Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival

Here in the string quartet section of macleans.ca, I know you’ll be as delighted as I am to learn that the federal government’s not-at-all-ridiculous Marquee Tourism Events Program has announced another grant. And just in the nick of time! Yes, it’s the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, which truly is a marvellous event, and for which I have already, long ago, purchased a single Platinum Pass so I can spend much of the next 10 days geeking out to Haydn and Mendelssohn without actually having to drag any of my already-long-suffering friends along. Anyway, just this morning, the indefatigable Royal Galipeau, Conservative MP for Somewhere Around Here, announced a MTEP grant of $210,000 to “make it possible to increase marketing and promotional efforts aimed at attracting audiences from out-of-province and out-of-country, specifically targeting major cities in the U.S., England and other European centres.”