CBC Radio Orchestra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The CBC Radio Orchestra is the orchestra of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and is based in Vancouver. Until the early 1990s CBC had a number of orchestras located in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax but due to federal government budget cuts they were eliminated and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra was promoted to national status. It changed names in 2000 to reflect its status as the CBC's only broadcast orchestra.

Since the Orchestra was founded in 1938 it has only had four conductors in its existence. The first was John Avison who led the orchestra until 1960. For 2 years the baton was held by John Eliot Gardiner. Since 1984 the lead conductor has been Mario Bernardi. On April 30, 2006, Canadian trombonist Alain Trudel was named Principal Conductor of the orchestra, replacing Mario Bernardi as of fall 2006.

Today, the CBC Radio Orchestra is the only radio orchestra in all of North America.

The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Chan Shun Concert Hall of the University of British Columbia.