{"id":148962,"date":"2011-12-04T20:24:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T20:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/the-canadian-league-of-composers-turns-60\/"},"modified":"2011-12-04T20:24:14","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T20:24:14","slug":"the-canadian-league-of-composers-turns-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/the-canadian-league-of-composers-turns-60\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canadian League of Composers turns 60"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year, Canadian classical composers have cause to celebrate: the Canadian League of Composers (CLC) has turned 60, and is still going strong.<\/p>\n

Members of \u00ab\u00a0the League\u00a0\u00bb (as it\u2019s commonly called) feel they\u2019ve come a long way since the CLC was created. In May, at a balloon-festooned reception at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto, the mood was festive and upbeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the CLC first started out,\u201d explains composer Victor Davies, \u201cperformances of Canadian works were very few. But today, performance opportunities are manifold. Orchestras are playing Canadian music, and we have many contemporary-music groups across the country. Operas, string quartets, concert bands \u2013 today there are lots of opportunities for Canadian composers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in 1951, the League was a small, exclusive club, with just 20 members. But Canada in the early 1950s was full of can-do optimism and national pride: anything seemed possible.<\/p>\n

Today, the CLC has grown substantially. \u201cThe current membership is around 350,\u201d says the CLC\u2019s former president, Toronto composer James Rolfe, with quiet pride. \u201cWithin the last five years we\u2019ve grown by about 100. We\u2019re trying to be more active and reach out to those who haven\u2019t joined. Anyone who\u2019s active as a composer, full time or part time, is welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping this recent boost in membership has been ongoing funding from the SOCAN Foundation, which has supported the League\u2019s operating expenses for the last decade.<\/p>\n

It might come as a surprise that there are so many classical composers in Canada. Most are trained in universities or conservatories, and they usually write concert music \u2013 although opera is a growing interest.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, most League members aren\u2019t getting rich from what they do. According to Rolfe, the number of CLC composers who earn a living from writing music \u201cis probably 20 or less \u2013 maybe closer to a dozen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the League stands behind the principle that composers should be paid and has established commissioning rates. If you hire a CLC composer to write a 10-minute string quartet, it will cost $4,350; a 20-minute orchestral work will run you $14,300.<\/p>\n

The League\u2019s newly elected president, Jennifer Butler, is a Vancouver-based composer who\u2019s supplemented her income over the years as a flute teacher. At 35, she just finished a doctorate in music at the University of British Columbia and is one of the younger members of the CLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout four years ago,\u201d she recalls, \u201cthe League held a career development workshop in Vancouver on grant writing, so it made sense at the time for me to join. We [classical music] composers don\u2019t have anyone representing us but ourselves. The League fills a void.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOCAN Foundation funding helps boost membership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}