 The
Muskoka Lakes Music Festival (MLMF) is a charitable organization
that was incorporated in 1996. Its mission is to "enrich the
cultural fabric of the community by providing leadership in arts
education and quality musical entertainment". The MLMF presents
an annual summer series of 8-10 musical concerts in a variety of
genres, held in Muskoka Lakes in July and August, as well as year-round
arts outreach programming in Muskoka schools through its Kaleidoscope
Arts in Education program. Through live performance by renowned
Canadian artists, the Festival creates an environment to cultivate
and encourage new and established musical talent by providing a
form to perform concerts with professional musicians. The Festival
uses intimate venues set in the natural beauty of Muskoka that
provide for interaction with musicians in an informal atmosphere.
Through the Kaleidoscope program, over 40 artists offer a variety
of arts programs in collaboration with teachers to elementary and
secondary school students throughout the school year (over 2000
children at 13 schools throughout Muskoka last year). In
the summer, Kaleidoscope offers the Summer Children's Festival,
a two-day event featuring 8-12 local artists working with visiting
and local children in hands-on workshops in a variety of artistic
disciplines; and the Music and Arts Summer Camp - two weeks focussing
on music, drama, and visual arts; and it supports the Muskoka Children's
Choir involving 20-30 children annually. MLMF received the Ontario
Trillium Foundation Arts in Culture "Great Grants Award" last
year, and was chosen by ArtsSmarts to be a national partner. Not
only does Kaleidoscope serve to raise awareness of the Festival
and build future audiences, but it connects artists to the community
and helps to prepare Muskoka youth for the new knowledge-based
creative economy and enhanced tourist products.
The Festival is endeavouring to provide more year round programming
to raise its profile and attract more year-round tourists. MLFM
has hosted "Flavours of Muskoka" for the past six years,
which features local chefs and vintners, and attracts over 400
guests. For the past two years MLMF hosted CBC Radio's dramatic
reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", featuring
a CBC celebrity reader as well as local personalities. This program
extends the outreach of the MLMF, offers off-season activity for
visitors, and raises funds in support of the Kaleidoscope Program.
Not only do these programs attract more tourists, they offer a
variety of cultural activities for local residents throughout the
year, and provide funding for the Kaleidoscope program.
The Festival provides leadership and excellence in the arts and
assists in promoting, strengthening and unifying all of the arts
in the Muskoka region with an unique focus on building strategic
alliances, collaboration, and arts and culture infrastructure as
well as education, research, accessibility and outreach. As
the Festival grows it is attracting audiences from all over the
province and beyond, significantly increasing tourism and adding
immeasurably to the local economy.
Muskoka Music Festival has established excellent and on-going partnerships
with organizations such as the National Academy Orchestra, Port
Carling Dinner Theatre, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the
Avenue Road Art School - Summer School, Nipissing University, Georgian
College, Muskoka Business Development Corporation, Muskoka Hotel,
Navigation and Steamship Company and a number of resorts in the
area to assist in promoting, strengthening and unifying arts and
culture in the Muskoka region. We plan to continue to build our
partnerships, including the business sector, particularly resorts
(value-added) and heritage-related institutions and events, and
are currently working on co-productions with young people's theatre.
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