Ep. 2: Cultivating New Voices in Arts Journalism with Michael Zarathus-Cook

In this episode, I, Elizabeth Bowman, am joined by the insightful Michael Zarathus-Cook, Managing Editor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Chief Editor of Cannopy Magazine. We're peeling back the curtain on the Emerging Arts Writer Program at the Banff Centre (part of Joel Ivany's Chamber Music and Opera program), revealing the nuts and bolts of nurturing new, vibrant voices in arts journalism. Michael, leaving his basketball enthusiasm courtside, brings his wealth of experience to our conversation, focusing on the need for writers who can create captivating arts coverage that resonates with audiences far and wide.

Linking arms with the creative community is like finding a map to hidden treasure. This episode isn't just about discussion; it's about action, about placing writers in the thick of the creative process, where inspiration flows. We explore how a national registry for arts writers might just be the golden ticket. As our chat winds down, we envision a future where writers and Canadian publications join forces, thanks to programs like Banff Centre's upcoming Emerging Arts Writers component, ensuring a tapestry of structured, intelligent, and emotive arts journalism. Michael and I are excited to share our combined vision, bolstering the connections and opportunities for arts writers across the board.

To apply to the program visit this link. The deadline is January 31, 2024.

All episodes of The Opera Glasses podcast are hosted by Opera Canada Editor-In-Chief, Elizabeth Bowman. Follow Opera Canada on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Visit OperaCanada.ca for all of your Canadian Opera news and reviews.

Transcript

Elizabeth Bowman: 0:01

Hi, my name is Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to the Opera Glasses podcast. Today I have Michael Ar Cook with me. He is the managing editor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, also the chief editor of Canopy Magazine. He and I will be running the Emerging Arts Writer Program, part of Joel Ivany's Chamber Music and Opera Interplay Program at the Banff Centre this summer. The deadline to apply is January 31st and we would like to encourage all emerging arts writers to apply, so let's bring Michael in and talk more about this exciting new program. Michael, welcome to the Opera Glasses podcast. Thanks so much for being here.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 0:45

Thank you for having me, Lizzie.

Elizabeth Bowman: 0:47

I read a little bit about you. Of course, you're a writer, an arts critic, a home cook. You have strong interests in film, music and basketball. Can you just tell me a little bit about your professional background?

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 1:03

Absolutely, I'm going to leave the basketball out of it, otherwise, we're going to be here for several hours. I don't know how much time you've put aside for this, but, yes, basketball is the love of my life. It's what keeps me going through the grind of the week. But professionally, yes, I'm a writer editor based here in Toronto. I work for the Toronto Symphony. I'm their managing editor, but I also run a magazine called Canopy. Formerly it was called Smart Magazine. That I started in 2020, just right at the cusp of the pandemic. We're under a new name now, but the concept of the magazine is a visual and performing arts publication. It is under the auspices of this magazine that I will be joining you, lizzie. I'd bamp this summer to talk about opera, to talk to opera singers and makers and, crucially, to also meet some arts writers. So very much looking forward to this collaboration with you. Thanks again for inviting me to this chat.

Elizabeth Bowman: 2:03

Yeah, I'm really excited that you'll be coming to BAMF. It was my first time last year in Joel Ivany's opera program there and I just it was transformative. Last year I taught PR and marketing to the individual artists and as editor-in-chief of Opera Canada, I've had a tough time finding arts writers across Canada and I thought that a program such as the one that is happening in BAMF would be the perfect place to have emerging arts writers also to find people across Canada and really diversify perspective in arts journalism in Canada and in general in North America really. So I'm really excited that this program is including this for the first time and also so great that you will be sharing in that education with me.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 3:05

Awesome and I know we're here to talk about the arts writing part for the most part, but the PR work that you did last year I hope it's also it remains part of my job at the symphony is I read a lot of artist bios. You know a lot of these sort of touring artists come through the symphony here and I see that as just one of those places that artists could do a much better job of selling who they are. I find a lot of these artists bio here's the person and then it's a giant sort of word salad of everywhere that they've been, that they're going to be, and it's just you lose people's attention span in that process. So if one of the many beautiful things that can come out of this program going forward is artists know how to write a killer 400 word bio that gets people who've never heard of them excited about who they are and people who are familiar with them excited about what they're going to do next, I think that's an incredible service by you, lizzie, so kudos to you.

