The Current - How this conductor is bringing Powell River, B.C. together with music

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Many small communities across the country are struggling to survive, as people age and their children chase big city life. Powell River, B.C. is trying to keep its own numbers up with the help of a conductor who’s worked with some of the world’s biggest orchestras. In her documentary War and Peace, the CBC’s Liz Hoath hears from locals who say he’s bringing a lot more than music to their town of 13,000 people.

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you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the current podcast. Many small communities across this country are struggling to survive for all kinds of reasons. Aging populations, dying businesses, the lure of urban centers. But there is one isolated place in British Columbia that is trying to buck that trend. Powell River is home to about 13,000 people. For more than a century, it relied on a pulp and paper mill to keep the economy going. But that mill shut down two years ago, leaving a void that the community is trying to

fill. And it's getting help from an unlikely source, a conductor who has performed with some of the world's biggest orchestras, who's bringing more than just music to Powell River. Today, the CBC's Liz Hoth brings us her documentary, War and Peace. I was flabbergasted that Putin invaded Ukraine. It was February of 2022. Arthur Arnold was the music director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Well, everybody was shocked. I mean, I could have waited and see what happened, but I felt so upset that this happened.

So I came to the conclusion, I just, I cannot live as myself if I don't make a standpoint. And he had a big stage. The grand hall of the Moscow Conservatory. That's where this video on YouTube was recorded. Arthur is wearing a tuxedo, tails and all. He snaps his baton dramatically. The violinists raise their bows, waiting for his cue. He's clearly in full control of one of the world's prestigious orchestras. So I asked the orchestra, can we as an orchestra make a statement against the war? And they said, no, we cannot. It would bring us all in danger. We are not

even allowed to say the word war. So then I asked, can I make a statement as your music director against the war? Just me. No, you will bring us in danger. I asked, can I make a statement as your music director against your, just me? No, you will bring us in danger. I said then, press me only one thing and that is to resign and with that make a protest. I don't think I could have lived with the idea that I didn't speak up to such a tragic decision that somebody makes. I want the opposite. True music. such a tragic decision that somebody makes. I want the opposite. True music. So, easy. Go.

Finito. I think back with a lot of gratitude and also amazement like why me did I really do that? Was I on that very famous stage all the time? But life takes you somewhere else and just be here now in the moment and enjoy it. That somewhere else is Powell River. A small city on the mainland of British Columbia, but it takes two ferries to get here from Vancouver. Okay, let's get stuff. Cello I want.

Arthur is packing up the things he needs for his day. Beautiful instrument. Okay, we need this. His cello. Okay, Arco, come here. And Arco, his little dog who goes with him pretty much everywhere. Arco, it's okay. Arthur's wearing outdoorsy pants.

The kind that swish a bit when you walk. And a black jean jacket. Oh, my nice old car. The cello goes in the trunk. We'll put Arco in the back so she doesn't have to sit on your lap. Arco, probably slightly reluctantly, gets put in the back seat. No, she's fine there. First stop, the grocery store.

Okay, let's find some toothpaste. Take me shopping. Hey lover, at the grocery store. Lover is Kim, Arthur's wife. She's one of the reasons he ended up living here. He met her while visiting Powell River to conduct at Cathalmu, an international choir festival. Hey, how are you? The other reason is Prisma, the Pacific Region International Summer Music Association.

I love Prisma. I'm going to get my t-shirt today. Oh yeah? Do we have a t-shirt? He started it, and every year it puts on a two-week classical music festival at the end of June. Don't you love when you were young those festivals and there was stage on the back? Arthur can't even get toothpaste without running into people who want to talk about Prisma. Okay, see you. The festival is a big undertaking. Guest artists from orchestras like Berlin, New York and Toronto come to Powell River to teach and perform.

