The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra will launch the 2025/26 season, their 40th, with a program appropriately titled 40 & BEYOND. The concert on October 4 takes a look at the history and future of the orchestra through its program.
From Beethoven to John S. Gray, operatic arias, and a monumental symphony, the musical mix touches on four decades of the community orchestra and its legacy.
LV spoke to conductor Martin MacDonald and soloist, soprano Allison Cecilia Arends, about the music and more.
Conductor Martin MacDonald: The Concert
Launching the 40th season is a significant milestone.
“It is really something,” he says. The very first concert of the first season also took place in October 1985. “It’s pretty much 40 years to the day,” he says. It’s not just the orchestra as an organization that has endured. “We have some members of the orchestra who have been with us for 40 years. They can offer a really great perspective on what we’re doing,” he adds.
Through that time, there’s been a remarkable continuity.
“In 40 years, the orchestra is on their fourth music director.” MacDonald took over the role in 2021.
The program dips into the history of the orchestra, but also looks to its future. It honours the legacy of the first three Music Directors, and opens with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Op. 84.
The Egmont Overture was the favourite work of Clifford Poole, founder of CBSO and its first Music Director. The orchestra’s very first concert also opened with that work.
“We thought it would be really neat to open the 40th season with the same piece,” he says. “It’s got all sorts of drama and a thrilling finale.”
Robert Raines was the orchestra’s second Music Director. John S. Gray’s Episodes (2003) will be performed as a nod to his tenure.
Contemporary Canadian composer John S. Gray is self taught as a composer, and studied piano privately in his native Halifax, Nova Scotia. He’s known largely for his chamber, piano and electroacoustic works, which have been performed in North America.
“He had commissioned some Canadian pieces during his tenure,” MacDonald says of Raines. John Gray’s piece is one of them. Gray is also a recording engineer who’s come back to help.
“He’s come to record some of our concerts,” Martin says. He adds that the occasion is a wonderful opportunity to bring the piece back into circulation “It’s a really mysterious, wonderful,” he says. “The music sort of lurks around corners.” The music has a watery theme. “It’s a really neat piece and we’re happy to bring it back.”
Ed Franko (TrypTych Opera in Toronto) and Norman Reintamm (Conductor of the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra), present Don Giovanni in the P.C. Ho Theatre of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Toronto on February 15, 2014:
Norman Reintamm was the orchestra’s third MD, and was named Conductor Emeritus of CBSO. “He really championed our formal vocal competition. It was a big part of his legacy.”
Opera is on the program in his honour. “Let’s bring back a former winner of that competition, and who’s gone on to a wonderful career.” Allison Cecilia Arends is the soloist.
“We wanted to offer up a lot of variety for the opening concert as well. We wanted to have a celebratory feel.”
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
“We wanted to bookend it with Beethoven,” MacDonald says. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony closes the program. “We’ve done a Beethoven symphony in every season.”
Choosing the very familiar work offers an opportunity. “Beethoven 5 gets played a lot, but it’s also wonderful vehicle for the orchestra to build the sound. There is so much in there that you can keep rediscovering every time,” he says. “Beethoven has endured for so long for a reason.”
He points out that it was considered revolutionary for its time.
“It’s a piece that people recognize so well, but will not necessarily recognize everything they think.”
It’s also a good push forward for the orchestra’s next four decades, and the orchestra’s musicians have a lot of enthusiasm for performing it. He notes their clean sound and adherence to the score. “There’s one thing about this orchestra that I’ve noticed during my tenure is that they play Beethoven with a lot of enthusiasm, and they play it very very well.”
Allison Cecilia Arends (soprano) sings Ach Ich Liebte (from Die Entführung aus dem Serail) by Mozart live in concert in the P.C. Ho Theatre in Toronto on March 26, 2013. The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra conducted by Norman Reintamm:
Allison Cecilia Arends, soprano
Allison Cecilia Arends has wanted to perform since she was a child.
“It actually goes back quite far, and it’s kind of a family favourite story,” she says.
She grew up in a family where she heard classical music on the radio and records, although no opera per se. One night, her mother was out with friends, and came home late.
“I was watching the Three Tenors, and I was totally transfixed. My father couldn’t tear me away.”
Noting her passion, her parents started her in piano lessons.
“Like most kids, I went through a stage and wanted to quit piano,” Allison says. She found out, though, that her piano teacher also taught singing lessons. As a bargain with her mother, she agreed to continue with piano provided she could also add singing lessons.
She was reminded of that history not long ago when visiting her parents in Regina. Allison found an old box of childhood paraphernalia.
“I was going through some of my old scrapbooks,” she recalls. She found a grade three project that had students writing about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Allison was surprised to see that her answer had been “opera singer”. During her teens, she wasn’t always so sure.
“I loved physics in high school as well as music,” she says. It would be grade 11 before she settled on music as a career choice. She credits great teachers for encouraging her ambitions.
“I’m the only musician in my family,” she says. “I’ve really had fantastic mentors along the way.
” She’s often made friends of former teachers, and now does a significant amount of teaching herself, including sitting on adjudication panels.
Cathedral Bluffs SO
CBSO ran a vocal competition for a number of years, and Arends is a former competitor — and winner. “I think it was about 15 years ago,” she recalls. “It was called the Clifford Poole Competition. It was great.”
She says she still performs her competition selection, the Ach, ich liebte, war so glücklich aria that Konstanze sings in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), K. 384.
Allison returned to perform with the orchestra as a soloist several years ago. Her experience underscores the important role that community orchestras like Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra play in the local music ecosystem, reaching beyond the usual concert hall crowd.
“This brings music to a different community.”
Allison Cecilia Arends, Soprano; Rachael Kerr, Piano: O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi) by Puccini:
The Concert
Her repertoire for the concert includes:
- Mozart “Ruhe Sanft, Mein Holdes Leben” from Zaide, K. 344
- Bellini “Qui la voce” from I puritani
- Gounod “Amour, ranime mon courage” from Roméo et Juliette
- Puccini “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi
Putting together the list wasn’t a challenge. “For me, no. I love programming,” she says. “I was so fortunate with Martin that he gave me so much leeway.” After a discussion about the other pieces on the program, it was decided that operatic arias would balance out a large work like Beethoven 5.
She’s performed the Puccini piece many times, and Mozart’s “Ruhe Sanft, Mein Holdes Leben” from Zaide, K. 344was a fourth year university project.
“And then I kind of put it away for a while,” she says. She says she dusted off the music again during the pandemic. “I think it has just one of the most remarkably beautiful melodies.”
Allison wanted to mix up different languages and periods. The concert was also an opportunity to cross a couple of pieces off her wish list.
“I did not have a chance to do any of the big Bellinis,” she says. “It’s been on my wish list for 15 years. I love singing bel canto. I love the music from that era,” she adds.
For the Gounod, she picked the uber-dramatic “Poison Aria” from Roméo et Juliette. “Which has also been on my wish list for a long time,” she explains. “This one, the Poison aria, is so dramatically interesting.”
It captures Juliette’s thoughts and emotions, including her last minute doubts, just before she takes the poison that is supposed to put her to sleep.
“The music really reflects that. It’s quite dramatic. And I love, love French opera,” Arends adds. “It was really fun to select the repertoire. Those really stuck out.”
- Find more information and tickets for 40 & BEYOND on October 4 [HERE].
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