Elizabeth Bowman: 4:06

Yeah, I think that the artist bio has always been a big question mark for for artists. I mean, some of them are afraid to say too much, but I think in 2024, we can all agree that we're open to hearing more in these bios. We're open to interesting writing styles, we're open to really getting to the core of who that human is. We're open to to connecting with human, human to human connection in the bio and not, like you say, the sort of bibliography.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 4:43

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, and I end also like right to reflect the fact that you're an artist, right? So if I'm putting together a program book, the bio is taking up a page. Gets guess what else is also taking up a page? It's the program notes, which are very artistically. So you're taking up as much space as the other artistic content in a program book or program notes, etc. So I think, showing off your artistic instincts and writing, maybe get one of the arts writers that we're going to be coaching this June, get one of them to write your bio and see what their artistic interpretation of your work is. So I think there's it's very fertile ground. The artist bio is very fertile ground, especially in opera, for personality and showing off your personality. But that's not what we're here to talk about, Lizzie, for the most part, but I'm very much looking forward to that component of it come June.

Elizabeth Bowman: 5:37

Why don't we, why don't we dig into arts journalism in North America?

Elizabeth Bowman: 5:44

Yes because you know, from my, from my career perspective, having started a PR business in 2010, when there were full time arts journalists working, and then seeing that change so drastically in the in my 11 years doing my business, to having barely any full time arts journalists in 2021, when I when I closed out my business and moved on, people might wonder why are we doing this program if there are no full time jobs? But there is absolutely room For business in this area. It's just different. We've changed how we communicate arts coverage and I think that obviously, newspapers and magazines should continue to have people who are who are hired full-time, but even if they don't, there is, there's definitely room for this coverage. People have an interest in the attention span for it. So I guess we're there to show innovative ways to cover and to move forward. Would you agree?

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 6:57

I would more than agree, and early you said let's dig into arts coverage in North America. Digging in is a bit too generous a way to put it, because there's very little of it left to dig into. You'd have to take a scalpel to what's left, and certainly I'm preaching to the choir here because we were talking just before I started recording. Here you have a decade long case study of where this industry was 10 years ago versus where it is now. And Even just 10 years ago you could make a living writing for fill in the blank National Magazine Right, even just a classical music editor or classical music writer story or an opera writer. Now you have the sort of vague, nebulous arts writer term which I actually want to embrace, and I'll get to that in a second. But this idea of Visualizing in an art form is completely gone out out the window and I'm sure we'll get to solution or we'll describe the problem at length here. But maybe we could start a bit with the solution. And it always, always starts with better funding. It right, it Always starts there. I wish there was a fancier way to put it. I wish there was like a, an industry lever that you could pull. That would fix this. But if, if funding isn't supporting arts writing specifically as well as supporting everything else that we're writing about, I don't think specific publications are gonna be able to fill in the gap. I don't think, you know, editors with as good intentions as yourself are gonna be able to fill in the gap. Even In concert with the efforts of other editors and certainly the writers alone, they're not gonna be able to do or impact the change that needs to happen.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 8:35

So, intentional action from the powers that be with the money that they have, saying Not only do we need to support opera, classical music, dance, etc. But the people who write about it. Right, because it's the. It's the same old thing that if the tree falls and no one hears it, then is it falling? Blah, blah, blah. But it's the same concept that, yes, we're. If you're gonna fund New opera, you're gonna fund grassroots Canadian composers and so on, if you're doing all of that but no one's hearing about it, or at least it's not being discussed in a way that's compelling for the average Listener or the average arts patron, then it's almost as if the money that you're spending there it's not being used as effectively as possible.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 9:16

