me in making a donation to your orchestra at this time when literally every donation makes a world of difference.

Mark Turner
Executive Director

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 really seem real for us.

But as the week progressed, each hour brought new news. First the JUNOs (heartbreaking as the SSO was going to be playing with Jann Arden!). Then we had to postpone our Accent with the SSO concert because we weren’t able to get all six of the groups members here. Then the last few shows of our SaskTel Symphony in Schools Tour was cancelled. Then we postponed our Mozart Reimagined project with Saskatoon Opera and FreeFlow Dance. And our Music Talk at McNally for March 31st has been cancelled. And I’m sure more is on the way.

As of this morning, we are still taking things hour by hour. We’re looking ahead to the programming planned for the next few weeks and realizing that there are more postponements and cancellations in sight.

Some of these events will have to be cancelled, but the goal for us is to reschedule some of the events for a future date. I have no idea when, but I do know that we want to keep sharing music – and I have two reasons why I feel strongly we need to reschedule.

Firstly, our musicians. We are all grateful to be able to do our part in social distancing to try and slow the spread of COVID-19, but these measures will be devastating to our local musicians. They already have been. It highlights how exceptionally fragile working in the arts is. We all love to reap the benefits of having artists in our communities, but we have yet to find a way to ensure their stability as members of our communities. It’s something that we have to work on going forward, but more importantly, its something that we’re starring in the face right now. Most musicians in our community do not qualify for EI, and many of them will see a reduction or total loss of work.

On top of that, the financial risk this poses to the SSO, and all arts organizations, is drastic. My administrative team is working non-stop on trying to figure out what we can do. How do we support our musicians and remain afloat? Can we find ways to soften the blow? And how do we even keep our doors open if the remainder of the season is shuttered?

The second reason I have for wanting to reschedule is that when the time comes for us to end social distancing, the need for us all to come together to participate in the act of making music will be key to finding our identity as a community again. We will need to be social, and a concert is one of the most joyous ways to come together and be part of something again. It will help us all rebuild emotionally and mentally after these strange days.

All of the tickets held to a postponed event will be honoured – we want to have you there when we get music back on its feet in Saskatoon. If you want you can ask for a refund as well, or you can choose to donate your purchased ticket to the SSO. We’ve had a number of people do this already, and it means the world to us – it helps us continue to operate in this very difficult time and let’s us give you a tax receipt for your support.

The last few days have been very difficult, but I have been overwhelmed by supporters of the SSO reaching out wanting to help. I can not tell you how wonderful it feels to know that people are thinking of their orchestra at this time. I’ve been humbled by the people phoning in to make donations. I’ve been touched to see the care and respect our community has for its music makers.

Please keep subscribing to our 90th season – this fall will be an even bigger celebration than we could have expected, so we want to share that with you! Your subscription helps the SSO stay stable moving beyond this fiscal year.

And the most meaningful help is making a donation. This time of year is our largest in terms of the donations we receive – if donations drop off on top of losing ticket revenues, it will spell disaster for your SSO.

None of us ever imagined this kind of global scenario would play out – and all of us are feeling the impact. Social distancing and self-isolation are needed right now. But a time will come when we will need the communion of being together again to make music, and those will be such wonderful events.

Please support your local symphony – we all need you more than ever.

Stay well,
Mark Turner
Executive Director
Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra

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 funders, and with the SSO Board President Dr Anne Doig (former President of the Canadian Medical Association), and keeping a constant eye on Public Health advisories.

Currently, the risk to Saskatchewan residents is low and no venues have been closed. But this morning I discussed with Accent that they are uncertain of the travel options for a number of their group members, and rather than risking a show that wouldn’t be to the standard either party would want, we decided its best to postpone.

This concert has been such a thrill to put together with Accent – and we are so excited to share it with Saskatoon. So under these circumstances all parties agreed that this was something we will reschedule.

Over the next few weeks we’ll find a time to reschedule the event and keep you informed of the date.

All tickets for next weekend’s concert will be honoured for the rescheduled event.

If you’d prefer to not hold on to your ticket for the rescheduled event, we have two options for you:

chose to donate your ticket back to the SSO, and receive a tax receipt
request a refund for those tickets

As of this morning, we have no plans to postpone any other events – but we are monitoring the situation closely and want to do what’s in the best interest of safety and public health.

The financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic could have to the SSO and our musicians is devastating. So we are working hard to try and figure out what happens next.
I know that the stock market and pandemic have all of us worried – but I urge you as music lovers to consider the risk that this poses to the beloved musicians of the SSO. My staff and I are working hard to put in to place contingency plans in a hope to ensure the well being of the SSO and its musicians and staff, physically and financially. Our city is lucky to have the musicians and orchestra, and this current situation gives us a chance to show our support for them.

Our patrons and our musicians mean a lot to us – so please stay well.

Sincerely,
Mark Turner
Executive Director

For any questions please feel free to email office@saskatoonsymphony.org, call the SSO at 306-665-6414

A momentus achievement for the SSO

I recently had the chance to see one of my favourite paintings in person for the first time. I’ve seen endless copies of this particular painting since I was a kid; the particular gaze of the girl in painting, the light on her jewelry, the folds of her clothing – I thought I knew every inch of this painting.

But as I sat for a while and stared at her I realized that she was completely different than I’d ever imagined. Her gaze was the same as I’d seen in books and posters and copies, and the light seemed to dance across her face in the same way, but she was different. She sparkled. More precisely, the negative space around her wasn’t just darkness but rather it was darkness filled with the movement of light in the room in which I was standing. I wasn’t looking at a painting, I was inside the world the artist created.

This past weekend I was sitting in the audience at Knox as the SSO and Chorus performed our last concert of the season. I was feeling a sense of relief and gratitude that it was the perfect end for a very strong season. I was enjoying that the audience was so excited to be there, and enjoying the joy on the face of each and every chorus member as they got to sing their hearts out. And then it happened again. Along came Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, a piece I have heard endless times in my life – and to be honest, I’ve never felt it was his best work. I’ve always felt it was a bit much…a great commercial pop hit from an artist who could write truly thrilling music. And played to death on radio and CDs. But faced with the piece performed by live chorus and orchestra, I was struck. It’s not just another “hit”, but a deeply personal and moving moment when Mozart places you right inside the world he created; its graceful and gentle, but deeply sincere. It’s exactly the sound Mozart had intended on creating for the listener.

The truth of the matter is, in 2019 we don’t have many moments in our day to day lives when our soul gets swept up in the moment. Between trying to Marie Kondo our way to happiness and snapchat filter our way to feeling good about ourselves, our day to day lives aren’t much to revel in. The realities of life don’t give us a natural pause. There is no natural cadence from stress in an ever connected world, and no ordinary distraction from how exhausted our schedules are making us. And while spending $3 on a mindfulness app might be the answer to all your worries, I strongly recommend making art and music a significant part of your life.

But there is no replacement for the real thing. Seeing copies of that painting for the rest of my life, I would have never realized how deeply the painting spoke to me. It was a great reminder to me that there is no substitute for an orchestra.

In my conversations with patrons this year I’ve heard about the music that really moved them – from a newer patron who found Mozart’s Requiem to be wonderfully intense, to the long time music lover who is still deeply moved by last season’s Armed Man. One thing became clear: the sound of hearing this music live was wholly different than listening to a recording. The sound of a live symphonic orchestra cannot be faked.

We have a few more days until the end of this year’s Share in the Future campaign. We set a lofty goal this year, and we’ve got about $40,000 to raise before the end of day on Friday to reach our goal of $300,000. This year’s campaign is special because if we are successful, we will have made the SSO deficit free. This is a remarkable accomplishment for any orchestra in 2019, but a significant achievement for Saskatoon’s orchestra.

This achievement would not be possible were it not for the exceptionally generous support of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation. The Remai Foundation’s matching of donations instantly doubles your support of your orchestra, and allows us to boldly enter a new era for your symphony.

Imagine only ever having the chance to hear recordings of orchestral music. It’s just not the same. A live symphony orchestra is a vast expanse of sound that captures the size and intensity of human expression. It can be as big as a prairie sky or as personal as a broken heart. It can bring you to your feet or move you to tears. It has the power to be the loudest sound you’ve ever heard or so soft that the entire room sits in silence to hear the next note. It’s an extraordinary experience.

I invite you to join me in making a donation to the Share in the Future campaign in these final days. It feels really good to be part of something this momentus for Saskatoon’s oldest arts organization, and it sends a clear message to the musicians of the SSO that their work is valued and supported by their community.

It’s true that without an orchestra in town, life would go on. But without the chance for future generations to come face to face with this glorious sound, they’ll never understand the power of a live orchestra.

I’m certain of this – because until the day I came face to face with that painting, I had no idea she sparkled.