If you think about prestige and 2000 people whole, where the big Russian musicians have performed, including Shostakovich and all those. And here we are in the evergreen theater, 700 seats. We are so lucky to have it by the way, like have a stage that fits an orchestra and that has such good acoustics. But yes, if you look at the prestige, but in essence, it's not different. We make music for other people. I feel connected to people. Sometimes I feel more connected here in a

smaller hall where you can see the eyes when you turn around. And then the pressure of having to go in front of a Russian orchestra and play Russian music. You cannot just fool around. Not that I'm fooling around here, but the pressure is just way less. And I'm older and I'm hopefully a little bit wiser. And these days I can I really feel like, yeah, I don't have to prove myself anymore and just enjoy what I do. Arthur also chooses students from around the world to learn and perform at Prisma. He says the more relaxed atmosphere is important for them, too.

at Prisma. He says the more relaxed atmosphere is important for them too. Our profession is very competitive. I want them at Prisma to be able to actually enjoy the music for what it is without feeling they have to compete with each other and with themselves. So I encourage them to make mistakes. Yes, it has to be in tune. Yes, it has to be rhythmical, of course. But that's not the goal in itself. The goal is to connect with each other, with our audience, to bring something, to give something, to create beauty. Those goals, though, to connect people and create beauty, go far beyond the two-week festival.

We are at the town site market. That's a new home for Prisma. The new home for Prisma is still under construction. This is the original town site. Yes. The first part of Powell River that was built when they put the mill here that you see right here. That's now closed, permanently closed. So let's go check it out.

That quiet pulp and paper mill is the reason Powell River exists. The closing left a hole in this town. The people like Arthur and City Council are trying to fill. Councilors are here today for a tour of the town's newest amenity. Hi! town's newest amenity. Hi! Hi! Hi, how are you?

I'm fine, how are you? I'm so glad you're here. Oh my god, this is so gorgeous. Arthur was looking for a new office for Prisma, when he stumbled across this space. This is it. This is it. Yes, this is going to work. I don't know how yet, but it's going to work.

And that's how the idea of an arts hub started. His vision is to create office space and storage for arts groups here. But the main attraction is the large open space in the middle. There's high ceilings and big windows overlooking the mill and the ocean. Now, this is our main beautiful, if you want, concert hall. You can hear the acoustics very nice and vibrant. You hear my voice echo and actually I brought my cello to not only let you see the space is rejoicing to hear your music.

Ha! It's been here for so long. If I can speak from, you know, having walked through this as a five-year-old. Rob Southcott is a City Councillor. He was born and raised in Powell River. He plays the trumpet, the guitar, the bass, and of course he sings in a choir. There was a vision to that culture was extremely important so both sports and arts, mostly music, was very important right from the very beginnings of this community. This is something that many in Powell River like to point out. It's no accident that this small city

has a big connection to the arts. The Powoh River Company built the pulp and paper mill, and the town for that matter, in the early 1900s. They scouted around the world for workers, for people who could build dams and work in the mill. But they also looked for people with other skills, like music. They were following something called the Garden City Concept. It's an urban planning movement that aimed to build cities that were also great places to live. Culture and social wealth is our true wealth here. So it's so wonderful.

And we are, I don't know of a more wealthy community anywhere I've ever been. And I might have to go to the back and actually teach a lesson here. Walter Martella glances at his watch. He's sharply dressed in a suit vest and jeans. I have to go, yeah. Walter just finished conducting a youth choir. Now he's racing off to teach a private lesson. He promises to catch up later at the men's choir rehearsal.

Yeah, 7.30 me in the hallway there. Walter is the conductor and music director at the Powell River Academy of Music. He's also the artistic director of Kithaumiu, another big festival hosted here. It brings choirs from around the world, this year from as far as Taiwan and Slovenia. Choirs everyone! this year from as far as Taiwan and Slovenia. How's everyone? Good! But this choir, Chor Musica, will be performing too. Okay, here we go! CHOR MUSIC

The choir was originally started by the mill as a way to build morale. Walter's history in Powell River can be traced back to the mill as well. His family moved from Italy because his dad got a job there. His mom wanted her kids to fit in, so she bought a piano. I think the story is she paid like $350 and like a couple gallons of my dad's wine is the story for it. Then she signed them up for music lessons. It just seemed to me as growing up that everybody played music.

I would go down the street and a few friends, we would play music together. I remember going, being part of like, I don't know, four different groupings of young people playing music on weekends together. Okay, so here we go, some enchanted even, whatever. It was always part of my life. I just didn't had any other experience.

Nice and soft and smooth. And here we go. And. Some enchanted evening. Walter sings, plays piano in the accordion. He studied the trumpet at university. Stranger. He's pretty sure if it wasn't for Powell River and all the musicians mentoring him, life would have been quite different.

