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Saskatunes: SSO, U of S redefining an evolving classical music genre

As SSO director Eric Paetkau puts it, classical music can be "high art" without being "high class" — and open to all audiences in Saskatoon.

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Saskatunes is a StarPhoenix series examining musical genres in and around Saskatoon and Saskatchewan before Saskatoon hosts the Juno Awards in 2020. 

Quirky, old-fashioned stereotypes abound in the world of classical music. Eric Paetkau is aware of pretty much all of them.

“We’re normal people … we don’t hang around in our tuxes and tails drinking champagne every night,” the conductor of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra says with a laugh. “So many arts organizations are seeing it for what it is, now — everyone can connect to this.”

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Sitting in a café just off Broadway Avenue on a snowy October morning, Paetkau said he’s seen a lot of change in Saskatoon’s classical music scene during his tenure as the orchestra’s conductor and artistic director. There’s potential, even in a city the size of Saskatoon, to sell out its big concerts at TCU Place every time. Once in a while it happens, or at least comes close — like with the recent concert featuring Gustav Holst’s popular suite The Planets.

One of the biggest challenges, as Paetkau puts it, is to figure out a way to connect to the audience consistently — and push past some of the stereotypes that could leave potential new orchestra-goers on the outside of the concert hall.

“There is an appetite (for classical music). There always has been an appetite. It’s just how to tap into that appetite,” Paetkau said. “Regardless of age, when you come to an orchestra concert … you’re usually affected in some way.”

Between organizations like the SSO, the Saskatoon Opera, the University of Saskatchewan’s music department and other smaller-scale ensembles throughout the city, there is no dearth of talent or output.

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Garry Gable, a professor in the U of S’s music department and an accomplished opera singer and instructor, said even the umbrella term of “classical music” is in need of a revitalization in the 21st century.

“What counts as classical is getting adjusted to modern, to what is attractive, integral, important,” he said. “The put-down is that it was pseudo-intellectual stuff, but the put-up, if I can turn the phrase on itself, is that it’s pseudo-intellectual — it’s meant to instil a higher level of thinking … and make some of the rest of your life find connections.”

U of S music professor Garry Gable (right) and his wife Kathleen Lohrenz Gable perform at the Mysterious Barricades concert series for mental health awareness at Quance Theatre on Sept. 5, 2019.
U of S music professor Garry Gable (right) and his wife Kathleen Lohrenz Gable perform at the Mysterious Barricades concert series for mental health awareness at Quance Theatre on Sept. 5, 2019. Photo by Owen Woytowich /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Gable and Paetkau agree that the term is somewhat outdated, but there isn’t a clear alternative right now. The bigger concern is finding a way to connect to a younger audience, as one of the more common conceptions about the genre is that it’s for the older generation only.

As Gable puts it, that is increasingly untrue — and Saskatoon musicians are part of a new wave changing the old-fashioned definition of classical music to something different.

“Any notion that what (the U of S) does is crank out classical musicians … is misapplied,” he said. “I think we try to provide our students an opportunity to see themselves for how they contribute going forward, to the community.”

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The U of S has churned out plenty of music graduates making their stamp on a changing musical world. Gable points to current Victoria Symphony director Tania Miller and composer Paul Suchan as prime examples. Gable also complimented events like the Strata New Music Festival and the Ritornello Chamber Music Festival for growing the genre in new directions.

“Saskatoon succeeds at making as many varieties of music available to its audience as possible,” Gable said.

For young people in Saskatoon who want to learn to play, cellist and Saskatoon Strings director Bernadette Wilson said the climate has never been better.

“There’s every opportunity for kids to study classical music in the city,” she said. “They have the opportunity to study any instrument that suits their fancy.”

Wilson, who has played cello in the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra since 1979, said she remembers a time when instruments and instrument repair were practically inaccessible.

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Now, dozens of kids armed with instruments are flocking to young ensembles like the Saskatoon Strings — ensembles that feed almost directly into the University of Saskatchewan and the SSO, Wilson said.

“If I counted the number of string players in the Saskatoon Symphony that used to be in my strings program, I’d probably say it’s about a third of them … it’s all very much linked.”

SSO conductor Eric Paetkau conducts during the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s concert featuring Gustav Holst’s The Planets at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Oct. 19, 2019.
SSO conductor Eric Paetkau conducts during the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s concert featuring Gustav Holst’s The Planets at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Oct. 19, 2019. Photo by Supplied / Photo by Julie Isaac /Julie Isaac Photography

Most important is perhaps the idea that this music is wholly accessible for all ages in Saskatoon, from kids to young adults to adults, both professionals and untrained. As Paetkau put it, classical music as we think of it can be “high art” without being “high class.”

“Someone who has no money can be affected just the same way as a billionaire. It’s humanity,” he said. “When you get into it, immediately those walls come down. It’s not always easy — we all have preconceptions about everything … it’s just breaking down those stereotypes.”

For Paetkau, as the SSO rolls further into its season, there’s a lot of questions about how to make this music exciting for all audiences while still satisfying the purists. The questions have been handled with aplomb so far, from the unique way the SSO presented an old favourite in The Planets to hosting Polaris Prize-winner Jeremy Dutcher to its movie series that has included music from Disney classics and Star Wars.

As the definition of the genre broadens, musicians throughout the city are doing their best to equip students, performers, and their audience for the new age of classical music.

maolson@postmedia.com

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