Thank you for making music matter,
Mark Turner
Executive Director

To make a gift to our Share in the Future campaign:

Click Here to Give Online

Call us at 306-665-6414

Visit us at the SSO offices – 602B 51st Street

A statement from ED Mark Turner

The first thought I had in the moment was that I wouldn’t be able to play piano the same way again. My life did not flash before my eyes (no pun intended), and time neither stood still nor flew by. And while stories like this are usually told in a moment-by-moment retelling of the event, for me the story is more than a series of events. I cannot instantly recall the initial pain, but I can vividly recall the panic that I’d lost a part of my piano playing ability.

To be very honest I have been attempting, and failing, to write a note to the SSO community since the attack. I have wanted to share that I am fully recovered. I’ve wanted to share my thanks for the support and love the community showed to me and my staff whose lives were all changed forever that day. I’ve wanted to talk about how at first I couldn’t listen to music, but now I rely on music to get through the bad days and the just getting by days. I’ve wanted to talk about the steps we’re taking to give the SSO a safe space. There’s much I’ve wanted to say, but I haven’t had the words.

On July 31st, I was attacked at the SSO offices by a man who we’d never seen before. In the middle of a meeting with three of the SSO team, he stabbed me in the eye. Thanks to the quick thinking and giant hearts of my team, I was rushed to hospital and I had the emergency care I needed. The next few weeks were very difficult, very painful, very emotional, and very draining.

The bruising, swelling, fractures, and eye complications have all gone, and I have made a 100% physical recovery. I am very grateful to medical team at City Hospital and the Eye Clinic for the care I received that made recovery possible.

But the psychological effects of being the victim of a violent crime don’t disappear like bruises. So while the scar on my eye is barely noticable, I’m adjusting to life with scars.

Like many people and, as studies show, nearly all musicians, mental health has always played a role in my life and I have struggled with anxiety most of my adult life. Whether it’s a musician’s innate emotional connection to their soul or the vulnerability that comes with being a music student, musicians and mental health challenges go hand in hand. I am very lucky that I don’t have performance related anxiety, and I’m not sure I’ve ever really been nervous to play no matter the size of the audience (though, my teachers Sheila and Penny somehow had the ability to make me question if I’d practiced enough….). In the mid-2000s I began living with anxiety – it took a long time to understand, and accept, and eventually I was able to manage it. I’ve even given a speech on stage at the SSO while I was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. More than once.

So new scars are just that – they’re new. I consider myself very lucky that in my life I can turn with an open heart and open mind and open ears to music. I am a voracious consumer and maker of music – it’s my life’s work, it’s my refuge, its my passion, it’s my research, it’s what I turn to when I need time and space. But this summer made me grateful that beautiful music exists and that whether its Bach or Aretha, there’s something for every feeling and every scar.

Safety is a must for a workplace – and because of that, the SSO Board of Directors and I made the decision to move the SSO to a new space.

The shock and fear attached to the attack had impact on the staff, musicians, Book Sale volunteers, and even our patrons. This isn’t about us running away from what happened, or turning our backs on the friends we’ve made in Riversdale – this decision was solely selfish: we needed to provide the team that brings you the SSO a space where they could feel productive again. While I was the one left with a physical scar, the mental scarring affected many people. We have been able to do our work, but it is taking a toll on us.

We’re thrilled to have found a great new space that has a great music room, beautiful offices, and a wonderful warehouse for the Book Sale. We’re grateful to our neighbours and landlord for making Riversdale such a rewarding home. And we’re affirming our commitment to being an orchestra for all members of our community, and in continuing the work that has been so important to us in our time in Riversdale.

I’m behind on my work – we lost a month, and though I am back to work I still have days where concentration is difficult. But I am loving being back at work. Our first few concerts of the year have refreshed my pride in the musicians of the SSO, and they’ve given me the energy to make the next steps for the SSO to be a catalyst for exceptional music making in our community.

The next time you see one of my staff, please tell them how grateful you are that they are doing what they do for music in our town and how brave they were in the face of terrifying circumstances.

A move is a lot of work and costs a lot of money, so don’t be shy about helping out! Come to lots of concerts – there is no replacement for the healing power of music. It means a lot to us when you come to our concerts.

And I’m back at the piano.
Tune your heart to brave music.

See you at the symphony,
Mark

SSO Executive Director Mark Turner wishes to thank the community, near and far, who reached out in the weeks that followed the unfortunate events of July 31st.

The SSO will be moving its offices during the month of November to 602B 51st Street East.

Season 95

Silence Isn’t An Option

The Show Will Go On, Someday

Postponing Accent with the SSO

A statement from ED Mark Turner

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