So we need more town criers. We need more people at all levels of arts journalism to talk about the great work that's that's happening. There are other levels to that. They know. There's what specific publications, such as yours in mind, can can do. There's also what the writers themselves can do, and that part I'm sure we'll get to, or there's certainly more to talk about there.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 9:37

And then, lastly, there's what the readers, the audience members how can you support the work that these writers are doing? Because there's a lot that's been lost since, you know, 2010, when you started, but a few things have been gained platforms like sub stack medium, where you can actually support specific writers and support their view and support their writing style in a way that Offsets, to a certain degree, the livelihood that they used to have access to. So, yes, those are, believe it or not. That is my abbreviated opinion on on this subject, so I think I'll pause there. Just I want to hear what you think about. First of all, I want to hear what the last ten years, what that span of time, what you've seen in that period in terms of losing Artswriters in Canada and perhaps in the States.

Elizabeth Bowman: 10:24

Well, I can touch on that. But one thing that I was thinking of as you were talking about how sort of writing for one art form is Not going to be the future, that that we need to sort of diversify what we're writing about, even beyond the performing arts. And some of the most successful Stories that I had during my PR time was when I cross pitched to another section of the newspaper and had had them telling the story of this person's career, but through the lens of a completely different audience. Like I had one of my clients in a cycling magazine and it didn't take. It didn't diminish anything From from the clients work, but it was interesting to know that that client Commuted to her job as an opera singer with this bicycle. It gave a greater layer to what she was doing.

Elizabeth Bowman: 11:24

And another thing that I find in in arts journalism Is that oftentimes journalists are intimidated to write about classical music. They don't want to make a mistake and I think that that's something that we need to to wash away Because it's not so intimidating. Of course, that's easy for me to say or for you to say with your background and knowledge and your current position, but I would like to encourage more people to speak what they feel when, when they go to a show and say what, what happened in In terms of their perspective and what, what did they enjoy? Why did they enjoy it? That's that's really the question we're asking right when we're talking about covering for performing arts, and that's really the perspective that we're after. That's how we're gonna diversify. Is that we make it less Very brilliantly, brilliantly well said, lizzie.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 12:20

I have so much to say about that and I'll try to again abbreviate my thoughts on this. But this sort of issue of People sort of staying quote-unquote in their lane when it comes to arts writing, there are various barriers to that and I actually think Publications on the job that editors do has a huge part to play in that, because a lot of publications are designed, especially the performing arts, to cannibalize their audiences in various ways. The first is you know, if you are a reader of opera Canada or the whole note or intermission or the dance current, chances are you're also a reader of any other item on that list. I just threw out part of the Cross section that needs to happen in terms of if I'm a, if I'm a classical music writer, I'm I also writing for opera or am I writing for dance etc. Or theater is these publications, I think, could do a better job of cross talk amongst each other. There's nothing that stands in the way of one like an opera publication doing a partnership temporarily with a Classical music publication and sharing their audiences to a certain degree. If you look at the people who are reading you, there is no such thing as just an opera reader. Right, because if you pull these people, which I have consistently, you will see that they also read Bok track, they also read intermission. They have diverse tastes, right, it's almost it's a minority of people that only listen to opera or only listen to classical music or only go to the theater or only go to the National Ballet. More and more, especially the younger generation, they have this sort of Amnivorous appetite for various art forms that I think editors and and publications at large need to find a way to serve in a diverse way. And I think that's actually your. Your mindset caters to that.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 14:11

I think one of your recent posts on social media was something to the effect of Opera Canada is more than a magazine. It's a community of thinkers, of writers and creatives. Certainly, that goes to it. And then, in terms of you know you brought my background as an example, which is certainly true that yeah, it's easy for us, you and I, to say writing about classical music shouldn't be intimidating. I actually think it's probably one of the easiest things to get into if you're serious about it, and here's what I mean by that If you're a quote, unquote serious, creative writer, right, you, you, you just want to write and you know you have a voice. You know you have a view about things that you see on stage or in the orchestra pit or what have you. Classical music is a perfect template to work out your, to just exercise that muscle.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 14:57

