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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
When you look at the cover of Contemplating Clouds on a Prairie Sky by composer Wayne Toews there is a note that says
Dedicated to Ellen Remai, who has enriched Saskatoon through support of the Arts community.
Not only did Toews dedicate the piece to Ms Remai, but he also donated the work to the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra as a part of our Share in the Future fundraising campaign. His contribution was matched thanks to the generosity of Ms Remai through the Frank & Ellen Remai Foundation.
The donation of Toews’ piece helped us reach our goal of raising $500,000! It is incredibly special to have someone as gifted of a composer as Wayne Toews share his art with us. We are honoured to be giving the premiere of the piece at Controlled Burn. As a past member of the orchestra, it means a lot to us that he continues to support the SSO.
As a lifelong musician, educator, conductor, and part of the local music community, Toews understands the importance of live music in the heart of the prairies. He has also been a part of building local music organizations from the ground up.
There is something incredibly resilient about the prairie music community. It takes grassroots to heart with the number of organizations, large and small, creating incredible music on shoestring budgets and all is made possible through the hands of generous volunteers. There is a wealth of talent here in, and from, the prairies that is heard all over the world.
Wayne Toews is huge part of that legacy.
On top of his work in the Saskatoon school system, Toews has been teaching students of all ages since his career began in 1969. He created the band program at City Park Collegiate and neighbourhood schools, expanded the music program at Aden Bowman Collegiate, founded the Saskatchewan Orchestral Association, founded the modern iteration of the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra and led it for 25 years alongside his colleague George Charpentier.
He organized the Jack Johnson Memorial Music Fund through the Saskatoon Community Foundation to provide annual grants in support of young Saskatoon orchestral musicians. Toews has given workshops around the world, on the Saito Conducting Method and is the principal instructor of the International Saito Conducting Workshop in Saskatoon each summer. In the fall of 2004, he became founding director of the University of Saskatchewan Chamber Orchestra.
Toews has created a number of resources for his fellow educators including an elementary music theory booklet, a clarinet resource book, a bass guitar book and several curriculum guides. He has also created several computer programs including Subjective Tones and An Introduction to the Saito Conducting Method.
On top of all his incredible work in the music community, numerous awards, and dedication to continued music education, Toews has made time to compose several works. He’s written music for soloists, small ensembles, and full orchestra. It is clear to all who know him that Toews does things with his full heart, and composing is no different.
When we sit back and listen to Contemplating Clouds on a Prairie Sky we can all close our eyes and picture the beautiful views that come to life in the music. What colours and shapes will open up in our mind’s eyes? From the shimmering opening created by the percussion section, until the very last note fills the air, we hope you join us in our gratitude to the man behind the music – Wayne Toews.
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror filmadaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name, directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney. The plot centers on a mysterious, disfigured man who lives beneath the Paris Opera House, known as the Phantom. He falls in love with Christine Daaé, a beautiful young soprano, and developed an obsession.
It is worth to note that the film is known for Chaney’s self-applied dramatic make-up, altering his appearance for the setting’s eerie atmosphere.
In 1925, the president of Universal Pictures Carl Laemmle went on vacation in Paris and met the author Gaston Leroux. Leroux gave Laemmle his 1910 novel, and Laemmle read it all in one night and decided to buy the film rights as a vehicle for actor Lon Chaney. Soon later, the production was scheduled for late 1924 at Universal Studios.
The production began and it did not go smoothly. The ending of the film was revised for multiple times, and the star and crew did not have a great time with director Rupert Julian. A score was prepared by Joseph Carl Breil, “”Presented with augmented concert orchestra” according to Universal’s release, but not much more information were to be found. After the third and final version, the film was premiered in New York. It received a mix of reviews, and the public demanded for an improved version.
Therefore, instead of making a sequel, Universal opted to reissue The Phantom of the Opera with a new synchronized score and sound effects track, with a few new dialog sequences on top. The sound version of Phantom opened on 15 December 1929 and achieved a financial success despite the controversial reviews.
The bulk of the musical material found in this piece comes from sketches for my Triple Concerto. These sketches were to be part of the proposed final movement for the concerto, a fast-paced scherzo to bring the piece to a wild close. However, for various reasons, this ending did not make it to the final draft. Not one to waste, I decided to mount this music on its own for orchestra.
The title comes from an amalgamation of the words “frenetic” and “energy” which were the two qualities I desired for the ending of the concerto. The tempo for this short concert opener is brisk and the pacing of melodic ideas is often a bit frantic as befitting the title.
It begins with a thunderous introduction by the percussion who establish the infectious 6/8 pulse. After an orchestral tutti, the winds introduce a chromatic melody that is quickly tossed back and forth from pairings of instruments. This quirky little melody often complements an ostentatious tune frequently performed by the brass. The third melody, introduced by a solo flute, is perhaps the most substantial tune of the piece and is strongly characterized by the 6/8 lilt of the piece.
A harmonically restless string passage leads into a return of the opening material and the piece concludes with a full force orchestral tutti along with the pounding drums of the opening.
While raging forest fires made headlines all summer and will likely increase in the coming years due to climate change, Cree composer Cris Derksen’s work is about controlled burns, a traditional Indigenous practice used to manage wildfires. This practice involves burning certain parts of the forest in the spring, before temperatures rise and while the ground is still wet, to keep flames from burning out of control. Indigenous peoples determine where to intervene based on centuries of observation. By clearing out the twigs, dead trees and pine needles covering the forest floor, they protect their land and help preserve the ecosystem. As a result, flames are transformed from threat to tool—two aspects of fire that Cris Derksen explores in her work.
