QSCM: Ready to Roll into 2025

I LOVE this picture: It was taken at Hunter Ford in Madoc by a volunteer with an excellent eye and sense of fun! A donor since QSCM’s inception in 2015, Hunter Ford in Madoc has consistently contributed to helping us make classical music accessible to everyone in our rural community. They are one of many local businesses who make our events possible.

They also permit great photo ops. Bonus: those of you who know Sebastian (MQ Leader and QSCM chair) know he would never walk away from the opportunity to get behind the wheel of something like, well – what you see in the picture!

You can meet our other supporters here: https://www.qscmusic.com/supporters

They include supporters in kind, like Ontario Water Buffalo whose substantial donation of Water Buffalo produce fed the Quartet last tour. Donations like this reduce QSCM’s per diem costs. Trust me: Musicians like to eat. Food makes for great music making! nnDonations in kind go a long way to reducing our overall costs. QSCM thanks all who contribute. This includes our volunteers who make beautiful meals-ready-to eat allowing our musicians to focus on making music-ready-to hear throughout the tour.

With the holiday season on our doorstep, QSCM volunteers are as busy as everyone else preparing for festivities with family, friends and of course, and making great music. Most of us on the board are musicians. That is part of what makes QSCM unique as an arts presenting organization. Our board includes 4 professional musicians; our overall vision is artist oriented; our decision making based on what it takes to give superb musicians the opportunity to bring everyone into the classical music experience.

The result? Coming up to 2025, a decade of outstanding presentations featuring some of the best musicians Canadian Classical music has to offer. This has earned us a reputation in the Canadian Classical Music Scene as the Classical Music Series musicians and audiences want to be part of. Hurrah!

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, volunteers work hard to create the infrastructure needed to support what you see and hear when the bow hits the string, the piano key drops, the singer lets the voice go into the hall. In 2025 be prepared: the web site is getting a complete overhaul. nnGet ready for a whole look and even better functionality. This is thanks to one of our more business minded volunteers, Julianna Yau. Julianna is an visual artist – I met her demonstrating her sculpture technique at the Bancroft Gemboree many many years ago. Since then she has turned her creativity to the field of business and is now helping QSCM organize that side of our infrastructure.

Musicians need to eat. In order to thrive, the arts need to hold hands with business and commerce. A professional classical musician, like a professional athlete making their sport their career – must make hours of personal practice, working at their instrument, their priority every single day. QSCM presents only professional musicians; most of our funding goes towards professional musician fees. nnBusiness aims at value for money. Artists need money to create value. It is a partnership that can and does result in glorious outcomes for both. To make it happen requires the strong presence of both kinds of thinking, both types of people. It is fantastic when, as is the case with Julianna, both come in one person! But that is not all we need. Just as it makes a difference to have dedicated musicians at the helm of QSCM it also really helps to have people who “think business” 24/7 on-side.

QSCM is delighted to have the not only the support of our local businesses but also advice from the business quarter. Not only do you finance our initiatives, you help us do the job right. If you are a business minded person QSCM needs you! If you have ideas about how arts and business can work together, please contact us. QSCM welcomes volunteers from all fields of work and experience. Everyone has something special to contribute; your voice, your skills, your time: all of these matter to us! nnAs we come into the holiday season, QSCM celebrates our donors, our supporters, our volunteers, our audiences and our musicians. We thank you all for an excellent year, and – as we enter our tenth – a most remarkable and joyous decade!