The Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra (RMSO) put a new feather in its cap this summer, being nominated for a YYC Music Award.
The Balzac-based orchestra is up for the Community Ensemble of the Year accolade, for its rendition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 41.
Other nominated groups in the community ensemble category include Cool Choir, the Jazz YYC Youth Lab Band, New West Symphony and Chorus, and Revv52.
Carlos Foggin, the founder and music director for the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, said members of the orchestra's board of directors are “over the moon” about the nomination.
“It’s very exciting, especially [because] the groups that are in there, most of them have been around forever,” he said. “We’re kind of the young guns on that card. Of course, Jazz YYC is a group of high-school or college kids, so that’s really exciting for them too. But the rest of those groups are really established, so it’s an honour to be put among those groups.”
Now in its eighth year, the YYC Music Awards are an annual Junos-esque event that celebrates the best of the best in Calgary's music scene. This year's awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 24 at the Grey Eagle Casino in Tsuu T'ina Nation.
This is the first time the music awards have included a community ensemble category. Foggin said including this category really opened up the awards to large-scale orchestras like the RMSO, for whom commercial recording is a far less feasible endeavour than it is for smaller bands and individual artists.
“[The YYC Music Awards] have been going on for a number of years and we’re just delighted they’re seeing the value of community music-making as opposed to purely professional commercial music-making,” he said.
Foggin said being nominated for a YYC Music Award is a demonstration of how far the RMSO has come since he launched it in 2016 as a way to promote classical orchestral music to rural audiences outside of Calgary. While the band's musicians vary in terms of their career backgrounds and where they live, the orchestra's home base is the Polaris Centre for the Performing Arts in Balzac.
“I suppose it’s a testament to the growth, but it’s not a popularity contest,” Foggin said, noting the nominations weren't selected by the public, but rather a panel of music industry experts.
“It’s not like our name recognition or brand played into it. There were many more nominated who didn’t make the card. What I really attribute it to is…the quality of the orchestra, even to get past the first round and get on the nomination card. The orchestra has grown in its quality.”
For more info on the YYC Music Awards, visit yycmusicawards.com.
New season starting in September
The RMSO recently released its 2023-24 season schedule, featuring 12 concerts starting on Sept. 30 and running until May 11, 2024. The concerts will be held either at the Polaris Centre in Balzac, or Red Deer Lake (south of Calgary) or at the Bearspaw Lifestyle Centre. See the full 2023-24 schedule at rockymountainsymphony.ca
For Rocky View County residents who have never experienced one of the orchestra's live concerts before, Foggin encouraged them to come check it out, even if they do not know much about classical music.
“It’s going to be a professional level experience,” he said. “That’s without question. What makes us different is where we play and kind of why we play. We play close to home, especially for folks in Rocky View and Airdrie.
“In the theatre, there’s maybe 20 metres between the furthest seats and the stage, so you can see everything. It’s just a little different. It’s small, intimate, and we focus on story-telling. You don’t have to have a music degree or really know anything about orchestral music before you come.”
