Music Making for the Soul

Today I performed with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony. This orchestra, classified as the one of the top ten orchestras in Canada, is just a wonderful joy to perform with! I have had the pleasure of performing with them quite a few times in the last 2 months, and will be continuing to perform with them right though to the spring.

The City of Kitchener is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. About a 1 hour drive west of Toronto( 100km) It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census. The metropolitan area, which includes the neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 451,235 people, making it the eleventh largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Canada and the fifth largest CMA in Ontario.[1] It is the seat of the Waterloo Regional Municipality, and is adjacent to the smaller cities of Cambridge to the south, and Waterloo to the north. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener-Waterloo" (K-W), although they have separate municipal governments. Including Cambridge, the three cities are known as "the tri-cities".

The City of Kitchener covers an area of 136.86 square kilometres. In 2004, the city celebrated its 150th anniversary

The Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, (KWS ) was formed in 1945, the brainchild of Dr. Glenn Kruspe, then-director of the Philharmonic Choir, who suggested forming an orchestra to play for a choir performance in April of that year. The performance was an overwhelming triumph, with over 2000 people in attendance. Spurred on by this success, the orchestra decided to stage a sold-out solo concert in October 1945.

Until 1950, the orchestra performed three concerts every year. Between 1950 and 1972, there was a huge increase to 14 concerts per season. Today, the KWS performs over 90 concerts every season to a combined audience of over 90,000 concert-goers. Nationally acclaimed, the KWS is the cultural centrepiece of the Waterloo Region. Comprehensive school programs, free concerts at hospitals, soup kitchens, seniors’ homes and an annual free concert in Waterloo Park are offered every year to the community. The KWS also supports the activities of a Youth Orchestra Program, which involves four distinct ensembles: Youth Strings, Youth Sinfonia, Youth Orchestra and Valhalla Brass. Its musicians range in age from 8 to 24, and number over 100.

The KWS Musicians: 52 players on staff
Length of Season: 38 weeks (September 2007 to June 2008)

Website: http://www.kwsymphony.on.ca/