Like if my family stayed in Italy, it's likely I would have been a carpenter because that's what my father did before he came. He had his own business there. So I would think likely would have been that. I think we stand on the shoulders from generations before us. It's not something that you can just start. That seed has been planted and it's spread and the music trees grew and here we are. You are. And here I am, attracted to this town indeed. Well, I think it's something that we anchor to that is far more substantial than anything

material, because it goes into the very roots of our beings. And so it is our security in a very profound way, particularly in times of great change like we're in right now. Is drinking raw milk safe like RFK Junior suggests? Can you reduce a glucose spike if you eat your food in quote unquote the right order? I'm registered dietitian, Abbey Sharp. I host a nutrition myth busting podcast called Bite Back with Abbey Sharp. And those are just some of the questions I tackle with qualified experts on my show.

On Bite Back, my goal is to help listeners create a pleasurable relationship with food, their body, and themselves, which in my opinion is the fundamental secret to good health. Listen to Bite Back wherever you get your podcasts. That great change is the closure of the mill. The occasional truck still drives through the gates. Negotiations are underway to get another industry to move in. But for now, it sits quiet. For 100 years, this has been the town's main employer.

At its height, 4,000 people worked here making paper. It was down to hundreds when it closed two years ago. Despite the closure, the population here has stayed pretty stable. There's mountains and the ocean, so maybe it's not that surprising that people are moving here from Metro Vancouver. A really big city life wasn't for me. People like George Dowd. Come up here to visit family and I thought it would be a great place to spend the rest of my life and

retire. It's worked out. Well except for the retirement part. He now sits on City Council. We're looking outside at the beautiful Salish Sea and a pulp mill which hasn't worked for two years isn't providing the kind of jobs that it used to provide and there is some hope that the more cultural events we get going the more people know about them the more we'll bring that industry the cultural industry here to take over the forest industry. Thanks George, thanks for coming and for your support of all we do, you help make my dreams come true.

You make this place a better place to be. Now we need to get some shows going in here. Absolutely, we will. Yes. Of course there's hope that Arthur can bring money into the community, but George has stories to tell about the less tangible things that Arthur brings to Powell River. Arthur came right in the middle of COVID when things were pretty rough and Arthur showed up at one of our council meetings and he showed up to play his cello and it just calmed the entire room. It calmed everybody I think around

the table. When I went to get my first COVID vaccination, people were lined up outside the recreation door. Who was inside but Arthur playing his cello and just soothing and calming the waters. An incredible contribution, I think, to our city. What does it do to a city to have somebody doing that? I think it makes everybody think about how they fit into the society

and what they can do to make life better, which is what I see Arthur trying to do. In the end, we have to connect to each other and inspire each other and help each other. And that's why I went to that vaccination clinic. Was it also ego? Of course I needed it too. I didn't want to be in isolation. It helped me too to get through. It just changed everybody's attitude

and changed the feeling of tension that was in the lineup outside getting in there. I remember we had to kick you out after 15 minutes because people didn't have a place to sit anymore. I had to leave, that's right. Nancy Holman's house has a view of the ocean. She likes to watch the whales and the dolphins and the birds flitting between two blooming rhododendron bushes in her yard. What are that one two three four five

six seven male goldfinches right there. Nancy moved to Powell River in 1966. She taught music in the schools. If somebody isn't in a group or doesn't attend, I don't know if they belong in town really. Nancy's done it all. She's led choirs, taught theatre, and she played piano wherever she was needed. I'm retired and I'm an ancient person but I'm learning bassoon this year because we have our own little symphony, a community symphony. She's proud to say she's the oldest person in the symphony. She just turned 89. The first-year clarinet player found out how old I was and she was disappointed because she thought she was the oldest. But I think we're only a month apart. Ha ha ha.

Here is my bassoon. Ah! Excuse me while I wet down my reed. And here's where Arthur Arnold comes back into the story. Ah, dear Nancy. The reason I'm playing bassoon with the symphony now is because he's been supporting the symphony and encouraging them. Nancy lost her husband probably a year ago now or a little less maybe, I don't know.

And I was attending one of the first concerts this little symphony was doing and I noticed that they didn't have a bassoon. And I just, silly me, I mentioned to somebody, oh, I played bassoon 40 years ago, but I haven't played it since. I didn't even know she played bassoon, but she told me, I said, you are coming to the Catet Symphony Orchestra. You're going to be a member.

I know they need bassoons. I'll be there when I can. I try to play in this orchestra. And I said, I'm 80 years old, I probably would die if I tried to blow a bassoon. And she said, well, I will blow a fuse when I do that. And he said, but what a wonderful way to go. And she did. And that's why I borrowed a bassoon from the school district, because I'm relearning it.

