SOME CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD.
by Bob Ramsay
Rich people give their millions to charities for as many reasons as there are rich people. The fight for love and glory is surely the biggest. Some big givers are also grateful patients or students of their alma maters. Some want to plump their city; others, boost their profession, their grandkids’ sports team, their nation’s military.
Canada’s 1% have not been as generous or as loud as America’s in supporting our charities. But this year, when Canada’s elbows are way up, that might change. Especially for causes that promote Canadian excellence on the world stage, like Own the Podium and the Canada Gairdner Awards.
But it’s also time to think of those Canadians who are promoting our country abroad, sending big signals in foreign lands about our values, our standards and our staying power.
One example of this is Ottawa-born pianist Angela Hewitt, and her Trasimeno Music Festival, which produces a week of baroque and classical music each June in some of the most beautiful venues in the Umbrian hills of Italy.
Angela, who is one of the world’s most revered pianists, has been doing this for 20 years. We were there last week and I can attest to the sheer willpower needed to produce a festival like this, let alone perform in it for seven consecutive nights.
I suspect Trasimeno has always been on the razor’s edge financially, and surviving post-COVID is a miracle in itself as Angela courts Italian, American and Canadian philanthropists. (Trasimeno has foundations in all three countries.)
True, on a cost-per-thousand basis, the Festival makes little sense to underwrite. Each performance draws 400 or 500 people, tops. And most of those people are, like me, Old with a capital “O”. So, not many influencers, but still a lot of influence.
But numbers by definition don’t measure intangibles, and the sheer chutzpah of presenting Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Bach and Mozart, and inviting in the best of Italy’s young musicians, to share in a feast of sight and sound, not to mention some of the finest food and wine on earth, this takes a determination that any nation’s leaders should be grateful to have the opportunity to support. Indeed, one of her young artists last week was Campbell River B.C.’s Carter Johnson who was a finalist in this year’s Van Cliburn Piano Competition.
Forty years ago Brian Mulroney spoke at a dinner in Toronto where he noted that two generations before, Italian immigrants built the big offices that dotted the Bay Street corridor. Now, Mulroney said, they own them.
Italian-Canadians are one of Canada’s most generous communities-of-communities.
So perhaps today one of their members can stand up and with a single donation secure the future of a Festival held in their ancestors’ native land and sustained by someone in their home and native land.
And not only can they do this, so can we.
Meanwhile…
1. Nudges big and small. Feel the real power of compound interest. People absolutely love financial nudges. And would you spend 30 minutes to make $15 talking with a stranger?
2. Eccentrics Rul! C.B. Fry was the most gloriously gifted Englishman. Plus, whycalligraphy still thrives. Plus, Word Pathfinder maps the connections between any two words. Like Tomato and Toronto, or Heat Dome and Heart Throb. Finally, this video was made in 1970 to celebrate America’s 194th birthday.
3. Your final laps. Will you die on your birthday? Plus, Meryl Streep on why “I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.” Plus, 16 things I would want if I got dementia. Plus, the phases of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's…”Or, until I go to Heaven?” Plus, Chip Conley and Alison Smith on a richer middle age for us all.
4. Firsts and bests. Who says Canadians can’t win abroad? This year, our pro athletes are the best in America. And Spotify paid more in royalties to the Canadian music sector than the entire Canadian commercial radio industry combined. And even giving birth is easier here.
As for the big wide world, here are its best restaurants and airlines (note no.19.) And talk about getting bumped from your flight, cellos unite!
5. Gotta sing. Gotta play. Gotta dance. Brian Wilson’s final. Plus the new art oftutting. (plus tutting for beginners). And how three Van Cliburn Piano Competitionfinalists (including Carter Johnson) pass the Difficultissimo Quiz. Plus, this is your brain health on music. Finally, some good old-fashioned drum-balling, singing, and dancing.
6. Incoming. Upcoming. First, highlights of the F-35, which Canada has committed to buy 16 from the original order of 88. Next, not only will September bring a new season of Slow Horses but a new Slow Horses novel, Clown Town, by author Mick Herron. There’s also a new sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Plus, Saoirse Ronan in a new diary of a mad housewife.
Next, coming to a waterfront near you, the new Ontario Place! (with charts). Plus, Stephen Marche hosts a new podcast, Gloves Off, a practical rather than a virtuous approach to being a Canadian.
7. A bunch of animals. First, owls in towels. Next, cats with hats, and dogs with jobs.And acrobatic cats, and one bird’s doctors.
8. “...and what do you do?” Well, I don’t start a conversation with “And what do you do?” And… Robin Williams tells a joke. And Genevieve Westrope persists and gets called to the bar.
Plus, getting some exercise. And a bad case of franglais.
9. Are you attractive enough to patronize my restaurant? This app holds a mirror up to our collective vanity. Plus, an AI doctor in action. And 25 AI prompts for better searches. Plus, what is the placebo effect of AI?
10. Finally…a clear explanation of Bitcoin. And a clear definition of meditation. And how a Formula 1 pitstop works. And how to be cool.