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Slip into something more comfortable and delve into personal finance with Josh Sheluk and Colin White, experienced portfolio managers at Verecan Capital Management. Each episode demystifies complex financial topics, stripping them to their bare essentials. From investment strategies and financial planning to economic headlines and philanthropic giving, delivered with a blend of insight, transparency, and a touch of humour. Perfect for anyone looking to understand and navigate their financial future with confidence. Subscribe now to stay informed, empowered, and entertained.
Verecan Capital Management Inc. is registered as a Portfolio Manager in all provinces in Canada except Manitoba.
Welcome to Barenaked Money, the podcast where we strip down the complex world of finance to its bare essentials. With your hosts, Josh Sheluk and Colin White, portfolio managers with Verecan Capital Management Inc.
Colin White:Hi, everybody. Welcome. This is a very special, extra special edition of Bare Naked Money. I'm here with Arthur and Andy from the Prisma Music Festival coming up in Powell River, British Columbia on the eighteenth, I believe. I guess I'm going to stop talking and turn it over to you guys to explain what this is and get the dates right because I know I need to be there on the eighteenth, but I'm not sure how manywhat the whole dates of the festival are.
Colin White:Welcome, then. Take it away.
Arthur Arnold:Thank you, Colin. So tell me, what did you say is the title of your podcast?
Colin White:Barenaked Money.
Arthur Arnold:Barenaked Money. I thought I heard making money. I thought, hey, we are making music.
Colin White:Well, there you go, making money, would be good as well. Hey, Barenaked Money is actually musically inspired as well. We named ourselves after the band Barenaked. So Barenaked Ladies was the name of the band that was the So very musically inspired.
Arthur Arnold:I see. I see. Well, I have to disappoint you. I live under a classical rock, and I don't know any bands, I'm afraid. But maybe Andy, our development and publicity marketing director here on the call, knows about it.
Arthur Arnold:Andy?
Andy Rice:As soon as you as soon as you said Barenaked Ladies, I had that song, if I had a million dollars popped into my head, I thought, what a good what a good segue for a nonprofit organization to be on a podcast.
Arthur Arnold:That sounds great, Andy, indeed. And, you know, talking about non profit, I'll tell you, Colin, what we actually do at Prisma. The Prisma Festival, we founded in 2012. And since 2013, we had our festival. We get about 80 students, this year actually 84 students from all over the world, who do an audition to to play in the orchestra.
Arthur Arnold:Hundreds of students apply and we pick the best ones to form a symphony orchestra. And then we have about 25 guest artists from world's leading orchestras who gather here in Powell River to play together in chamber music ensembles and to coach the students to get ready for a career in orchestra performance.
Colin White:Wow, that is a huge deal. Those are big numbers. And, you know, how did you guys end up in Powell River? Like, what what what was the draw? What what what drew you there?
Arthur Arnold:Well, the the I came to Powell River for the music one year, a long time ago, in February, and and there is so much music here. And actually, we had a a pulp and paper mill that recently closed that really brought the money to this town and the workers to this town. And they had a philosophy that they would engage people, they would hire people who excelled in sports and music. And we really stand on that philosophy and that's why there is so much support in this little paradise where I would say that the mountains kiss the ocean, that this can happen with the full support of the city, of the regional district, of our own Klaamen nation, and then so many individuals. Andy, you can talk more about support for this endeavour.
Arthur Arnold:I mean, it's incredible.
Andy Rice:Yeah. I think this there's an infectious energy, I think, you know, in the music scene in in Pal River. And and like Arthur said, that that sort of stands on the shoulders of years and years and years of of basically planning the town around people with those those sorts of skills and and and really investing in that early, and we're we're sort of pick still picking the fruits of that with with events like Prisma and Catamu and and, you know, all of these organizations on the music end and on the other, you know, types of arts and culture as well. So that's that's been sort of a a beautiful kind of infectious thing. And, I mean, it Arthur's a case in point, and I'm not gonna tell his story for him, but but, you know, he he came as a as a as a a guest, as a as a conductor, as as, you know, one of the music groups that was that was brought here to perform.
Andy Rice:And, you know, kinda long story short, he never left. You know? There was there was a place for for someone with his his skills and and the experiences here as well, and and to the point where you you're now living there part time, Arthur, and and sort of a a hands on member of the community and creating these sorts of spaces for people to be able to continue this legacy of arts and culture town and kids and adults and people of all ages continuing to have those opportunities that were sort of put into place for one hundred years ago and that mill is getting going.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah, exactly. And you know, for me, it is amazing to have this kind of opportunity to be part of a community like Powell River, yet travel the world to conduct orchestras. This combination is so sweet. And last night, for example, there was a violin group doing their performances, and Powell River now has their own amateur symphony orchestra because they heard Prisma Orchestra year after year and people thought, let's get something going here. And now, you know, so it has a ripple effect.
Arthur Arnold:And this is beautiful to see that and to be part of that.
