Why is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra co-marketing with Porter?
You may have noticed Porter Airline and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra are running an advertising campaign together. Ads have appeared on their websites, in the Globe and Mail and other places.
To quote Andrew Shaw who is President and CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra:
“You have my complete support for campaigning to close the Island Airport and create a park land.”
Where did that support go you may ask.
This co-marketing campaign is puzzling what with several wonderful well established music venues like Harbourfront and the Music Garden who are being adversely effected by the noise, traffic and pollution from the airport.
Particularly puzzling is Andrew Shaw, President and CEO of the TSO's apparent change of heart. Just a few years ago, he was very much against the airport, now the TSO and Porter are working together.
Are the financial benefits reaped by one part of the artistic community going to hurt other parts of that same community?How will the Music Garden survive if Porter Airlines sees it's expansion plans to fruition? Will one arts groups advertising campaign contribute to the destruction of several other great, well established art group venues? These are all outrageous questions that have to be asked of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Porter Airlines and the Toronto Port Authority.
Please read other quotes from many leaders in the arts community who strongly feel the airport should be closed, airport expansion should be limited, and/or the Music Garden will be adversely effected by the airport:
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Richard Bradshaw was General Director of the Canadian Opera Company. Born in England, Bradshaw first came to the Canadian Opera Company (COC) as guest conductor in 1988. In the following year, he became Chief Conductor and Head of Music, a position he held from 1989 to 1994, when he was appointed Artistic Director. In January 1998, he was named General Director.
“Obviously, a major commercial airport would be pretty disastrous for Harbourfront but I think its effect on Toronto as a city as a whole would be disastrous for 365 days a year, not just for the 3 days COC performs there. I cannot imagine that it would ever be approved.”
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Anton Kuerti was born in Austria, grew up in the U.S., and has lived in Canada for more than 30 years. Dr. Kuerti has performed with most major U.S. orchestras and conductors, such as the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony (Menuhin), the Cleveland Orchestra (Szell), the Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy), and the orchestras of Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco. He has been awarded many prizes and honourary doctorates, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
“There are excellent reasons why airports are rarely located right beside the centre of large cities: Noise, danger, pollution, high buildings etc. The Toronto waterfront is already burdened by the expressways; let us not ruin the other side as well.”
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Richard Sacks is a percussionist and composer.
“How embarrassing it would be if the brilliantly conceived Music Garden, a place to nurture the spirit with calm and beauty, becomes an abandoned boundary line between runways and condos. How many picnics, concerts and strolling tourists enjoy the grassy fields surrounding Pearson International?”
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David Baile is General Manager of Opera Atelier, a Toronto-based company, founded in 1985, that produces opera and theatre of the Baroque period in a historically informed manner.
“The waterfront is one of Toronto's most precious resources and as a public resource needs to be accessible to the citizens of Toronto. Harbourfront was realized to ensure this public access and the Music Garden, a gift from Yo-Yo Ma, is probably the most beautiful of Harbourfront's venues. Opera Atelier has been performing at the Music Garden annually since it opened and this performance is perhaps one of our favourites as it attracts as many casual strollers on a warm summer evening as it does our loyal patrons. To lose this venue to noise pollution would indeed be a tragic irony.”
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Robin Engelman is a member of Nexus — the Toronto and Banff Centre Arts Award winning ensemble that has represented Canada world wide for 32 years.
“I must register my profound dismay at contemplating the degradation and misuse of lands that have given the public and the arts of Toronto such spirit lifting joy for so many years. This land must be put aside for Public use in perpetuity. Please add Nexus' name to those who so ardently protest this scheme to rob us of our waterfront.”
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Simon Fryer is a cellist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and an instructor at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music.
“I was shocked to hear that there are plans afoot to actually expand and develop the Toronto Island Airport rather than take the most obviously sensible route and close down this pitiful anachronism. I have taken part in a number of musical ventures on the Toronto waterfront, at the wonderful Toronto Music Garden, the Molson Amphitheatre and other venues. Should aircraft activity increase such events as these would inevitably cease all together. ”
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Sheldon Grabke is Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre
“We must preserve the Music Garden. I can understand the airport's wish to make money, but not by destroying so much of the beauty of the islands, lakeshore and city. I wholeheartedly support your plea for them to stop turning the TCCA into a much larger commercial airport.”
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Nadina Mackie Jackson is a solo bassoonist and an instructor at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music.
“I played at the Music Garden for the first time this summer and absolutely loved it. The creation of the Music Garden was an important step in the right direction, enlivening our senses and our enjoyment of life in this city. A noisier commercial airport would be oppressive and unnecessary and downright discouraging.”
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George Sawa was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1947. He studied Classical Arabic music at the Higher Institute for Arabic Music specializing in qanun (arabic psaltery), Arabic theory and classical singing. After immigrating to Canada in 1970, he studied ethnomusicology and obtained his doctorate in historical Arabic musicology at the University of Toronto. George Sawa has given numerous concerts and lecture demonstrations at universities, museums and art galleries in Europe and North America.
“I was very fortunate to have performed on July 14th, 2002 with my band in Music Park's beautiful surroundings, near the water and under the shade of a most poetic willow tree. We do not need any additional air and noise pollution and we do not need to destroy such a beautiful venue for music making. Should it happen, Toronto would be greatly diminished as a city”
Thank you for bringing this unholy alliance to my attention. I can boycott the TSO just as easily as Porter Airlines and as of this posting, I just have. Shame on you TSO.
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Do you have contact details for TSO management? I'd like to complain to them directly about their co-marketing with Porter.
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Michael Colgrass, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of symphonic and chamber music, lives on the central waterfront. He is a member of the York Quay Neighbourhood Association.
“In my native Chicago, the mayor decided to bulldoze the runways of the Meigs Field Airport on an island that’s very similar to the location of Toronto City Centre Airport. It’s now becoming a public park. TCCA is also zoned as park land, but the city of Toronto apparently has no power to decide its future. That’s a shame. Just as the Waterfront is being revitalized and the Music Garden is a beautiful gem, we have relinquished the city’s favourite recreational area to a single airline operator who is backed by the federal government. It’s an ecological and financial calamity that is now being ramped up. Instead, this airport should be closed down and given back to the citizens of Toronto.”
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