City in British Columbia, Canada. Its musical life expanded rapidly after its incorporation in 1886; within a decade it had two opera houses, a number of choral groups, opera and music societies, a conservatory of music (now defunct) and an orchestra of 23 players. By the 1920s there were two part-time orchestras and a theatre on the Orpheum circuit which presented occasional performances by visiting celebrities, including Rachmaninoff and Casals. The city owns the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (cap. 2820), the Queen Elizabeth Playhouse (648) and the Orpheum Theatre concert hall (2900), and there are good facilities at the Vancouver Academy of Music (Koerner Recital Hall, 284), Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia (including the Chan Shun Concert Hall at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts; see illustration) and in North Vancouver. There are a number of small theatres for recitals, drama and dance, among them the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (250–350) and the Firehall Arts Centre (200).
Financial problems thwarted serious attempts in 1897, 1907, 1915, 1919 and 1921 to create a permanent orchestra, and it was not until 1931 that the present Vancouver SO and its parent society were founded by Allard de Ridder. From 1941 to 1947 the orchestra was directed by a series of guest conductors, including Barbirolli, Beecham, Klemperer and Steinberg. Jacques Singer became conductor in 1947, followed by Irwin Hoffman (1952–64), Meredith Davies (1964–71), Simon Streatfeild (1971–2), Kazuyoshi Akiyama (1972–85), Rudolf Barshay (1985–7) and Peter McCoppin (1989–92). Sergiu Comissiona became music director in 1991. The orchestra was the first in North America to present a concert series devoted exclusively to 20th-century music. Its 38-week season features international guest soloists and a variety of special-interest series. It has twice toured Japan (1974 and 1985) and was the first major Canadian orchestra to undertake a cross-country tour (1976).
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Vancouver Chamber Orchestra (since 1980 the CBC Vancouver Orchestra) was founded in 1938; conductors have been John Avison, John Eliot Gardiner (from 1980) and Mario Bernardi (from 1982). The last surviving radio orchestra in North America, it broadcasts nationally and has toured in Canada and the USA. Under Avison it performed mostly 20th-century music, particularly Canadian; Gardiner gave more emphasis to earlier music, but Bernardi's advent marked a return to modern works. The orchestra commissions at least two substantial compositions a year and offers an annual public concert series.
The Vancouver Opera Association (now Vancouver Opera) was founded in 1961, with Irving Guttman as artistic director. Subsequent officers have been Richard Bonynge (1974–8), Anton Guadagno (1980–82), Guttman again (1982–4), Brian McMaster (1984–9), Guus Mostart 1989–92) and David Agler (from 1992). The company has commissioned works by British Columbian composers and librettists: The Architect, by David McIntyre and Tom Cone (1994), and Alternate Visions, by John Oliver and Genni Gunn (1995). Joan Sutherland first sang the title roles in Norma (1963) and Lucrezia Borgia (1972) with the company, which has also mounted productions jointly with companies in Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle and Portland.
Five Vancouver choirs – the Vancouver Bach Choir (founded 1930), the Cantata Singers of Vancouver (1958), the Gallery Singers (1968), the Vancouver Chamber Choir (1971) and the Phoenix Choir (1983) – have taken first place in the BBC contest Let the Peoples Sing. Other choirs are the Vancouver Men's Chorus (1981), the Electra Choir (female, 1987) and its partner, the Chor Leoni (male, 1992).
In a tradition established by the city's oldest music organization, the Vancouver Woman's Musical Club (founded 1905), concerts by local and visiting musicians are presented by the Friends of Chamber Music (1948), the Music in the Morning Society (1984) and the Vancouver Recital Society (1980; since 1986 it has also presented a two-week summer festival), the Festival Concert Society (founded as the British Columbia branch of Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada in 1961, renamed in 1972), and Overture Concerts (1955). At the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, the Masterpiece Chamber Music ensemble has given an annual concert series since 1975. Vancouver New Music (founded 1972) produces new works by local, national and international composers. The Vancouver Early Music Society was founded in 1970. Local business has supported visits to Vancouver by the Calgary PO and the Seattle SO as well as a performance of Peter Maxwell Davies's oratorio Job, which opened a new performance hall at the University of British Columbia in 1997.
The University of British Columbia music department was established in 1946 under Harry Adaskin; his successors as head have included G. Weldon Marquis (1958–71), Donald McCorkle (1972–5), Wallace Berry (1978–84), William Benjamin (1986–91) and Robert Silverman (from 1991). The department became a music school in 1986. The first BMus degrees were awarded in 1962. There is a strong department of oriental music offering a master's degree. Simon Fraser University has a School for Contemporary Arts (formerly Centre for Communications and Arts, founded 1965) and for many years accommodated resident composers, musicians and ensembles; the composer Owen Underhill was appointed director in 1994.
The Vancouver Academy of Music (until 1979 the Community Music School of Greater Vancouver, founded 1969) offers a four-year diploma course in performance and music tuition from primary to professional levels. A BMus degree was introduced in 1994. The Junior Symphony Society, incorporated by the Vancouver Symphony Society in 1945, is a training ground for music students. The Kiwanis Music Festival competition, founded in 1923, is an annual two-week event with about 12,000 participants. The Vancouver International Festival, an annual summer event from 1958 to 1968, presented a wide variety of theatrical and musical performances and attracted many visitors from abroad.
The Canadian Music Centre, which represents the country's professional composers, established a Vancouver branch in 1977 with 14 members; by 1995 the number had risen to 71. Vancouver is the home of the Sabathil harpsichord manufacturing company and several firms making replicas of early instruments.
Outdoor concerts and theatrical events are staged in summer in Stanley Park, notably by Theatre Under the Stars (1940–63) and Theatre in the Park. The city's night clubs and cabarets engage local and visiting performers of jazz, pop, rock and light music, and its active pop and rock recording industry has nurtured, among others, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bryan Adams and k.d. lang.
EMC2 (B.N.S. Gooch)
B.N. Gooch: ‘Vancouver loves Opera’, Opera Canada, xxv/3 (1984), 16–21
J.J. Becker: Discord: the Story of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Vancouver, 1989)
MAX WYMAN