The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra has only two concerts left in this, their golden anniversary season.
The auspicious year marks not only 5 decades of outstanding musicianship and artistry but also twenty years under the steady, shrewd leadership of managing director Vicki Young – who has announced her retirement coinciding with the conclusion of the concert season.
Succeeding the MCO’s first general manager Rita Menzies, Young took on the role in 2003 and has guided the orchestra to 20 deficit-free seasons while more than doubling the operating budget, increasing annual ticket revenues, and raising the MCO endowment fund from $40,000 to nearly $2.3 million.
Her tenure also saw the appointment of Anne Manson as music director in 2008, debuts at the National Arts Centre and Carnegie Hall, a ten-concert Western Canada tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie, the founding of an independent MCO label – and the cutting of several outstanding discs – and, of course, countless performances featuring both old and new works, including commissions of both established and up-and-coming composers.
Classic 107 had the opportunity to sit down with Vicki Young ahead of her retirement, joined in conversation by MCO music director Anne Manson.
There are two concerts left in the 2022-23 season: the renowned pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin performs with the MCO on Tuesday, May 23rd before a concert-staging of Handel’s opera Alcina on June 15 and 17th.
Find tickets and more information – including on the upcoming season! – at: www.themco.ca