President’s Message – August 2025

Dear Friends - 
It will soon be time for “back-to-school” and so it can’t be long until the performance season launches. I hope you are as excited as we are about CMK’s season opener on October 4 with Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear in recital!

Last chance to renew your subscription seats!
I’m pleased to report that subscription sales are running well ahead of this time last year and we are thrilled to welcome a good number of new members. For past subscribers, the Box Office is still holding last year’s seats and, and, if you have not yet done so, you have until  August 29 to renew and guarantee the same seats for the new season. Please don’t wait too long!

Join our wonderful community of subscribers!
Between renewing and new patrons, there are less than 35 seats remaining in the Mary Irwin Theatre available for more subscribers. If you are thinking of subscribing for the first time but your preferred seating location isn’t available now, the best course of action is to get your request in sooner rather than later. Change requests will be accommodated (as best we can) after the renewal deadline in the order they are received.

A new subscription option!
For the 2025-26 Main Season, we’ve added an option for subscribers to select 5 of our 6 concerts if you like and still maintain your subscriber privileges. We expect this will be helpful for those who know they will be out of town at a specific time during the season. It will also make a few additional seats available for the single ticket purchasers who will certainly be looking to enjoy one or more of our wonderful guest artists. Single tickets will be advertised and available after Labour Day.

The Community Box Office (theboxoffice.ca ) is available to serve you!
To help you make your musical plans online, more information is available on the exciting new website set up by the City of Kelowna to serve local arts and culture (as well as sporting) events. Or you can speak to a real person at 250-469-8940.

If you have questions regarding seat selection or payment or
anything else, please feel free to ask Terri-Lynn for assistance. She is our designated “chamber music person” in the box office and she is very helpful.

New Arnold Draper Award Winners!
We are very excited to announce the 2025 winners of the Arnold Draper award: Elise Wiesinger, violin and Elliot Kim, piano. The Arnold Draper Fund, designed to assist promising local music students with their studies as they prepare for musical careers, continues to grow with donations in honour of Arnold.
As a result, the committee making the awards had more resources available this year and hopes to see continued growth in future. See more about the winners below.
Important note: the Board of CMK does not participate in decision-making about the award recipients and has transferred donations received to the Central Okanagan Foundation (along with matching funds) as endowment contributions.

We look forward to seeing you in October!
With all best wishes,
Diane
P. Diane Bond, President

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