the 2024 Canadian Orchestra Repertoire Report
Date: 15 August 2024
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm Eastern
Location: Zoom Meetings
Cost: Free
Bilingual Session: The same session will be presented in French from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Accessibility: AI-generated subtitles in English will be available through Zoom.
Who is this for: Leaders and staff members from Canadian orchestras interested in programming, Artistic Directors, Conductors and Musicians.
Now in its second year, the Canadian Orchestral Repertoire Report explores how we are programming female, non-binary, and IBPOC composers in 2024. This session will dive into the data with updates on the trends we saw in last year’s report.
It will also present a brand-new programming tool. Built in consultation with orchestra administrators across the country, this tool shares every work programmed by a Canadian orchestra by a female or IBPOC composer, including instrumentation. It is designed for programmers who are looking for repertoire by more diverse composers.
Presenter: Rich Coburn, Head of BIPOC Voices | Senior Manager, Community Partnerships and Repertoire Diversity at the National Arts Centre
Rich was hired as the organist of Christ Church Calgary—whose choir is a regular guest at Westminster Abbey—despite having no formal organ training. He has developed a conflict resolution and negotiation workshop, which he has shared with hundreds of young musicians through the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Association for Opera in Canada. He has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
Earlier in his career, Rich focused most of that entrepreneurial energy on learning to understand classical music more deeply. He performed across North America and China. He worked as an operatic and choral music director, a pianist, an organist, a vocal coach, an arranger, and composer.
But more recent events—starting with living in Richmond, Virginia following the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in nearby Charlottesville—have forced him to confront his position as a Black person working in classical music. Rich started reflecting on his own experiences with the white supremacy of classical music and institutions. He felt less and less comfortable continuing to engage with these institutions without also doing something tangible to change them.
His solution was BIPOC Voices. At the intersection of his entrepreneurial spirit, his deep love of music, and his burning desire to nurture anti-racism, the goals of BIPOC Voices energize him. BIPOC Voices is the largest resource on the internet to help people program opera and instrumental art song by BIPOC creators.
Today, Rich balances his work leading BIPOC Voices with teaching courses on business and entrepreneurship for musicians at McGill University and his career creating and performing music.