Background                                     Philosophy | Mandate | Supporting Partners

     The concept of True North Foundation has its roots in a 15 year period from the late 1970's until the early 90's, growing out of the practical experience of presenting concerts, tours, and festivals both in Canada and internationally, combined with a perceived need for showcasing little known works by Canadian composers. Practical experiences included "Quoi de Neuf?" - an experimental multimedia performance festival in Montreal broadcast on a local cable television network, the "ComPoster" education project in collaboration with the Canadian Music Centre, and "Kanada Muusika Paevad" (Canadian Music Days) a showcase of Canadian music and film presented in the cities of Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, and Viljandi as the first international festival held in newly independent Estonia.

     True North Foundation was officially launched in Toronto in 1997. Its first project was a large scale collaboration with both Canadian and Taiwanese governments in presenting "True North Festival 1998" in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The basic components of this project were 12 programs of Canadian concert music, a 3 month exhibition of Canadian landscape art at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts , and a one hour video documentary that was screened across Canada over a 4 year period on Bravo Cable TV.

    In the years following True North Festival, the foundation has focused more on specific international collaborations in the Nordic and Baltic countries and in developing local Toronto-based programs for the regional community such as The Boreal Orchestra ensemble.