non profit
Making a Difference with Music by Jennette Miller
Founded in 1987, the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra (RDSO) is a classic Albertan story of hard work and determination. Initially a semi-professional orchestra, the dedication and perseverance of our volunteers, board members, staff, and musicians over many years has seen RDSO grow to become Central Alberta’s only professional performing arts organization! We now have a core group of 28 professional musicians annually performing seven Main Series concerts under the artistic guidance of Music Director Claude Lapalme.
Life as an Orchestra in a Pandemic To say that the past 15 months of life in a pandemic have been a trying time for everyone would be a vast understatement, however, it’s been crippling for performing arts organizations that are built on gathering the community together. Since the spring of 2020, public health restrictions have limited even recorded performances to small groups of musicians. Thanks to the flexibility of Maestro Lapalme, musicians, videographers, and audio production crews, a series of digital concerts has been produced and is available to view online for free! 1. RDSO’s first-ever online performance, Quintessentially Schubert, features RDSO musicians and guest pianist, Tong Wang for Schubert’s famous Trout Quintet. 2. Music from the Land is a family-friendly musical journey with Cree singer-songwriter Walter
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MacDonald White Bear and RDSO trumpet player Samantha Whelan Kotkas. This cross-cultural experience explores how music is inspired by the natural world in both Classical and Indigenous musical traditions. 3. Our most recent digital endeavour, Behind the Red Door for String Quartet, is Albertan through and through! An artistic depiction of ‘life at home,’ the first recorded performance of Calgary composer Arthur Bachmann’s piece seems customized for pandemic audiences.
RDSO in the Community The impact that music, especially live music, has on people is truly profound, and we’ve become more and more aware of this during the past year. Research published since the pandemic has shown that our relationship to music is more than just mere enjoyment: music activates brain circuitry that affects empathy, trust and cooperation, gives us a sense of belonging and a place within our culture, and literally makes us feel better by releasing those feel-good chemicals in the brain. According to one poll of over 2000 adults, 81.5% of adults stated that music helped them cope with the loneliness of the pandemic.
