Editorial

Version française...

A year ago, La Scena Musicale marked its 15th anniversary with the introduction of separate English and French editions, thereby allowing 100% of our 100,000 readers the ability to understand 100% of the content, fulfilling our mission to promote music and the arts. Unfortunately, tough economic times meant that we ended the year with a loss. Consequently, as we begin our 17th year this fall, we’ve had to take a hard look at our operations to continue to offer our readers quality news, information and storytelling, as you will find in this Fall Arts Previews issue with Canadian star maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin featured on the cover.

For the upcoming season, in order for us to have a chance to balance our 2012-2013 budget, La Scena Musicale will publish only seven issues (September, October, November, December-January, February-March, April-May, June-July-August), all with separate English and French editions.

Our retooling means several improvements. First, each issue will now appear 3 to 7 days before the first of the month, a frequent requests from our readers.

With the rise in digital music, our innovative Discovery CD feature, in partnership with Espace 21 and available only to paying subscribers, will be changing. The September disc featuring the late German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, our first dedicated to an international performer, will be the last in physical format. Beginning in October, the physical CD will be replaced by digital downloads, which will mean more music. Instead of 10 CDs per year, we will offer a biweekly (26 per year) download of complete recordings, and focus on both Canadian and International artists.

As a leader on classical music information and news, we recently launched a new Industry column dedicated to connecting the arts community by highlighting new developments in music and arts organizations across Canada. In September, the column will be sent to subscribers in the form of a bi-weekly email newsletter. Check out our new musician and industry subscriptions (see page 12).

In this current issue, we introduce our parents’ column to support music education (our Bring a Teen outreach program continues this year,) and in October, we will introduce a column on electronic instruments.

La Scena Musicale is brought to you by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, and we welcome more help in writing, translation, distribution, marketing and fundraising, as well as subscriptions and donations. Our next fundraising activity is the sale of tickets to Opéra de Montréal’s upcoming production of La Traviata.

We are also excited about introducing the 2013 Musical Celebrity Recipe Calendar (available October 1). Each of the 12 months in 2013 will feature a notable musician along with his/her favourite recipe. World-renowned stars will be featured, including conductors Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jean-Marie Zeitouni, sopranos Isabel Bayrakdarian and Shannon Mercer, countertenor Daniel Taylor, baritone Gerald Finley, pianists Alain Lefèvre and Jan Lisiecki, and violinists James Ehnes, Hilary Hahn and Lara St. John. Priced at $20 (taxes included), this calendar is designed as an annual fundraiser for La Scena Musicale. In addition, it is a unique fundraising tool for other arts groups and non-profits to share up to 50% of the proceeds. See dons.lascena.org.

Wishing you a great year of music!