2021 seems determined to close out with a much uncertainty as it began. In the midst of that, I want to send out good wishes to all for a happy and healthy New Year. Despite the ongoing stress of difficult times, I feel immensely grateful to be part of a community of incredible folk who understand the soul-stirring power of the Arts and work to protect and celebrate our culture and its dedicated creators.
We are rescheduling all our events at BJP for the month of January. While this is immensely disappointing, I am encouraged that the three concerts we were able to schedule in November and December were sold-out, were attended with great enthusiasm and were held without incident. Reducing capacity, participating in the restriction exemption program and adding non-touch protocols have added to everyone’s comfort level.
We have exciting projects in the works. Our Toones project—a film collaboration with the Quickdraw Animation Society—is perking along nicely. All music compositions have been handed over to animators and it’s going to be exciting to see the spectrum of “visual music” that comes to life. Toones is funded by a grant from Calgary Arts Development: the grant has allowed BJP to invest $25,000 into the Calgary Arts community at a crucial time when artists need support.
Plans for shooting the Change the Tune project—a music video and documentary about the challenges faced by female jazz instrumentalists—are still moving ahead. Pandemic permitting, we will be shooting at the Warehouse studio in Vancouver the week of February 11th with seven of Canada’s top jazz musicians. This project is funded by the Canada Council and, again, grant money is allowing us to employ artists and make art even in these difficult times.
I am part of the current cohort in the Rozsa Foundation’s Arts Management Program, offered in partnership with the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business. The training is excellent. I am working on a capstone project for the course that is focused on outfitting BJP with the equipment and technical support to record live-off-the-floor. I lend our space and backline often for rehearsals and recordings so this is a natural next-step: the acoustics are ideal for recording so kudos to the architect who made that possible 110 years ago!
Our next scheduled concerts are February 24th and 25th with a quintet of absolutely top-notch musicians: Jodi Proznick, Amanda Tosoff, Laura Anglade, Virginia MacDonald and Sanah Kadoura. Pencil it into your calendars for now: tickets on sale in the new year.
A final note of gratitude as a proud Calgarian and Canadian. Funding agencies in this country have worked overtime to mitigate the damage to the Arts sector. Canada supports its artists far better than our neighbour to the south and BuckingJam Palace has been able to continue to work for musicians because of this support and the generosity of individual patrons who have donated to our programming.
Wishing peace and joy to you and yours and looking ahead to healthy times filled with music 2022!
Lisa
