Derek Andrews' departure from Harbourfront Centre is chronicled below in stories from CBC Radio One, Now Magazine and the Toronto Star.

Transcript from CBC's METRO MORNING
Anchor/Reporters: JANE HAWTIN

Wednesday, October 1, 2003  06:15

JANE HAWTIN (HOST): Now Derek Andrews may not be a name that you're familiar with, but chances are you have experienced some of the music that he brought to Harbourfront each summer weekend. It's also a name that you're no longer going to be hearing in connection with Harbourfront. He was suddenly let go after eighteen years. Our "what's going on man" Matt Galloway has been covering Harbourfront Centre for years, and he joins me now with a look at what may have gone wrong for Derek Andrews. Good morning.

MATT GALLOWAY: Hi.

HAWTIN: Now what's the reason after eighteen years that Derek was suddenly let go? What's going on?

GALLOWAY: Yeah, it's interesting, and not a lot of people talking about it. I know that his contract wasn't renewed, and that's really what Harbourfront's saying, is that they just didn't decide... they decided not to renew his contract. He isn't saying very much at all about it. They're saying that they were looking at exploring new avenues. That's the phrase that Harbourfront is using...

HAWTIN: That's the buzz line.

GALLOWAY: ... which is a kind of ambiguous sort of thing. But I mean after... he was there for eighteen years, so maybe they're just looking to change things up. I mean he'd done a great job, but somebody who'd been there for eighteen years, maybe they're just looking for a fresh perspective, nothing personal, apparently. Apparently there was no sort of backroom politics or anything like that. It was just a matter that they didn't renew his contract, and I think everybody in the world music community in the City was really shocked and taken sort of aback by that.

HAWTIN: Hm. Now in the world music industry, is that where Derek Andrews sort of made his mark at Harbourfront, or what do you think his contribution was?

GALLOWAY: At Harbourfront, yes, certainly, because he turned that venue into a premier venue obviously in Toronto and Ontario but also in Canada, I think, for world music and took what was a fairly sort of marginal style of music. When he really started booking this stuff, people weren't really going out and exploring a lot of music from around the world, took this marginal style of music and made it popular, brought these people to town, treated them like celebrities and blew them up on this big stage down by the water, which was fantastic, and so you saw all sorts of different styles of music. He was really good at going out and exploring things, so he brought in Arabic music, Latin music, African music, music from all over the world that people normally wouldn't have come into contact with outside of a little community, and really tried to make it a larger sort of thing, and so you got all sorts of different interesting performers, and it was a great place to play, and I know a lot of artists really liked playing down there as well. I mean we're sort of speaking about it in the past tense...

HAWTIN: Right.

GALLOWAY: ... which is kind of a dangerous thing, but...

HAWTIN: Right, but the implication is that there's going to be some kind of a change.

GALLOWAY: When they...

HAWTIN: What do you think they're going to do?

GALLOWAY: Well, when they say, "explore new avenues," it's, again, kind of an ominous sort of term. Maybe world music isn't as sexy as it was five, ten years ago, and it was sort of something that was exotic and a little bit outside. Right now you're seeing a lot of different performers and a lot of different festivals that are booking that kind of music even right now. There's a small world festival that's on at Books, similar kind of people. So maybe there's going to be something else, maybe more pop-based, maybe something a little bit deeper. Harbourfront has always prided itself on being cutting edge and digging beneath the surface and beneath the mainstream, so maybe they thought that world music had become too popular and too mainstream so they're going and try to dig other things up. It would be unfortunate, but you can see the appeal of it. I mean it's a beautiful venue right in the heart of the City. Maybe they want to do more rock kind of concerts or something like that downtown.

HAWTIN: What do you think of that?

GALLOWAY: I don't know. I mean it's unfortunate because it's been the one place where you can see all these great artists from around the world, and I mean there are a lot of different rock venues anyways, and so I liked that it was special, and I liked that there was this kind of theme programming that went on throughout the whole summer. That was when it really took off is because you had all these different weekends that were programmed around individual events, and artists came in and were packaged together, so you had a bunch of different accordion players or a bunch of different Latin musicians from around the world who maybe had a similar theme, and that's kind of a unique style to it. If it's just another rock venue, that's unfortunate. Nobody really knows what they're doing yet. The Harbourfront people say that they're going to be announcing something soon, and these will sort of be the new venues, I suppose, but I don't think it'll be any more popular. You can always go down there and there's always a lot of people at Harbourfront, so whether they program DJs with rap music or something like that, I don't think it's going to be any more popular, perhaps just a shift in direction and maybe digging, as we said, a little bit deeper beneath the surface.

