The 121-year-old Conservatory of Music is being absorbed by the Winspear Centre in 2025 as MacEwan University drops it from its portfolio.
This follows discussions between MacEwan and the Winspear that Taproot previously reported on. In 2023, after running the conservatory since 2002, MacEwan sold the Alberta College building where the conservatory was operating to Edmonton Public Schools for $22 million. The board bought the building to house Centre High Campus. The school board gave MacEwan until 2025 to move the conservatory. At the time, MacEwan told Taproot that it intended to divest the conservatory to Winspear, but an agreement had not been reached.
The deal is now done.
"The (Winspear) will start to be used by the conservatory instructors and students right as of July 1st in 2025, but we're working through the details on how it will be used and what sort of access will be offered at that time," Alyssa Paterson, the director of operations and strategic initiatives for the Winspear and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, told Taproot.
The move coincides with the Winspear Expansion Project, slated for completion in 2026. The expansion will boost the venue's square footage by 50,000, to a total of 215,000. Its $110 million cost is being split between the City of Edmonton, the provincial government, the federal government, and fundraising. The expansion will include a new venue called the Music Box, spaces with daily public access, and education spaces that can accommodate 50% more youth than Winspear's current facilities as part of its Tommy Banks Centre for Musical Creativity.
"In becoming the hub for music in our city, bringing the conservatory within, as opposed to keeping it as a separate offering, makes a lot of sense," Paterson said. "It's just so well-aligned with our existing vision and mission and values that we felt like (by) keeping it separate, we'd almost be doing a disservice to it, as opposed to thinking of music education in our city in a really holistic way."
The conservatory's century-plus history and its pedigree are partly tied up in its name, one instructor said.
"We've been trying to convince (Winspear) that this idea of 'conservatory' implies excellence in teaching, and that it has a cachet — a brand — all to itself, and it's important for us to keep," Elizabeth Raycroft told Taproot.
The sentiment is not lost on Paterson. She said efforts are underway to find a way to keep the conservatory's legacy alive as it integrates into the future of the Banks Centre. One concrete measure has been decided on.
"We have plans in the expansion and in the expanded building to have what we're calling discovery zones — areas where you can learn about music in our city," Paterson said. "We're planning to dedicate one of those zones to the conservatory, and the history of the conservatory, to honour that legacy in our city."
The Winspear Centre's expansion is set to be complete in 2026, at which time the Conservatory of Music should be fully operational within it. (Colin Gallant)
Winspear will also keep some of the conservatory's history alive as it inherits the inventory of pianos from the Alberta College building.
Paterson said the full integration of the conservatory should be done when the Winspear expansion opens in 2026. The specific access that conservatory instructors and students will have by that point is in discussion right now.
Raycroft is part of a committee that communicates directly with Paterson about the transition. One sticking point is the current plan lacks teaching studios for one-on-one instruction.
"They will have classrooms, they will have large ensemble rooms like we have at Alberta College (such as) the PCL Hall, and the Muttart Hall, and things like that, but they will not have teaching studios," Raycroft said. "That continues to be a problem because our teachers will not then have a place to teach."
Raycroft said the absence of teaching studios may influence instructors to teach at home, where they won't pay a cut of earnings to a host organization. To work on commission at Winspear, there needs to be a demonstrable value, she said.
Paterson confirmed the current shape of the plan doesn't include teaching studios, partly because the expansion's design predates work to absorb the conservatory, but emphasized that the Winspear is working to find the best solution for everyone.
"A big part of this consultation process is we know we can't provide the permanent, dedicated, beautiful, custom-built spaces that they're used to and that they've had access to for so long," Paterson said. "What we're working through right now is the details of how we can support them in finding spaces and how we can use the spaces we do have in an equitable way and in a way that supports the needs of those instructors in addition to all the other users of our facility."
The Alberta College's custom-built spaces will be lost to time when the school board renovates the building for its Centre High students, Raycroft said.
The Alberta College building, formerly home to the Conservatory of Music, is now home to the Edmonton Public Schools Centre High Campus. The conservatory will relocate to the Winspear Centre in the summer of 2025. (Colin Gallant)
Raycroft teaches singing, which isn't exactly part of classical or symphonic music's identity. She said some of the conservatory pupils are excited by the move, but others don't necessarily see the alignment between the music they make and what Winspear is known for.
"We have no pre-conceived idea of what the Winspear means to a singer," she said. "My heavy metal singers? They could care less about the Winspear."