Sault Symphony Orchestra eyes return to in-person concerts

Things are looking up for the Sault Symphony Orchestra.

After being in a financially tough spot, the SSO, thanks to an Ontario Trillium Fund grant, has hired its first regular office staff member in several years, the organization aiming to get back to its former self through fundraising and marketing.

Sara McCleary has come on board as the Sault Symphony Orchestra’s director of advancement, helping to organize a proper season with live, in-person performances for audiences.

“Since I started out with the organization we’ve received funding from the City of Sault Ste. Marie to develop the Seniors Connect (virtual concert) program, so that connects the musicians with seniors in retirement homes, and we’ve done a couple of virtual concerts so that we can still connect with as many of our patrons as possible, given the (COVID) situation,” McCleary told SooToday.

While McCleary said virtual programming is still in place, she added  “we’re being cautiously optimistic live concerts will return. We’ve planned the season out.”

The orchestra’s 2021 - 2022 season, entitled A Year of Music, will start with an Oct. 16 virtual concert called Fall Colours, followed by an in-person, family-friendly Winter Wonderland concert Dec. 5.

“We want to do a fun Christmas concert that will be good for kids. We’ll have a sing along and hoping to have a Santa there and make it a good family event,” McCleary said.

Coming Home will take place Feb. 12, 2022, followed by Spring Fusion April 30, 2022.

The symphony is also planning a celebration recognizing Dr. John Wilkinson, its long-time artistic director. 

Wilkinson began his involvement with the SSO more than 40 years ago, taking on the role of conductor in 1977. 

Despite Canadian public health officials stating the country is now in a fourth wave of COVID, McCleary said, “We needed to have a plan in place (for live concerts) just in case, and if it turns out that we need to reverse course and go back to virtual that’s what we’ll do. We are starting in October with a virtual concert. That’s our first one for the season and it’ll be virtual just to play it safe and then we’re hoping to go to in-person for December.”

Traditionally, Sault Symphony Orchestra concerts have been held at the Sault Community Theatre Centre, others have been held at churches.

This season’s venues have yet to be decided.

“This year we’re exploring some other options...we’ve talked about some other venues this year, just to mix things up a bit,” McCleary said.

The orchestra includes approximately 100 musicians, roughly half from the U.S. side of the border.

“The border crossing is possible again, but sort of difficult. We’re just working with Canadian musicians at the moment...we’re hoping we’ll still have a chamber orchestra of 30 or 40, or we might have to move to very small groups and have a string quartet situation,” McCleary said.

The mood among the orchestra’s musicians is upbeat, she added.

“Everybody’s really ready to get playing and we had our first rehearsal since March last week. It was only a small group. Only about 10 or so were able to make it because it was summer, and with the border issue, but everybody was really excited to be able to get back to playing together.”

“The board updated, new board members joined and we’ve been working really hard to get into a better financial position.”

Most of the orchestra’s funding comes from community donations, McCleary estimating at least $50,000 to $60,000 will be needed once live concerts resume. 

“We launched the Crescendo Club, a monthly donor group, and we’ve gotten a really good response to that and that’s where most of the donations have come from (in addition to City and provincial funding).”

Supporters may donate to the Sault Symphony Orchestra on its website, with more, updated SSO information also available through its Facebook page. 

“One way or another, we’ll have a season,” McCleary said.