HAWTIN: Yeah. So what sticks out as a highlight when you think about the eighteen years that Derek's been there?

GALLOWAY: A lot of stuff. He brought Womad to town, the great world music travelling sort of circus, so you see all sorts of people playing there. The drummers of Burundi were there. I mean it's a legendary show. Orchestra Baobob this summer, a great band from Senegal who had got back together. They're kind of like the African Buenavista Social Club. We once saw a woman called La Negra Graciana, who was a Mexican harp player - she's about seventy, eighty years old - playing, and there were 1,000 people gave her a standing ovation. It was just unbelievable hair-raising kind of stuff, again the kind of things that you would never imagine. Cassandra Wilson playing and the moon's rising up and there's the island in the background and stuff. It was fantastic. Ali Farqatur, a great blues musician. All sorts of fantastic stuff. Hopefully, as we say, these things will continue, and hopefully Harbourfront will kind of integrate this kind of programming into their new programming, whatever they do. One of the things that Derek did was that he programmed Cuban music long before the Buenavista Social Club were popular or anything like that, and so you saw a lot of people who ended up playing with the Buenavista crew but also just beneath that surface who came to town. One of them was a guy called Armando Garzon, who is a bolero singer, a young guy who sings old kind of man's music, but it's this beautiful stuff, and there were four or five hundred people just weeping in the crowd as this guy's voice was singing. This is one of his tracts. This is Armando Garzon and a tract called Dos Gardenias.

[Performance.]

HAWTIN: That's Armando Garzon with Dos Gardenias. Thanks to Matt Galloway, Metro Morning's "What's going on man."

NOW | OCT 9 - 15, 2003 | VOL. 23 NO. 6

NOW MAGAZINE
T.O. MUSIC NOTES

Derek Andrews strikes back

Just as news that Harbourfront Centre would not be renewing the contract of long-time music programmer Derek Andrews began circulating last week, Andrews was quietly preparing his response. Last Thursday, October 2, he slapped Harbourfront with a wrongful dismissal suit. According to Andrews, the 19 years he spent booking the most exciting musical acts from around the globe were wrapped up in a single meeting that lasted mere seconds. There was no farewell party.

"They called me into a meeting with my boss (director of community and educational programming) Melanie Fernandez , and the human resources manager on Friday, September 25, at 4:30 pm. Before then, I had no inkling that they wouldn't be renewing my contract.

"My dismissal took about a minute and a half. No handshake or thank you, and no, there was no going-away party.

"There was no severance package, so I'm suing them for wrongful dismissal, which was filed on Thursday after discussing the situation with my lawyer. When they respond, we'll see if we can arrive at a settlement that's amenable to both parties."

Manager of marketing and media relations Bruce Hutchinson sounds surprised when informed of Andrews's legal suit.

"I don't know anything about the lawsuit," he concedes, "so I can't comment. All I can do is reiterate that Derek was on contract, which we decided not to renew to pursue other avenues and other voices."

In the meantime, Andrews is taking a pause to consider his next move. He has been encouraged by the words of support he's been receiving from musicians and industry people since his abrupt Harbourfront exit was made public.

"Most people I've been hearing from say they're stunned and outraged. Everyone has been very supportive. I'm starting to tell folks that I may need some help with a legal defence fundraising event – or two – to offset the cost of my lawyers. This may get expensive.

"Really, I feel privileged to have had the job at Harbourfront. It was a great run, but I feel like I'm ready for something fresh and new. I've been greatly informed by my experience and want to be a stronger advocate for the music community here in Toronto."

NOW: Letters to the Editor, Oct 9 - 15, 2003
A folk music inspiration

re harbourfront shakeup (now, October 2-8). It's difficult to overestimate the contribution Derek Andrews has made to the folk/roots/world music community in Toronto, across Canada and internationally. As an all-too-rare visionary, he has created literally thousands of new performance opportunities for artists over the last 18 years. I have met few others whose work involved such an ongoing commitment to local artists as well as a high regard for those "from away."

For those of us presenting music in other parts of the country, Derek has been our eyes and, more importantly, our ears on the ground in the big city.