I actually I'm far more intimidated to write about theater, and I've spoken to my theater friends about this. I'm far more intimidated to write about theater than I am writing about classical music, because you have so many more histories to contend with when it comes to theater. You've got the. You know the script, the stage play.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 15:14

You've got all of the actors in the past that contributed to this specific character. You've got the vision of the director on stage. You've got the costume. There are so many things that you have to know in order to begin that conversation in theater, and I can almost hear all the theater writers yelling at their screen saying that's not the case, but bear with me. On the other side, though, with classical music, you still have all of these characters in play, but once the conductor gets started, it's just you in the music, all it is. It's you in the music and it's an orchestra trying to be true to the music and also, obviously, trying to find their voice. As a writer, that is as blank a template as you'll ever get when it comes to the arts, because you go ahead.

Elizabeth Bowman: 15:54

Not to cut you off, but I find that many purists would say, for instance, oh, we absolutely have to have a soprano in this role. We can't possibly have a mezzo, you know, in X role. Or actually this is the way the cadenza has been done since you know 1848. And therefore you know it is this way, and so, or we can't trill on, we can't trill from below, because it's this year that it was written. You know, there are so many of these rules in classical, baroque, early music, these types of things, not to say that these rules are not to be applied.

Elizabeth Bowman: 16:40

I'm just saying that I think this same mentality might cross the minds of some writers, which might contribute to that intimidation that you're talking about, similar to theater, especially those who have listened to the catalog of early, early recordings with all the greats, and they compare everything to these recordings and it's like the knowing can interpret these pieces any differently. And I find that, as someone just craving identity, I find that frustrating when I hear a performance that is mimicking a performance of the past in classical music that seems to be very, very prominent. But it is so refreshing when I hear someone just being themselves on the stage. This is not to say that, that arts writers need to listen to the whole catalog and all these things. I would like them to just go in with this blank slate, but I can see them thinking oh well, but what about all these people who are reading all these books and telling me that actually, messiah has to go this way because it's always that way, that it doesn't always have to be that way?

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 17:56

And even if it has to be that way, I think what's worth remembering is that that's not necessarily the population that you're writing for. As an editor, you the survival of your publication relies on having as broad a base of subscribers as possible. So, by definition, a lot of the people who are subscribed are on the peripheral when it comes to the depth of their knowledge, but they want to learn more about opera. So being written to from the perspective of a PhD in Baroque voice might not actually be helping. It helps to have that PhD, but it might not help with connecting with the largest cohort of your readership, which are just people who you know. They see Carmen once a year or they go to the COC when they can't afford to, or fill in the blank. They're not as core as some of these purists that you're describing. Nevertheless, they are the great middle that we have to cater to in order to be a viable business, and having writers who are comfortable catering to that great middle can often, maybe once in a while, tape your hat to the person in the back of the hall who has written a book on how I don't know Peter Grimes should be staged, or whatever. It's good to tip your hat off to people like that with details. That's specifically for them. But I try to caution writers that again, you're writing for people who they've not necessarily been pedigreed if that's a word on this content but they would like to learn more. So be in their shoes and write for them.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 19:34

There's a conversation with Robert Harris, who was the Toronto Star classical music writer for a long time, that I had a couple of years ago. That stuck with me. I think that stuck with me, and I think he talked about his first writing gig. I might be butchering this, but he talked about his first writing gig being in Edmonton or something and he was covering a performance of Rachmaninoff Number Two, concerto Number Two, and it was his first time ever hearing it and he was writing a review on it and it was that review that he wrote. That kind of started everything for him.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 20:14

That story is interesting because it's a flip side of this intimidation that sometimes what gives you your shot or what makes you interesting or what makes you readable, is how slightly green you are and just how honest about the experience you are. And the more, the longer you spend in a specific lane as a writer, the more jaded and not green you become. So on the writer's part, try to write about as many different things as possible is sort of the blanket advice, because the more uncomfortable you are at writing something or writing about something, the more obvious the points you're going to make at least obvious to the brass of the industry. But sometimes it's that obvious thing that that great middle needs to read in order to connect with an art form.