Colin White:Well, it is fun for Verican to play its part. We're a returning sponsor, We got involved with you guys last year. And, so it's interesting to see and learn more about the organization and then begin to take part. And, by taking part, I I believe I am actually participating as a guest conductor on Wednesday. Is is is that have I been told is somebody lying to me on my team, or am I expected to come and do something?
Andy Rice:Really? No. We absolutely have all told you to do to show up and and and do that. We've you you alluded to the eighteenth earlier, and that's one of the almost two and a half weeks that that Prisma's running this year. It's the students who who are coming here all over you know, from all over the world, they don't know each other when they arrive.
Andy Rice:But by the end of the week, they're performing concerts at the full orchestra. So you're gonna meet all of those students from about 15 different countries and almost 90 students. And they're, you know, preprofessional musicians. They're they're kind of basically bridging the gap between their music training and the professional world. So we're trying to give them that last sort of jolt of of knowledge and inspiration to send them out into the world and become members of these top symphonies or or ensembles or or instructors.
Andy Rice:So there is a a conducting master class where our student conductors who are learning to do basically what Arthur does are gonna show up and and basically be able to drive the drive the Ferrari for a few hours in a big a big orchestra, and and we do that in front of an audience. And we thought there's a lot of parallels between trained professionals doing doing doing tasks and and other you know, people people without that sort of training. And and we we sort of were looking at the parallels of somebody like me maybe handling their own finances versus, you know, somebody like you handling them. Right? And then we thought, well, okay.
Andy Rice:If Colin hasn't conducted an orchestra before, maybe that would be an interesting segue into somebody who's really, really good at something that's not that, trying that, and then, you know, sort of doubling back on on let's let's leave let's leave the professional leave the professionals to what they do best. So that's that's sort of how we ended up with with this little little plan with a twinkle in our eye to to do a bit of a bit of an on stage collaboration. So you're gonna meet the orchestra. You're gonna try conducting them, and I think you'll surprise yourself in a in in probably good ways and not so good ways. And and it's gonna be it's gonna be quite quite fun, I think.
Andy Rice:And and Arthur Arthur, you're in good hands with him. Let's put it that way.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. We won't we won't kill you. You you have you have a great time. It's overwhelming, I can tell you, to conduct an orchestra and to hear that sound from so close-up around you, really. How I always try to compare this, when you have a painting, like let's say we look at the Nightwatch of Rembrandt, this huge painting, I don't know if you've ever been in Amsterdam and have seen that painting close-up in real time, but the moment there is light, you can see it.
Arthur Arnold:It is there and it is alive. Music is different. Music you have to recreate every time. I can show you a score here, I have a very thick book here that is full of black little dots, and that is a symphony of Gustav Mahler that he wrote in 1906. And it is hugely complicated.
Arthur Arnold:Every note of this piece will only sound once during a concert. It cannot ever be recreated the same way. It only exists for that little moment and it is evaporated. And even though the symphony is over an hour, you cannot hold it, you cannot keep it. And this makes music so intriguing, that it only exists for that little moment and what we do as conductors and as musicians, we recreate that what the composer had in his mind and was able to put in the secret language on paper.
Colin White:Yeah. It's interesting because I I've spent a lot of time in my life working with with children, working with coaching at different levels. It's always interesting to play even the tiniest role in helping them discover the value of something being there the time that they become aware of their own abilities and or the complexities of what they're dealing with. If I can play a really small part in making them all feel really good about themselves and how smart they are for a minute, you know, that'll be a good time as long as everybody's laughing with me, not at me. We'll we'll we'll have a great time.
Arthur Arnold:We will. A
Colin White:good friend of mine has got an expression and nobody pretends to be an underwater welder. You know, there's certain things that amateurs just shouldn't do. And I think this would definitely go in the category of one of them, but if everybody's in a good mood, we'll we'll we'll have a good time and I give everybody a chuckle to begin to maybe break the ice a little bit if anybody's nervous in the room and getting things underway. More than looking forward to it.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. Every year we do a Prisma for kids and we have the house full of hundreds of children who are at an orchestra rehearsal, part of the Prisma for Kids programme. And usually I have one or two young students, young kids, 12, 14, no, younger eight, I don't know, sometimes six, come up and conduct the orchestra. And it's so sweet, it's so nice. Now, yeah, you'll enjoy it.
Colin White:I'll have a good time. And listen, I just want make sure I'm coming at it with a ridiculous amount of respect. I mean, can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I love all forms of music. I always have been a fan. And moreover, I completely respect people who are exceptionally good at what they do and are gifted at what they do and are passionate about what they do.
Colin White:I think this will be a really interesting thing to be experiencing, like you just say, up close and personal. Events are open to the public if there's people that are looking to partake of things? Are there things that people can just come and watch as part of the two week festival, is that a possibility, or is this just strictly being run for the students who are showing up for the two weeks?
Arthur Arnold:Andy, do you want to talk to that?
Andy Rice:Yeah. We have so much for the public. So we're running from the June 16 to the June 28, And and there are concerts on the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty first, and then we we we come at it again the the following week. So they're they're evening concerts that are that are most of them are ticketed. Some of them are are are by donation.
