Each year, the City of Kamloops issues a call for proposals for registered charities and non-profit agencies in our community to apply for Social and Community Development Grants which are intended to fund special projects, operational costs, and/or capital expenditures that address specific current social problems and/or issues related to the City’s Social Plan or the Livability pillar of the Council’s Strategic Plan.



Kamloops Symphony was a recipient of the Fall 2021 Social and Community Development Grant and received $17,253. This is how the grant was used:



Submitted by the Kamloops Symphony.

Thanks to the City of Kamloops, the Kamloops Symphony produced a new family and student-focused concert initiative, centered around wildlife, called The Wild Orchestra. The project was curated and conducted by our own music director Dina Gilbert and was performed for in-person and digital audiences in November 2021. Following the original presentation, the concert was edited and shared online with schools in the region into the 2022 Calendar Year with a digital educational guide.

For this initiative, we commissioned two new works by emerging Kamloops-born composers Ryan Noakes and Kevin Mulligan. The second work, “How the coyote fed his family” by Kevin Mulligan, featured storytelling by indigenous artist Chris Bose, recounting a local fable based on Secwepemc traditions. The new compositions were paired with Poulenc’s L’Histoire de Babar, that with the help of Chris Bose as narrator, recounted the tale of the famous elephant. Finally, local children’s author and illustrator Susan Mark, was commissioned to create digital illustrations for the piece, that accompanied the performance on screen.

All in all, over 250 individuals were able to watch the in-person version, without about the same number of individuals tuning in to the live online version. Since the release of the digital educational version for schools, hundreds of students have been able to watch free of charge, through School District No. 73.

Musical performances and activities give audiences the opportunity to connect with each other on an emotional level, either by resonating with their current state of being, or transforming them somewhere they are not. These types of experience are therapeutic, and ultimately translate to a higher quality of life. Aimed at elementary children, this initiative brought this heightened quality of life to our younger citizens in the region.

Through the engagement of an indigenous storyteller, we incorporated thematic elements from Secwepemc culture and traditional ecological knowledge that has been passed on by generations through indigenous cultures. Our hopes were that sharing these perspectives with Kamloops and the region’s younger citizens helped build acceptance and critical thought of the society we are in today.

“With the City of Kamloops’ support, we were thrilled to not only provide the opportunity for two Kamloops-born composers to write for a professional orchestra, and commission some new digital artwork, but also to share a traditional Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc story in an innovative way. Furthermore, to be able to distribute the project for free to school district students in the region is incredibly crucial to achieving our mandate of enriching younger generations in our region through musical experiences.” said Daniel Mills, Executive Director of the Kamloops Symphony.

“Being commissioned to write a piece for The Wild Orchestra was especially thrilling for me. Not only was my home-town orchestra, the very first orchestra I ever saw live, going to be playing the piece, but being an educational concert, I knew my piece was going to be part of a unique experience for dozens of school kids in Kamloops, and hopefully be a small part of making music an essential part of their lives.” -Ryan Noakes, composer.

To learn more about this grant, visit Kamloops.ca/Grants. To view stories on how other groups used their Social and Community Development Grants, visit Kamloops.ca/CityStory.