Multiculturalism and Outreach
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra has always reflected Windsor’s rich multicultural history in its programming, outreach and artists. This began with founding conductor Matti Holli, who often demonstrated pride in his native Finland in his music.
Holli often drew on other talented new Windsorites to perform with the WSO, such as baritone Petro Boyan Bolechiwksy who shared Ukrainian folk songs during a 1950 WSO concert. Twenty years later, the St. Vladimir Orthodox Cathedral’s Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble launched the 1971 WSO Young People’s Concert season. (A bandura is a traditional Ukrainian 56-stringed-instrument, producing a sound similar to a harp and lute.) Then, as today, Windsor’s ethnic communities had rich musical programs of their own, and often shared these with the orchestra.
Through the years, most ethnic communities in the city have been represented on stage with the WSO. In 1967, tenor Jacob Barkin delighted audiences with Yiddish ballads. A concerto for tabla and orchestra, “Trade Winds” was debuted in by composer Christien Ledroit, with tabla soloist Shawn Mativetsky in 2008. Reviewer Harry Van Vugt praised one 1971 concert in as a “meeting at the UN” when the WSO welcomed Italian/Canadian Sergio Pezzetti, husband of Emilia Cundari[1] and Holli received an award from the Finnish Consul honouring his effort to promote the work of Jean Sibelius.
Conductor Laszlo Gati staged an ambitious series of partnerships with various communities in the early 1980s. In the 1979-80 season, committees were formed with members of the Chinese, Italian and Hungarian communities to seek sponsorship and to host appropriately themed concerts, with music and guest artists representing each community. Gati was able to celebrate his Hungarian roots with the popular pianist Béla Siki in a programme that included the Canadian and Hungarian anthems, Erkel’s Hunyadi-Laszlo Overture and Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. The WSO outreach committee prepared kits about the orchestra for communities to translate and distribute to members.
Multicultural partnerships continued under the direction of Susan Haig and John Morris Russell. Haig reached out to the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Region and honoured the Windsor festival known as the Carrousel of Nations dance groups in a pops concert in May, 1991.
The WSO remain committed to the heritage of the Windsor community with a focus on African-Canadian works and artists. In 1998 and 1999, Freedom Festival concerts celebrated this region’s rich history as a terminus of the Underground Railroad. A 1998 “Music of Freedom” concert featured Canadian baritone and opera singer Marcus Nance and the world premier of an original piece by composer Stewart Goodyear, Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. In May 1999, Howard McCurdy, a former professor and the first African Canadian New Democrat Party representative, was the WSO’s guest narrator, and music selections included Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Lincoln Portrait.
The tradition continued with Russell and Assistant Conductor Peter Weibe producing the “Wild and Wacky Woodwinds,” a children’s concert series which featured a composer from Amherstburg, Shelton Brooks (1886-1975).
Scottish heritage was celebrated in the Fall of 2002, with a themed programme featuring New Brunswick violinist Jasper Wood, and music which included Macmillan’s Fantasy on Scottish Melodies, Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, and traditionally, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (Scottish).
The 2009-2010 WSO season honoured Windsor’s international sister cities with concerts designed to highlight the music and dance of each city and culture. Saltillo, Mexico, for example, was represented with a “Dia de los Muertos”-themed evening including Join Hands Puppeteers and Windsor Dance Experience, with greetings from Saltillo brought by Leamington’s Mexican consulate.
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra has, of course, always celebrated the francophone heritage of Canada and Windsor in particular. As well as French or Quebecois-based music programmes, such as the March, 2010 ”la musique sublime” with guest soprano, Suzie Le Blanc, and the University of Windsor Chorus, the WSO also offers concerts and events in French for local francophone families. Marcel Beneteau was a featured guest artist presenting his arrangements of French folksongs of the Detroit River in 2004.
Francophone programming includes work with students in French Immersion schools in the region, and the popular French-language children’s concerts, Tartines et Jam, held in Belle River and at la Place Concorde, one of Windsor’s French cultural centres.