An update on our 2020/21 concert season

Dear friends,

I am so grateful for your ongoing support as Symphony Nova Scotia continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. While we have missed sharing music together with you in person, it’s been a delight to see so many of you online, and we’re deeply honoured by your continued enthusiasm, understanding, and generosity.

Over the past few months, we’ve been intensively exploring our options for the upcoming 2020/21 season, and today we want to share an update with you. In accordance with the latest advice from the Nova Scotia health authorities, we are announcing a reimagined, flexible 2020/21 concert season.

This means a focus on online activity, education and outreach, and (if and when restrictions allow) locally oriented, smaller-scale live events in venues that enable safe social distancing for our valued supporters, musicians, and friends.

While we’ll miss seeing you in our usual full-house venues, we’re eager to continue meeting you in new places and new ways. Throughout 2020/21, we’ll continue to expand our online offerings, collaborate with our community, and share and celebrate the joy and power of music together.

Our Music Director Holly Mathieson and Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser will remain heavily involved in our work, providing artistic leadership and support. Under the guidance of Artistic Advisor Greg Burton, the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra will also continue its activities, including an online camp and programming throughout the season.

Finally, we’ve also committed to using this opportunity to reflect, rebuild, and refocus, and to make internal improvements that will allow us to serve you even better as we look to the future. We are eager to return to our much-missed regular performances as soon as conditions allow.

Throughout this time, we remain invested in caring for our musicians and staff. While we are still negotiating the specific details with our musicians, we are committed to ensuring they are retained and fairly compensated throughout our 2020/21 season. Full-time staff will continue to be employed to serve you, though staff numbers have been reduced through attrition, and new hires have been put on hold.

We hope you’ll stay in touch as we continue to work through our future plans – more announcements are on the way! We also welcome your thoughts and comments – you can email us anytime at [email protected].

Symphony Nova Scotia is your orchestra, and we’re devoted to sharing music with you, even if it’s not in person – yet! We believe that together, we can emerge from this crisis more adaptable, informed, and committed to our community than ever before. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Chris Wilkinson
CEO, Symphony Nova Scotia


Questions and Answers

I am a 2019/20 ticket holder. What are my updated options?
To learn more about our current ticket exchange and donation options, visit our updated FAQ here.

Will you be presenting The Nutcracker this December?
Due to multiple challenges around effective social distancing with such a large and complex production, we don’t anticipate presenting The Nutcracker in its usual form this December. However, we are working with our partners at Halifax Dance and Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia to explore possibilities, such as a condensed, reimagined version, subject to any public health restrictions in place in the fall.

How are you covering your expenses?
We are deeply grateful for the support of our public funders, as well as the many generous expressions of support we have received from individual donors, subscribers, and friends. Thanks to their generosity, we expect that careful budgeting and expense management will allow us to keep Symphony Nova Scotia sustainable throughout this time. To learn more about how you can help, click here.

What are your plans for 2021/22?
At this point, it’s too early to announce any plans for 2021/22, but we will share any news we have with our email list and our social media channels – you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We encourage you to stay in touch!