Denise Ball
Mentor, Music Alive
Denise has been at the centre of Canada’s classical music scene for over three decades, sharing music-makers with listeners in concert, on the airwaves and through recordings.
She began violin lessons at 5, developed into a pretty decent player, but realized early that she wasn’t at all comfortable as a soloist on stage. After obtaining degrees in English and journalism, she worked as a music critic and arts writer. She joined CBC Radio in 1985 as the junior classical music producer in Regina and learned where to point the business end of a microphone and how to create a supportive space for musical excellence in the recording studio. She eventually found her happy place behind a console in the control room.
Denise worked all over the country before settling in Vancouver in 2001 as creative producer of the CBC Radio Orchestra. As the head of one of most adventurous and ambitious ensembles in Canada, she programmed and recorded innovative concerts and studio sessions, commissioned the works of outstanding Canadian composers and captured performances by our finest soloists.
Along the way, Denise picked up awards: In 2008 the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Music. A Grammy, for her recording with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and violinist James Ehnes. A couple of Junos and a Western Canadian Music Award. A Prix Italia for best radio series on music. And in 2018, she was named a Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music, joining the likes of Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Oscar Peterson, and David Foster.
After the CBC axed the Radio Orchestra in 2007, Denise became Executive Producer of Classical Music for CBC Radio, choosing artists and repertoire for broadcast and working with hosts Bill Richardson, Ben Heppner and Paolo Pietropaolo to make the public airwaves a place of joy and discovery for listeners and a creative hothouse for musicians.
Since stepping away from the CBC in 2020, she’s recorded orchestras and ensembles across the country, produced podcasts and pursued a “side hustle” – writing bios for musicians that tell their stories with an individual artistic voice. And she’s recently been named Artistic Director of the Coast Recital Society in Sechelt BC, sharing performances by some of the greatest musicians working today with audiences on the Sunshine Coast.