As I sit down to tell you about the upcoming South Okanagan Concert Society’s exciting palette of concerts for this season, my mind drifts to the 1970’s.
It was then that my family and I lived for a year in London within close proximity to wonderful concert halls including Covent Garden. I indulged in all the music I could absorb but on return home to Oliver the opportunity to hear accessible, fine quality classical and semi-classical music was virtually absent.
I moaned a little and before long three wonderful women, Dorothy Fraser and Ruth Schiller from Osoyoos and Rosemary Holmes-Smith from Oliver were supporting me and urging me to find a way to get a concert series up and running. The South Okanagan Concert Society was established and we were soon booking concerts into the auditorium of the local high school.
We were fortunate that within the Oliver Osoyoos community there was a substantial population of both English and German immigrants who came here to restart their lives after war. These people were seriously homesick for high quality concerts and they were behind the SOCS from the earliest days.
The school was also supportive and for many years an adult concert was followed the next day by a shorter performance for school children who had many questions and loved to engage with the musicians. It was a time when most ‘middle class’ children took music lessons outside the regular school program and often parents brought quite young children to the first half of the adult concert, scooted them home to bed at intermission and managed to reappear for the concert conclusion. That way young children actually heard accomplished musicians playing the very instruments the children were studying.
It wasn’t all easy. The high school stage had serious limitations and one musician who came to us a number of times recalled water dripping through the roof of the school onto his head as he tried to perform. Musicians as well as our audience certainly welcomed the wonderful new Venables Theatre when it opened in 2014. The SOCS was especially happy that the fire destroying the old auditorium did not destroy our grand piano which was out for repairs and has since been upgraded to the fine instrument now used for performances.
One of the aims of the SOCS was to provide quality music at affordable prices. That is where, over the years, our exemplary sponsors have made all the difference. This year, thanks to their help, it is possible to buy a ticket for all four of this season’s concerts for only $100. Tickets for individual concerts are, of course, available and still affordable.
This season our four concerts are as follows: Sunday, Dec. 4 – Buzz Brass presents a Christmas concert; Friday, March 17, 2023 – Nicholas Ellis & the Agora Quartet; Friday, March 31, 2023 – Percussiano3; and Friday, April 14, 2023 – Ladom Ensemble.
You can buy tickets online at www.venablestheatre.ca or make purchases at the Venables box office.
Marion Boyd, Oliver
