A branch of the largest Canadian music library in the world will give Victoria teachers, students and performers open access to the music of Canadian composers through a new initiative at the Victoria Conservatory of Music (VCM).

The Victoria Creative Hub will serve as a satellite location of the Vancouver branch of the Canadian Music Centre, a free public lending library that specializes in promoting Canadian contemporary music. The national centre’s regional libraries in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax collectively offer the largest resource of Canadian music in the world.

“That library contains somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 scores and parts, so it’s a bit overwhelming if you’re stepping in from the outside,” said Sean Bickerton, director of the Canadian Music Centre in B.C.

The BC Region maintains a free circulating library of some 15,000 compositions, documents the lives and works of all Associate Composers, and manages a recorded music archive consisting of nearly 5,500 performances of Canadian music. Centrediscs, CBC, and other recordings of Canadian music are available for purchase, as well as books, scores, and composer's supplies, including specially-produced manuscript paper.

The VCM currently reaches 800 young children in 37 different locations through the VCM Children’s Music Education and Outreach Program. Its Community School programming delivers training to 1900 students of all ages and abilities in every musical discipline. In partnership with Camosun College in Greater Victoria, VCM Post-Secondary School offers two full-time 2-year diploma programs for students who want to pursue a professional career in music. 

Further reading—Canadian music library to open Victoria branch, Times Colonist

-- Canadian Music Centre

-- Victoria Conservatory of Music