What Can We Learn from Banff?

By Thomas Wolf

The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in the Canadian Rockies operates according to a unique business model. Its International String Quartet Competition and Festival is a powerful example of one of its signature programs. What can we who work in the arts learn from Banff?

For years, as a concert presenter, I have relied on the results of the international string quartet competition presented at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada. Since the competition was established in 1983 (at the time marking the 50th anniversary of the Banff Centre), winning the first prize has been the holy grail in the string quartet world. It has launched many string quartet careers and it has served me well as a presenter constantly searching out young talent. It even led to my selection of a new resident string quartet for my Bay Chamber Concerts series in Maine—the St. Lawrence String Quartet (the 1992 winner).  

Barry Shiffman, the innovative Director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Festival was a founding member of the Saint Lawrence String Quartet.

With the success of the competition as an audience draw every three years, Artistic Director, Barry Shiffman, together with the then-President and CEO of the Centre, Janice Price, decided in 2017 to fill in the non-competition years with what they called a “String Quartet Festival” and it was the Festival that I was fortunate enough to be able to attend in the late summer of 2023.

I was invited as a “performer” which gave me additional insight into the workings of the operation. I was able to work not only with other musicians and creative people but also with an extensive technical staff that skillfully operates the venues. Barry had scheduled my “Nightingale’s Sonata” concert program which I had performed for the first time in 2019 with his late colleague in the St. Lawrence String Quartet, violinist Geoff Nuttall and pianist, Pedja Mužijević.

Not all the events at the Banff International String Quartet Festival feature quartets. Barry Shiffman likes to introduce other musicians to his audiences and in 2023, this included the remarkable 17-year-old violinist Anna Štube. A video profile of Anna is supplemented by a performance video of Wagner’s Albumblatt.

Since that time, I had performed the program throughout the United States and had been scheduled for Canadian performances when COVID hit and those concerts were cancelled. This was the first of the rescheduled performances and it featured a remarkable 17-year old violinist, Anna Štube, and a long-time colleague, versatile pianist, Gilles Vonsattel. It was easily the most “produced” and theatrical of all the shows I have done, having the advantage of six technicians in rehearsal and performance to handle special effects, lighting, and other aspects of the performance.  What a contrast to so many venues for chamber music that often rely on a couple of untrained volunteers to handle technical details.

 An elk ambled by as I came out of one of the concerts and I couldn’t resist snapping this photograph. Located in a national park, Banff can boast plenty of wildlife. 

When I arrived at the Banff Centre, I was astonished first by the beauty of the place. The town of Banff is located in a national park in the Canadian Rockies in the Province of Alberta. The Banff Centre is a self-contained community, located on a mountainside, and is separate from the touristy town. It is in a gorgeous rural setting with mountains to climb (I managed one with a modest elevation) and wildlife ambling nearby.

The Centre can exist largely independently from the town since it operates as a year-round conference center with all the necessary amenities. The conference operation, including over 400 hotel rooms, serves as the driving financial force for the remarkable multi-arts facilities and activities on the year-round campus. Indeed, 60 percent of the $70 million budget of the Centre is derived from conference fees, a unique model of a for-profit activity serving the mission-driven arts programming of the organization. Because it is registered as a non-degree granting educational institution (offering classes, workshops, and performances throughout the year), the Centre is eligible for governmental education dollars which today make up another 20 percent of the budget (the balance of 20 percent comes from philanthropy).

One of three outdoor kilns that supplement more than ten inside. The ceramics facilities and equipment constitute some of the best in the entire country.

And the arts activities and facilities are remarkable. They range from music (including opera) to dance to the visual arts (including crafts) to film and media to theatre and literature. My tour of the campus included viewing a fully operating piano shop that services and reconditions more than a hundred pianos; a crafts facility with over a dozen indoor and outdoor kilns; a film and media building with television studios, facilities for film production and editing, recording studios; and a technical staff that among other things, coordinates an international film festival that reaches venues in 40 countries.

For each of these activity areas, the facilities would be the envy of organizations dedicated to a single discipline—the scene and costume shops for opera and the theatre where opera performances take place, for example, are easily the equal of most medium-sized opera companies in North America.

One of the advantages of having such a vast array of arts facilities and creative people on campus is that it offers the opportunity for cross-disciplinary work. Often there is a campus-wide theme that is pursued by visual artists, composers, writers, choreographers, actors, film makers, musicians, and others, either independently or collaboratively.

Indeed, while I was there, I attended the workshopping of a new work by an international array of creative people working in a cross-disciplinary manner on the theme of “the northern lights.” The piece involved a new musical composition, an original script, video, and other elements.

Views from the dining facility at the Banff Centre. For those attending the String Quartet Festival, the Centre provides a full package of meals and accommodations with everything, including performance venues within easy walking distance.

Meals for everyone staying at the Centre, whether for one of the conferences, for something like the string quartet festival, or for an educational workshop, take place at the huge dining facility with spectacular views of the mountains. This is an easy walk from the hotel rooms and the arts venues so participants do not need to bring their own vehicles. (Most are bussed by shuttle from an airport in Calgary 90 minutes away.)

For the Quartet Competition and the Festival, the “conference” model has essentially solved the problem of a declining subscription base that most musical organizations have experienced over recent decades. Instead of patrons cherry-picking a few favorite concerts to attend, most audience members come for the entire several days, with all aspects of their stay conveniently packaged from transportation to accommodations to meals to the concerts and ancillary events. 

Unlike most presenters today, those at Banff, utilizing this format, can program all kinds of things that concert venues depending on single ticket sales would approach with caution. With an audience that has signed up for all events, Barry does not need to feature a headliner or a favorite repertoire selection in every concert. He is a true curator, aspiring toward much richer programming, encouraging audiences to sample new things with which they may be less familiar.

In addition to the workshop described earlier, Barry had scheduled artist talks, films, and certain concerts with unusual repertoire including much contemporary work by Canadian composers. There were also some unconventional arrangements. (Who ever heard of the last movement of the Brahms G minor piano quartet played on an accordion? It was a fascinating departure for this familiar work of chamber music.) A detailed review of the Festival can be found at Classical Voice North America.

Calgary accordionist, Michael Bridge, astonished audiences with his remarkable technique, especially in a special arrangement of the last movement of the Brahms G minor piano quartet performed with three string players from the Festival. (CBC photo.)

Like most arts and cultural organizations today, the Banff Centre faces headwinds. Government support has declined precipitously. The conference business, on which the Centre depends, has not recovered from COVID, cutting into revenue. There have been recent governance challenges. And judging from the Quartet Festival, the audiences for musical events at least, are quite old. Will another generation replace them?

Nevertheless, as the Centre celebrates its 90th year, there is so much we can learn from its operation and that of the Quartet Festival. The financial model is still a powerful one, the inter-disciplinary creative campus allows a wider range of work, and the audience-friendly and comprehensive customer service and amenities encourage audiences to make a major commitment of time and resources. All this allows for the kind of creative programming that bodes well for the future of the arts in the 21st century.