Derek has also been a tireless volunteer. Through his work with the Toronto Blues Society and the North American Folk Alliance, and as a founder of Folk Alliance Canada, he has used his singular understanding of the cultural importance and financial realities of making and presenting music to forge hundreds of important opportunities for Canadian artists.

As a volunteer who has worked with him on some of these initiatives, I know for a fact that without Derek, they quite simply never would have happened.

Dugg Simpson, Toronto

NOW | OCT 2 - 8, 2003 | VOL. 23 NO. 5
Harbourfront shakeup

Following International Festival of Authors director Greg Gatenby 's departure from Harbourfront Centre comes word that Derek Andrews , director of music programming at Harbourfront, will not have his contract renewed. It's a bit of a shock, since the globally minded Andrews has been bringing the roots music riches of the world to the lakeside venue for close to 18 years, and recent shows, including the Canadian debut of Senegal's Orchestra Baobab , appeared to be hugely successful.

World music is not the hot trend it was in the mid-80s when Andrews took his position, and in recent years Harbourfront hasn't been as proactive in presenting music that would appeal to a younger crowd.

"Derek's company had a contract with Harbourfront and that contract came up for renewal," explains Bruce Hutchinson , Harbourfront's director of marketing and media relations. "We sat down, had a discussion and decided that we wanted to explore new avenues and new opportunities.

"At the present time, we haven't yet decided what those new avenues might be, but hopefully we'll be able to let everyone know very soon."

THE TORONTO STAR
Oct. 3, 2003

Harbourfront fires respected music boss Derek Andrews ran program for 18 years Cultural centre wants local guest curators

GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Derek Andrews, the much admired and internationally respected music programmer who made the Habourfront Centre a summertime feast for Toronto's diverse musical appetites over the past 18 years, was suddenly without a job last week.

Andrews was informed on Sept. 25 in a terse letter that his contract would not be renewed in December and that the non-profit corporation no longer needed his services.

"I was given three months pay in lieu of notice, and minutes later watched as my computer was disengaged," a still shaken Andrews, 52, said yesterday. "It was a complete shock ... there was no warning at all."

Andrews, who has spent the past week avoiding interviews, is seeking legal advice about a wrongful dismissal case.

He was fired just five months after the abrupt and controversial departure of Greg Gatenby, who for the past 25 years programmed and promoted the renowned Harbourfront International Festival of Authors and the Harbourfront Reading Series.

Speculation that, like Gatenby, he had ruffled long-time Harbourfront CEO William Boyle's feathers, is unfounded, Andrews said.

"I had next to no contact with the man."

Andrews wielded great power in the national music scene but always kept a low public profile, despite his towering 6-foot-6 height. He never sought a permanent position within the Harbourfront organization, he said.

"I never thought it was necessary. I was an independent contractor, and Harbourfront was my only client."

He will be replaced by a permanent, full-time employee following a national posting for the position to be made in "the next two or three weeks," Melanie Fernandez, manager of community and educational programming at Harbourfront since October of 2002, said yesterday.

"Derek built a wonderful music program over the time he was here, but in the past year we have been developing a new strategic plan that we hope will reposition Harbourfront as a more contemporary arts centre featuring different artistic voices, guest curators from the local arts community, and cross-disciplinary programs."

Planning teams are already being established to create three blocks of arts programming that will bring people to Harbourfront throughout the year, not just in the summer, said Fernandez, adding that the decision to fire Andrews was hers, "based on internal discussions that have been going on since I arrived.

"I'm very committed to music, and I would like to see the program grow to a year-round activity."

Andrews, who worked his way up from booking talent in Toronto folk and rock clubs The Edge, The Horseshoe and Albert's Hall, is president of the music festival consortium Folk Alliance Canada, president of the Toronto Blues Society, and the sole North American consultant member of the European Forum of Worldwide Music Festivals.

He has no immediate plans, he said, "but I'm encouraged by many friends in the Toronto music community and media who have offered support privately and publicly in the past few days.

"I'll enjoy the pause."

During his tenure at Harbourfront, Andrews is credited with having broken down musical and cultural barriers in Toronto by exposing the city to a vast array of artists — as many as 200 acts each summer — from remote and distant parts of the world, and blending them imaginatively with performers from mainstream and alternative Western, Asian and African musical fields.

Andrews obsessively sought out and exposed new and young talent, helped establish Harbourfront as a key element in the international touring network, and provided a refreshing and intelligent alternative to mass-marketed commercial music.

Derek Andrews Legal Fund
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