Yeah, she's so lovely. So there you are. Now I have to practice. Next stop is the elementary school. The students are all outside doing jump rope for heart. He's mobbed by kids who remember his visit to their class last week. Was Arthur in your guys' class? Yes. He played the cello? And what do you guys remember from that? Was it loud? No.

Or was it calm? It was calm. Really, really, really calm. Really, really calm. I remember when I would sit down and listen to it. It was really nice. Ah. Yeah.

Shall I come back another time? Yeah. Can I pet your doggy? Yes, of course. Can I pet your doggy? Of course. It's all about the doggy, yeah? Then it's back in the car for the last meeting of the day. Where are we headed now?

We are going to the Kleamen Nation. Members of the Kleamen Nation perform traditional songs with the full orchestra during the Prisma Festival. So here we are going into the 30 zone. First stop is to pick up Doreen Point. Her traditional name is Elspet. Hi Doreen. Hi Arthur. The hint of purple in her hair matches the scarf that's draped around her shoulders. She met Arthur at an event that teaches non-Indigenous people

about the history of colonization. Blanket exercise. Yes, it was blanket exercise. The settlers stand on blankets, which are taken away to symbolize the loss of land and culture. He was crying. Makes me cry now when I think about it. Yeah. And you were...

I was crying too, so... Yes, yes, yes. Doreen is part of the planning committee for the Kleemann collaboration at Prisma. I was kind of like a late bloomer, you know, getting involved in my culture, my language, and realizing in the long run, that's my identity. You know, that's who I am.

I need to be proud of that, and I am, you know, yeah. Okay, my name is Cindy Pallin. I'm from Palma Nation and I carry the name of my great-grandmother, Chinay. Prisma has been significant in my life because it brings a lot of joy with the music and the singing. Anywhere there's singing, Drew knows that too. I'll go. My name is Kes Paul, English known as Drew Blaney I'm a singer for Klaamann. Just very active in the culture. Drew composes the songs then accompanying music is written for the orchestra. Have you had any thoughts about which songs we should do this year? I had a new song that I composed that I thought would sound really good. Flamen, oh, oh, oh, hey. He finds a little drum and uses a whiteboard marker as a drumstick. Flamen

Ahoy, ahoy, hey, hey Beautiful. Even with a marker. Let's do this. laughter Drew still remembers the first time he heard his music played with a full orchestra. I pulled out my phone to record because the first time I'd heard it right. All of the hair standing up on your body and the shivers and you know it's just tingly feeling in your body like I didn't know how it was going to sound

in your body like I didn't know how it was going to sound the mixture of cultures but so beautiful absolutely amazing I believe that you know for us to be able to live together and to connect what brings us together is music. So that's a blessing. This is really the power of music, right? That there's such a universal language that it bridges our cultures and it unifies our cultures. You walk among the people afterwards and they say, oh, that was so beautiful. They want to hear more. They want to know the beauty of our culture. The most powerful impact is just the involvement of us.

And it's not some token thing that we're being there to do a land acknowledgement, or we're just there to check a box of, you know, we invited the natives here. I feel that we are all human beings, and that's what unites us. Being human, that is what drives me to do all the things I do. Making the music, trying to connect people, trying to make it a better place. There is so much fighting going on, and jealousy, and power, and it makes things so ugly. And why? We are beyond cultures. We are really connected.

I feel very blessed. So thank you, all three of you. It's been a bit of an unusual day for Arthur. He's had to listen to people talk about him a lot. He says it was a bit like being at his own funeral, but in a good way. Apparently it matters. And that's beautiful to see that. That what I try to do in life, inspiring others, bringing people together. That seed apparently is planted and accepted also. To build community, to connect people through music is one of the most beautiful

things that I can think of and I feel very privileged of being able to do that. privileged of being able to do that. I've conducted in many places in the world and I just feel connected to Powell River and to the people here and it's this beautiful isolated community. It's like being on an island. It's paradise. And to be able to work here and do this is beautiful. I think we connected through a certain interest and a passion and that made it a beautiful day that we share today. Well, isn't that what it's all about? There's hope.

There's hope for all the cruelty in this world. ["War and Peace," by Louis van Beethoven, playing in the background.] The documentary, War and Peace, was produced by Liz Hoth at the Audio Documentary Unit. You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon.

For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.