CALGARY -- Calgary’s arts community took to Twitter Monday to mourn the passing of one of the city’s true arts champions, Bob McPhee.
The former longtime CEO and General Director of Calgary Opera passed away Saturday, after an extended bout of cancer, at the age of 65.
McPhee joined Calgary Opera in 1998 as its General Director and CEO and ran it with great acclaim until 2017.
McPhee oversaw the launch of the opera’s Emerging Artists Program, which trained dozens of young up-and-coming opera singers from across North America. He also commissioned and produced a half-dozen new Canadian operas, including Filumena, about an infamous southern Alberta murder that was co-created by John Estacio and John Murrell.
That audacious risk-taking came at a time when almost no one else was creating new Canadian work, because new operas were vastly more expensive and hard to market than 17th and 18th century ones created by Italian, French, and German opera-makers.
At the same time, McPhee somehow managed to run the opera company into a surplus, putting aside a substantial reserve fund to help when the rainy days hit, like they did starting in 2015 as oil prices cratered.
Even then, McPhee expressed optimism that things would bounce back, eventually.
"I've been in this province 30 years and I’ve been through boom and bust, and boom and bust and we’ll get through this one again," he told the Calgary Herald.
"It’s just how long does it go on and how long does it take for oil to stabilize at whatever the hell level it does. If it stabilizes, companies can plan and then we can plan on more support."
"So it’s how long does this volatility last," he added, "and we’ll ride it out!"
"I just hoped I’d be retired before it happened again!" he added. "And that didn’t work!"
McPhee was a member of the Order of Canada (2013) and received an honourary doctorate from the University of Calgary in 2016.
Prior to the opera, McPhee worked in development at the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He also was a huge force in helping raise funds to build the Winspear Centre in Edmonton, where he worked for a number of years, for both Winspear and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
On Monday, the company, along with numerous other Calgary arts organizations, paid tribute to McPhee on Twitter and on its website.
“He was a champion for Canadian artists and artisans, a firm believer that Canada’s abundance of musical and theatrical talent deserves to be nurtured, showcased, celebrated here at home before going on to impress on international stages."
“Those who knew Bob during his 19-year tenure at Calgary Opera, will remember him as an energetic force of nature whose warmth and humour filled every room he entered. Crucial to the success of the company was his singular way of making everyone, even complete strangers, feel welcome.”
On Monday, Mayor Nenshi opened the council meeting with a tribute to McPhee.
Alberta culture minister Leela Sharon Aheer also tweeted out condolences.
