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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
I turn to music when I want to celebrate. I rely on music when I need consoling. Music shapes my memories and all the important moments of my life. Even after being at the helm of the SSO for the last 10 years, I still get giddy with excitement on concert nights – there is nothing more exhilarating than the sound of an orchestra in full flight.
It’s an excitement that is more than about the music, for me, it’s an excitement about the people involved.
How lucky are we that our little city, in the middle of the vast prairies, has so many deeply dedicated and talented musicians that call it home – how incredible it is to have an orchestra of this calibre right here in Saskatoon. Musicians who shine when faced with the music of Beethoven, Gershwin, Ruth Gipps, Harry Potter, or Queen. An orchestra that can truly serve its entire community – from die-hard classical music lovers to young families experiencing the Lion King film brought to life with live music. From world premieres with Grammy winners to Time for Toddlers, what a gift it is to the people of this community that we have musicians of this calibre right here.
But it’s not just the musicians on stage. My excitement is charged up by you in the seats – your love of the music, your willingness to join us on musical adventures, and your excitement when we have a hometown artist centre stage. Feeling the energy in the lobby on a symphony night, and the joy that fills the room, like when we do a Disney show, are the things that still make me excited each, and every, concert.
When I first came to the SSO I laid out a plan to create a bright future for this organization. In 2015 we had 2000 people who each gave $100 to help shape the future of music in Saskatoon.
It’s time to do it again.
Between now and May 31st, we’re looking for 2000 people to make a $100 donation to the SSO. To share our gratitude, we’re again throwing a donor appreciation concert this November 23rd on the SSO’s 94th birthday. Every donation of $100 gets a free seat to a night of great music with your SSO and a host of surprise guest stars!
You can give $25 a month for the next four months, give $10 a week for 10 weeks, or give $100 all at once. Give $200 to make sure you have two seats!
The magic is that all gifts are matched by the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation. Their generosity makes this new Share in the Future campaign extra special!
In a time when orchestras around the world are struggling to survive, the SSO is thriving. It’s a thing to be celebrated and a thing to secure.
With your support of our Share in the Future campaign, we get to treat you to a night of what we do best… a fabulous concert and a heck of a party!
At the current time, purchases of tickets and subscription to the streaming must be made on the ConcertStream.tv website
Live Streaming Ticket
For as little as $21 per Digital Ticket you and your household can watch the concert as it happens from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you have internet access.
You can watch all SSO concerts from home
When you purchase live stream access you will need to sign in to or create an account. Once your account is set up you can log in any time to see what you have access to. There will be a countdown for the upcoming live stream and you can even add a calendar reminder! You will get an email alert when the concert begins, but you can log in and get ready to view the live stream at any time. Once the live stream is complete there will be a recording available for you for 24 hours. It may take an hour or two to appear in your library.
Digital Tickets start at $19.99 and gives you access to one concert for 24 hours. You can also purchase $39 Supporter Tickets – these still get you the same 24hr streaming, but give you a way to support the SSO at this time!
Tickets must be purchased on the ConcertStream.tv website – no in-app purchases are allowed at this time.
Plan on watching 6 or more concerts? Wish you could watch them whenever you want and as many times as you want? An SSO Streaming Subscription is for you!
For only $99.99 you can have access to all SSO live streamed concerts for the year. You will also have full access to the SSO’s concert videos on demand. This means you can watch all our concert and bonus content wherever you want, whenever you want, and as many times as you want.
Love our opening night concert and want to see it again? You could watch it every day and its all covered by your $99.99 subscription!
Have major FOMO because you missed one of the live streams? Have no fear! You can catch all our incredible concerts at a later date and it still only costs you $99.99.
No FOMO for these lake goers. They have a subscription to the SSO Digital Concert Stream.
You’ll be able to set up your account, with your own password, and you’ll get a confirmation email for your purchase.
Once your subscription is set up you’ll be able to login to watch videos whenever you want!
Live streamed performances are available for 24 hours – 7 days after all live streamed concerts you’ll be able to watch the concert film of that concert on demand by logging into ConcertStream.tv.
Enjoy unprecedented access to the SSO for a year!
You not only get a fantastic discount for all the live-streamed concerts by getting the SSO Streaming Subscription, but you also get the benefits of video on demand all while supporting your orchestra. How can you go wrong?
Subscriptions must be purchased on the ConcertStream.tv website – no in-app purchases are allowed at this time. But once you’re logged in on the apps, you’ll stay logged to be able to enjoy concerts whenever you want!
The SSO is thrilled to present a podcast in collaboration with Saskatchewan’s very own Olivia Adams.
Olivia is a pianist, music clinician, and teacher. She holds a MA in Music and Feminist Studies from the University of Ottawa and a B.Mus. in Piano Performance from Western University. Olivia speaks and adjudicates across Canada and the US. She is a researcher on gender and music in Canadian music conservatories and is the author of the forthcoming book “Loud and Clear: Graded Piano Music by Women Composers” centering on the voices of female BIPOC composers comes out this October with Debra Wanless Music & 80 Days Publishing. She has written articles for the Canadian Music Teacher Magazine, Opus, and the book Hands On Piano. In 2020 received a Canadian Government SSHRC grant for her research on gender and race in the conservatory curriculum. Olivia works as a piano teacher and collaborative pianist in Ottawa, and a Music Director at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. She is passionate about equity in the music studio, writing curriculum, and increasing inclusionary practices in classical music.
Olivia’s new podcast Loud and Clear, amplifies the voices of women in music. In conversation with composers, artists, and musical leaders, the podcast explores the experiences of women in all areas of music creation and production, including conducting, composing, producing, broadcasting, directing, teaching, performance, and research.
New episodes launch each Tuesday everywhere you get your podcasts.
