Canada’s arts funding model is closer to Europe’s than the United States’, relying on heavy government funding instead of private donors. In part, that’s because Canada doesn’t allow the generous tax credits available to U.S. donors. Goosen has been in arts management since 1975 and has worked with governments of all stripes. “It’s a sad day,” she says.

After losing $100,000 in B.C. Lottery Corporation money earlier this year — a big chunk of her $1 million-plus budget — Goosen got walloped with a reduction in funding from the B.C. Arts Council, from $70,000 to $17,500. That was after she had committed to the choir’s next season, printed brochures, and set everything up assuming funding would be relatively stable.

Get some talented local musicians together, form a band (call them, say, Revolution) then make them part of a larger vision to bring other talented artists, groups and great music to downtown Prince George. Pretty soon everyone will want live music with their morning coffee.

It’s coming.

Artspace and Cafe Voltaire in Books and Company is a good example of mixing music and other good things. So is the local Legion Hall and Treasure Cove Casino Show Room that bring in live entertainment, and night spots like Rum Jungle and The Generator with their rock bands and faithful following.

But now it seems fine restaurants, music stores and coffee shops are opening up their doors to live music. In a way, this hearkens back to the neat old coffee houses of the ʼ60s – without the billowing cigarette or pot smoke – where people went to unwind, socialize and listen to tunes.

Electric Mountain Music Festival is the new festival taking over the grounds that used to host the huge Merritt Mountain Music Festival, a country music showcase known for its wild parties and large crowds.

Electric Mountain is taking the city into the country. The festival will focus on electronic and hip hop music over Labour Day weekend, Sept. 3 to 5.

The festival will be run by Vancouver’s Regime Entertainment, and Communications Director Meghan Edmonson says they are remaining humble about their first year in operation.

But beneath the ocean of notes that stream out from every speaker, the voice of a man like Paul Baker resonates.

He is the sound technician whose ear for pitch is his master craft.

Paul Baker operates the eponymous Bakerstreet Studios – named for Sherlock Holmes and one famous Gerry Rafferty song.

And like Baker, the North Vancouver studio possesses his disarmingly quality.

At first sight, one would never guess the likes of Elvis Costello, Chris Isaak and Alpha Yaya Diallo have recorded sessions in the windowless, single-story block that could be mistaken a nuclear bunker.

Yet for Baker his choice of career has never been about rubbing shoulders with the royalty of rock. It has always been about the music.

Music Director Rosemary Thomson says their usual grant amounted to about $30,000, but this time, they’re only getting $7,600.  That amounts to a 75 percent slash.

Thomson says, “It only confirms what I’ve been coming to believe about this provincial government – that they don’t care about the arts in BC - that they aren’t listening to the recommendations from the finance committee that travelled through the province last year.”

After slicing and dicing plans for its 50th anniversary program, but still putting on a show for local audiences, this summer the OSO society was dealt a crushing blow.

“We just received our B.C. Arts Council grant and it’s a 75 per cent reduction from what we received last year,” said Tim Watson, interim OSO general manager.

He has only been in the position for three months, but for the organization it’s a familiar scenario with a devastating reality. In real terms, the cuts this time mean the OSO will receive only $7,600 instead of the usual $30,000 arts council grant.

“It just means you can raise more money or cut expenses,” he said. “We’re bound and determined to make it work, but it doesn’t make it easy.”

They’re toting soprano, tenor and baritone marimbas, a drum kit, timbales – cylindrical metal drums of Cuban origin – and an assortment of hand drums.

The foot traffic slows as the local percussion-marimba ensemble known as Kutapira carefully sets up each instrument and each player takes his position.

On cue, the street suddenly reverberates with pulsating rhythm that generates smiling faces and appreciative murmurs. It doesn’t take long for the loud, infectious beats to set the growing crowd’s feet tapping in the street.

The VIS’s 10th annual Symphony in the Harbour takes place at 6 p.m. an the Lions Band Shell in Maffeo-Sutton Park.

The annual free concert “amounts to our gift to the people in Nanaimo and area who continually support us through season ticket sales and attend our special events throughout the year,” said Margot Holmes the executive director of VIS.

“It has proven very popular throughout the years.”

As the amount of money the symphony receives from government continues to decrease, VIS officials have been astounded by the amount of support local residents have provided.

Meegan Maultsaid is not shedding any tears about the demise of UTV.

The practical-minded artistic director, who has worked with the festival for 15 years, says it’s been a good innings in the Dollarton woods where troubled writer Malcolm Lowry once squatted in a seaside cabin as he penned Under the Volcano.

“It’s a risky model for organizing,” Maultsaid says.

“For 20 years we’ve remained a non-corporate festival, by donation. We don’t have advance tickets or tickets with surcharges, we just have ‘by donation’ which has been very important to us to maintain as an accessible community event.”

Vancouver-based Music B.C. compiled the report, which supports a potential multimillion-dollar bid that would see Victoria host the annual music industry awards show for the first time.

A successful bid for the 2013 ceremony would need to be submitted within six months, according to the report. “The starting gun is going off tomorrow,” said Scott Hoadley, chairman of the Downtown Victoria Business Association.

The report, paid for by the Provincial Capital Commission and the DVBA, is part of a process that began in August 2009 with discussions spearheaded by Music B.C. executive director Bob D’Eith.

Auditions are now being held for all voices, ages six to 70, for places in the Junior and Intermediate Training Choirs, Senior Children’s Choir, Chamber Choir, 2008 CBC Choral Competition Prize-winning Youth Choir and the Adult Community Chorus.

All the choirs learn and perform a wide variety of musical genres in several languages, under the expert direction of acclaimed founder Steven Horning.

Last year a lightning storm threatened the safety of the performers and audience, and all of Saturday’s performances were cancelled. It cost the festival $35,000 because of the loss of gate receipts.

The show’s producer Francis Xavier Edwards and the festival board are also grappling with funding cuts, as the provincial government rolls back the amount it will give for arts and culture. This year the provincial grant dropped from $18,500 to $11,200. Next year they will lose $30,000 in provincial gaming revenue, and the year after another $35,000.

Edwards said the board could have rolled back its show, but instead went the other way – expanding the festival by adding a Thursday night gala concert at the Clark Theatre. That night served as a festival preview for the audience, with nine different acts performing two songs.

Youth orchestras have been around for a while in many different guises; in recent decades the concept of how young people make top-quality classical music has been transformed by many regional and national initiatives. The current buzz is Venezuela’s astonishing El Sistema, a social movement in the form of a musical endeavour, which has made a major star of charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

For the most part, these changes have been driven by the massive influence of the Internet.

Music was hit early on by the phenomenon of file-sharing on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks, due to compression technology and small file sizes.

The first big player was Napster which, between 1999 and 2001, revolutionized the way that the general public consumed music.

More than that, Napster started to alter the public’s perception of the monetary value of music.

While free Napster was shut down by the courts in the United States, the toothpaste was already out of the tube.

Acts from out of town had been booking gigs at the cafe and the Soviskov’s say that while there have been crowds of as many as 50 people in the past, there is too much fluctuation with a big audience quite often followed by a number of small ones.

“I feel really bad for the artists that come here and there are only two people that show up,” said Donna.

“It’s frustrating because we advertise and advertise and have posters and word of mouth and people say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll come,’ and nobody shows up.”

The Soviskov’s have had musical acts in their establishment for over a year and think that Jogas is the perfect venue to host musical acts, being that it’s not too big and not too small, and it was a seemingly perfect idea for Grand Forks.