Elizabeth Bowman: 21:03

One thing that I think is key to performing arts journalism is that you're not alone. You're at a show where all these people are experiencing what you're experiencing. So as an art journalist, you can go around and ask people questions. You know about their experiences and what happened to them during that performance. And I think that's really cool because even if you disagree with that perspective of whoever, or you agree with the perspective of three people and not with the perspective of the other three, that you can even include that in your coverage. You can say, oh, but this guy thought this and I felt this.

Elizabeth Bowman: 21:53

I think that we should be encouraging people to talk more with the people around them as well and not just have this sort of one dimensional opinion in these reviews. I love my Opera Canada reviewers, but I definitely would encourage some more discussion with the people around them, because a lot of people around them are saying how it is for them. You know, with no expectation of where that might go. So it will be honest and, like you say, be honest or the honesty pirate. My motto is honesty resonates.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 22:33

That's a great motto, you know. You say that you're not alone as an arts writer, but oftentimes in terms of being in the hall that you're sharing with other people. But there's a flip side to that, or a larger aspect to that, which is it does feel a lot like you are alone because there isn't, sometimes even at the level of like your town or your city, there isn't a network of other writers that you can share ideas with or feel like you're part of a community and, unless the case, a national network of writers, which I think brings us to what the summer is going to be about at BAMF that yes, we're there to create opera, create new opera, form for performers, especially opera creators, to form their network with other creatives. But I'm really excited about coming on board for this as an opportunity to also form a network of a national network of arts writers, so that whatever you're doing in St John's or Vancouver, here in Toronto small suburbs around you know southern Ontario you don't feel like you're this sort of isolated atom spinning in your own orbit without any sort of resonance with what's happening across the country, because often, especially at the national level, granting bodies think in terms of the national scale, but that's not reflected. When it comes to writing and you know I talked earlier about, yes, better funding specifically for writers would be very helpful and support from opera goers, classical music goers, just the arts crowd, would also help these writers specifically. There are more and more platforms to do that. But another aspect of that is the support that organizations can provide.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 24:19

One of the things that the way you've described and I think people, listeners, need to know that, lizzie, was you that suggested this program. We talked about this, so maybe you can go over how it started, because I think that part's also incredibly important. But as you were describing it before, as we're chatting, it reminded me of the emerging arts critics program that I was a part of here in Toronto. That was jointly held by the Toronto Symphony this was six years ago now, or just over five and a half years ago the Toronto Symphony, opera Canada and National Ballet and they got us together to write for sorry Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet and they got us all together to write for Opera Canada, the whole note and the dance current.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 25:01

Now, like so many things on the arts, the pandemic cut the cord on that and I had a conversation, great conversation with Hope Muir, the artistic director of the National Ballet, recently, and we talked about that, which is hey, what are your plans to bring this thing back? It's the same thing if a tree has fallen no one's hearing about it. You're doing all this great work, but there's about five people who are writing about it. Not as many as you think are hearing about this great work that you're doing. So I think there's a plan to bring that back, at least within Toronto. So I see this program at BAMP as a corollary, a national corollary to what's happening here in Ontario. So maybe you could talk about what happened over the last year. That's bringing us to this June on your end.

Elizabeth Bowman: 25:46

I had been thinking before I even got to Banff about the fact that I needed its writers. Well, specifically for me, opera coverage writers, people for features, people for reviews and more. I was looking at Joel's program and I thought, wow, wouldn't it be great if it was contained in this program, because it gives writers an opportunity to cover something with the artists there, the performing artists right there, so they see how the production comes together, how the rehearsals are going, what's happening after rehearsal. They really live the experience of putting on the show, and I think that that would allow a writer to have maybe a different line of questioning, because we do have a lot of repeated questions that happen in art writing, which makes it stale sometimes it can be. So my hope is is that, with writers being part of the experience, that we can sort of innovate the way to cover it and also go beyond writing to behind the scenes footage.

