2020 Toronto Bach Festival Annual Report
The Toronto Bach Festival has met the challenges of a pandemic year and is successful and strong at year-end. Our 2020-21 season ended on July 31, and thanks to the outstanding support of our loyal donors and patrons our digital season was a remarkable success, both musically and financially.
Live performance is what we all love best, but since live performances were not possible, we pivoted to embrace the production of top-quality online concerts to bring Bach’s uplifting music directly to your home. Along the way we faced many challenges, including publicly mandated restrictions on the scheduling of our filming, as well as the challenge of meeting the high cost of digital concert production.
With the help of our extraordinary donors and patrons, I am able to report that we have met these challenges and turned them into assets. The result was a Toronto Bach Festival transformed into a series of beautiful online presentations. Here are the season’s artistic highlights:
A grand ‘Opening Night’ program of some of Bach's best-loved orchestral concertos.
A moderated panel discussion exploring diversity in our field, which received much attention in the international community.
An engaging presentation of the annual Bach Lecture by Dr. Neil Robertson of King’s College, which Dr. Robertson delivered from Halifax, and interspersed with illustrative musical examples performed by musicians of the festival.
A recital of Bach organ works by Matthew Larkin, recorded here in Toronto on the wonderful baroque organ at Holy Family Church.
Lastly, after several pandemic-related scheduling delays, we recently completed the video and audio recording of two of Bach’s great cantatas that will be released to subscribers and ticket holders this coming October.
None of this success would have been possible without the outstanding support of our presenting sponsors, our artist sponsors, our generous donors, and our patrons. The loyal support that we received from all of you was beyond anything I could have imagined.
As you will appreciate, we embarked on this digital season journey with considerable trepidation. We were not experienced in online concert production, nor were we certain that we could garner the support of our donors and patrons to make it all financially feasible. But we succeeded! We created online programs with first-rate sound and picture quality. And you, our wonderful supporters, stood by us with your generous donations and your ticket purchases. In the end, we had the financial resources we needed to create a high-quality online festival that included everything we had hoped to present in the live festival. I cannot thank you enough for the part you played in enabling us to do that. Here are the season’s financial highlights:
A great many of our May 2020 season pass and single ticket buyers purchased passes and tickets to the online festival. The response exceeded our expectations, and it made a huge difference.
When the May 2020 in-person festival was canceled, every single donor who had given to the festival agreed to allow us to re-purpose their donation and use it for the online season.
Many patrons had already bought season passes to the May 20202 festival at the time of the cancellation. A great number of those who had bought tickets converted their ticket purchase into a donation, which gave us additional financial support that we urgently needed.
We also received a special digital production grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which covered some, but by no means all, of the high costs associated with creating online concerts.
All of these funds that we received from our donors and patrons meant that last fall we were able to begin creating the online season with a strong foundation of financial support. And what's more, many of you helped us with additional donations throughout the 2020/21 season.
Taken together, the support of all of you meant that we ended our fiscal year not only in a good financial position but also with some seed funding to help me as I plan ahead for May 2022.
The final thing I want to highlight is that the Toronto Bach Festival just recently received its own official charitable status. This is a huge accomplishment. Until now we have been an artistic partner with Chamber Factory, and the Toronto Bach Festival gave charitable donation receipts through Chamber Factory. Now we are a registered charity in our own right. The festival received its charitable status following a rigorous CRA evaluation process. This is a testament to the growth and stability that the festival has achieved since we began in 2016. But most important, it is a tribute to you, our donors, and patrons. You are the reason for our growth, and you are the reason why we have reached an enviable level of organizational stability. You can view our Canada Helps page here. Through you, we have reached this important milestone. Thank you.
I am brimming with excitement as we begin to prepare for a joyous return to live performance in May 2022. I will keep you informed about our plans as they come together. In the meantime, thank you for being a part of the Toronto Bach Festival.
Yours,
John Abberger, Artistic Director