Richmond Concert Association cancels season
The Richmond Concert Association board has pulled the plug on its next season after 25 years of bringing concerts to Gateway Theatre.
The loss of an expected $5,000 gaming grant from the province proved the last straw for the association, which was already clinging to life due to a decline in membership and the looming impact of the harmonized sales tax.
“I know that we have an enthusiastic and dedicated core of subscribers, and they are not going to be very happy about this,” said Audrey Coutts, board president and artistic director for the association.
Concert-goers were given the news at Saturday’s presentation of the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir, which attracted between 300 and 350 people. (Gateway Theatre has 540 seats.)
The association is a not-for-profit group run by volunteers. It presents five concerts each season at Gateway Theatre. Shows have included classical, jazz, folk, comedy, dance and choral music, with a strong emphasis on Canadian artists. Two of the most popular recent shows have been the Arrogant Worms and the Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean.
Keeping ticket prices down and staying ahead of rising costs proved too big a hurdle for the association when it discovered its provincial funding had been cut.
“If our audience was bigger, then that would pick up the slack. But if we’re not close to filling the theatre, we need to get help from somewhere else,” said Coutts.
Coutts said she was planning for a multicultural season for the association’s 26th year—despite not seeing a cultural mix in its audience.
“The community as a whole didn’t pick up on it,” she said, of the association’s concert offerings.
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