Elizabeth Bowman: 27:08

How do we cover these things with the tools that we have in 2024? How do we use things like TikTok, how do we use things like Instagram to the maximum capacity? What are relevant questions? To ask an artist, why is it relevant, and to find out what fresh angles can we have and some of those things, some of the answers to these questions might not come from you or me.

Elizabeth Bowman: 27:38

It might just come from sitting in a circle with these writers in a place like BAMF and having a discussion with people of different perspectives and then coming up with exciting new ways to cover performing arts. And that is what really drives me is just continuing to talk about it with different people and exploring these things, and so BAMF is a perfect place to do that, and I'm hoping that the program will expand, because I know we're not gonna have a huge amount of spots for arts writers, so it's gonna be quite competitive. But I wanna encourage every arts writer to apply because we really wanna know where everyone is and what they can contribute. And if it doesn't work out for this program, there might be other opportunities because, well, Opera Canada covers everything across Canada, so we need writers everywhere.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 28:40

And I'll second that by saying canopy as well. The covert mission of this application process is, first of all, we'd love to have you at BAMF. So please, please, please, do apply. But it would be fantastic to walk out of this process with a national registry of arts writers that maybe BAMF can host, or maybe we have a third party host it to a certain degree, or even Opera Canada host it. But how do we formalize a registry, just a place where you know, as a writer, I can put my name and I'll be able to get a gig to a certain degree somewhere covering the arts at large?

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 29:23

I think we're long overdue for that and I think, as an editor, I feel your sense of there's something missing. Right, you have to do so much work to secure all the other resources for coverage and then you get to the finish line and you feel like, oh wait, I have no one. I actually don't have anyone to cover this in the time that I was hoping, or at least to the level that I was hoping. So it'd be great to make this process of getting in touch with writers, creating a network of writers, writers talking to each other, sharing ideas with each other, because if you're excited about the project, whether or not you like the project, but you're excited about talking about the project, the things you don't like about a particular production. Everyone else downstream of that gets excited about it, and I think one thing I'll add because there's a question I actually have for you is one thing I'll add more on this end is yes, we need to learn how to use TikTok, how to use Instagram better. Right, we have to be a 2024, we have to meet 2024 as way of connecting with readers. But there's also a gap here for bringing things back down to earth a bit. Not everything is perfectly compatible with TikTok or with social media and creating a clip for the algorithm.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 30:39

I think what the arts go in public is also looking for is how do I meet people in real life, like, how do I actually form face-to-face connections? That's not happening on social media, et cetera. And I think arts writers can be a fantastic facilitator for that, because if organizations are doing it, it's very clear that they're just asking you to buy tickets, come and leave. But if you have someone whose voice you trust in the art space and they're telling you that no, this is the place you wanna be, this is a good way to spend your Friday night.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 31:11

It's the. We hold the keys to the third place. That's how I like to think of it, that it's not these organizations. The organizations create the third place and they create a place where we can gather. But how do you siphon people into a gathering space? How do you encourage people to come to a gathering space? I think we, as arts writers and arts editors, can be a great conduit to getting people offline frankly and getting people face-to-face in a world where isolation and all the other things is an epidemic.

Elizabeth Bowman: 31:40

Definitely I would agree with that.

Elizabeth Bowman: 31:43

I guess using the social media is a necessary evil in terms of connecting people in real life as it stands now, and how do you do that in a way that to sell someone something in an honest way? I also would like to say that I'm hoping at the program that we can talk about podcasting, because I think that podcasting is a really powerful tool because it's long form interview process that allows you to really get to know your host as well as the guests that you're bringing on and how one might plan such a thing. I think a lot of artists are intimidated by how do I start, what do I do, and actually a lot of artists performing artists would be great as podcasting because they're natural performers. So I'm hoping that we'll touch on that in Banff and obviously, as we approach closer to the program, that will solidify the tools that we will be using in that.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 32:56

Yeah and yeah. I think one of the takeaways from this is that this program is a work in progress in terms of the things that it will eventually expand. I think the mission, this idea of a network, of a national network of writers, is one that's quite laudable and very sort of crystal clear to you and I and certainly I look forward to working with you to articulate that. Going to the future, and on top of that, yes, we would love suggestions from writers coast to coast, even if it's just venting on.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 33:28

I used to be able to make a living doing this Like how can we get back to that? How can we get back to the subscription model that works for writers and editors and publications in general? I think is an important question. Speaking of social media, I mentioned that, one of the things that you posted on Instagram recently. You're a runner, I'm a runner as well, so maybe that's another podcast conversation in the future, but you talked about your publication being more than a publication, being a non-for-profit support system. I was curious what you meant by that. Maybe you could talk a bit more about that concept and how it dovetails into this network that we've been talking about.

Elizabeth Bowman: 34:08

Some people view Opera Canada as a magazine that they read and that's the end of it.

Elizabeth Bowman: 34:16

But Canadian opera artists are all over the world being incredible ambassadors for Canada and for the art form in general, and I feel like my role as editor-in-chief of Opera Canada is to make sure the world knows about these amazing creative people and what they're doing. So I would like to think that the magazine is far beyond just a magazine, but also, of course, we have events. We just did the rubies at the Four Seasons Center, and the rubies is a celebration of the great works of major players in this industry. We just celebrated Isabel Barracdarian, Wayne Vogan, who was the Canadian Opera Company's librarian for a really long time and really touched the industry, and Gino Quilico, also Baritone. Then also we had a Changemaker Award that went to Michael Mori and Jamie Martino of Tapestry Opera and all the amazing work that they're doing, especially for representing women in the performing arts. So through these events and through the spotlight that we put on them, I like to think that it's just more than a magazine, especially right now, with very limited support from the media or opera coverage.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 35:55

Likewise that's what I want to do with Canopy as well that this old idea of it's just this thing that you get in your inbox, or it's just this magazine that you have in your hands and it doesn't really connect you to a community at large. It just doesn't work anymore. So whenever I see anyone out there trying to make a publication more of a home than a house, more of a gathering space than something that's just one directional in terms of you read what other people have written and that's the end of the story, I find that really, really encouraging. So I look forward to seeing what Opera Canada does in that track coming going forward.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 36:33

But that's the energy and spirit that I'm bringing to Banff this June is how can we build a family of writers from this experience? How can we walk away with a good old Rolodex of people's name and where they live and their interests in terms of coverage? So, lizzie, good on you for suggesting this. I think it's going to be. You know we're going to look back on this and see how did we go so long without a project like this? So I'm happy to be a part of it from the outset. Do you have at the top of your mind how people can actually sign up for this program. We can add that at the very end.

Elizabeth Bowman: 37:13

We'll add a link below, and the deadline for application is January 31st, so it's really a fast approaching. So we hope that you'll reach out and if you happen to watch this after the deadline, I hope that you'll also reach out because really we mean it when we're talking about the Rolodex that we're pursuing here. I want to add that before we had this conversation on the podcast, we were talking about the idea of expanding the opportunities for the writers and hopefully reaching out to other publications across Canada and seeing if they might be interested in having some connection with this program in some way informally, formally, but we are really invested in partnerships and seeing where this program could lead.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 38:09

That's brilliant. Yeah, that would be fantastic if you know, because that's what happened with the emerging arts critics program, where an institution was connecting us with a publication right, in this case, Banff being the institution, opera Canada and Canopy being the publications. But if we can expand that list significantly so that these writers, through this program, are able to write creatively, intelligently and emotionally about the art that they love in a sort of structured way, that would be filling a much, much needed gap in content of this sort. So I feel like it's in good hands, lizzie, between you and I, to make something work here.

Elizabeth Bowman: 38:47

Thank you for being on the podcast. So glad that we were able to talk about the program, even if it's so close to deadline. But I'm glad we made it work and I'll look forward to working with you on this.

Michael Zarathus-Cook: 38:59

Thanks for having me, Lizzie.