Andy Rice:We have a concerto competition, which is really thrilling. Students from all over the world on various instruments are competing for the chance to, at the end of the festival, play a movement from a a major concerto with the and the student conductors with them. So they're basically effectively featured soloists at the festival, and they get an invite to to come back the following year on a full scholarship and and and show their stuff again. They're, you know, every weekday during Prisma, including the master class that you're gonna be making a cameo at. We also we have have master classes, two of them a day, and and also two limelight concerts.
Andy Rice:We call them where our guest artists, they're gonna play music outside of the orchestra repertoire. A of solo stuff. You know, our students, by by the week, especially, they're they've all made friends. They've all found colleagues. They've all found, you know, people who who enjoy some of the same musical and nonmusical hobbies as them, and they've gotten together in practice rooms, and they've started putting together groups.
Andy Rice:So you'll hear a lot of chamber music played by students who didn't know each other the week before, but in the week, they're they're spending a half an hour on the stage, you know, playing playing quartets or something for for the audience. So it it's it's it's great. So every afternoon at Prisma of a weekday, you can come in. And for $5, spend the afternoon with us, see two master classes, two Limelight concerts, Limelight concerts, and and learn so much and enjoy so much and and see everything, you know, up up close. And and I think that's the key.
Andy Rice:The the closer you get to Prisma, I think the more you fall in love with it, you know, from the audience. I don't mean whether you you know, metaphorically. I mean, yeah, you could sit in the front row. You're probably gonna have a really good time. But the closer you get to the action so I'm really excited for you to be standing on the podium because that's about as close as you can get to that orchestra.
Andy Rice:And to to feel that sound come over you, and you're gonna be you're gonna be hooked. The whole experience of being close to the orchestra as an audience member, as a as a donor, as a musician, as a as a a staff person is just such a such a joy. And and I you know, you you say you approach this with the utmost respect. I I do too. This is like I get paid to do this.
Andy Rice:This is amazing, right, to to have this opportunity to be this close to the music and and these people who make it, who are so incredibly talented and have picked this this this art form that that it's not always an easy road, and it you have to love it, I think, to to make a career out of it, and these these people really do. They they put their heart and soul into it, and and it shows. And it's kinda hard not to fall in love with that, really. It's it's really it just every two weeks, you know, summer when we do Prisma, it really affects all of us, and and we, you know, we keep coming back for more, and I I think you will too.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. You know, Andy, well said, and I think that that you can compare it really with a top sport, being a top musician. It is really the discipline is the same, the investment is the same. But what is really so cool about music is that it connects people. This is a form of communications that we have developed over as humanity over a long, long period.
Arthur Arnold:In the in the old days, we couldn't even write, and we would put into song that don't go over that hill because there's the there's the other tribe and they will kill you. Or on the left is the road to the well, but if that's dry then you take a right there and that's all in song to remember. Our capacity for music is way older than for writing in our brains. And this connection it makes between our audience, between the musicians, I mean, they make friendships for life, is so inspiring to see. But also it triggers the support people want to give to a festival like this.
Arthur Arnold:And as a non for profit, we need this support. And I think we are very extremely grateful and lucky that we can do this on this level and keep being able to do it because people choose to donate to this cause. And because now we have this vast experience in providing this kind of education and on this high level, that people trust us with their donations to do this work. And you see it, I told you about this orchestra that we have now in Paul Rippel. The ripple effect is amazing.
Arthur Arnold:It's heartwarming what music can do for a community.
Colin White:So for the musicians that are, you know, maybe stumbled across this somewhere online and are trying to plot their path forward to participating some year, maybe you can talk to for for for a minute just what the steps would be in order to go through the application process and be successful in being able to get to attend this seminar. Maybe you could walk through that process for a minute.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. So students learn about Prisma through their universities or through our advertisements or word-of-mouth. And we have seen over the years that we get more and more students from the big schools like Juilliard, like Eastman, like Vienna, like Amsterdam, where, as I said, people fill in their application form, they send a movie, a film of their playing, and we have certain requirements: they need to play part of a concerto, they need to play solo work, they need to play excerpts of difficult orchestral pieces, so there are standard excerpts that are used for orchestras, by orchestras, to get a job in an orchestra. This is part of process there. So they play excerpts for us and also excerpts of the pieces we are going to play that year.
Arthur Arnold:And then we choose. And then we'll get back to them. Yeah, you're in and you've got a full scholarship or you've a partial scholarship or you've no scholarship, but you can still come. So that's how it works in short. It's the amount of auditions we get and the quality of them, it's quite
Colin White:impressive. Well, congratulations. This is a really big deal. You know, Air Canada is more than proud to participate this year. And I look forward to learning enough to make whatever point it is you need me to make while I am there next week.
Colin White:I'm looking forward to it. I'm always gung ho to go on stage and be made fool of. If everybody's laughing, we can have a good time. Huge, huge respect for your organization and the quality of the musicians that are going to be attending. If we can play some small role in making this experience great thing for them and for the community, it's really exciting for the whole Aircan team.
Colin White:So thanks guys for coming on and giving us a little bit of a taste and an update and some information. We really appreciate it. Was there anything that we haven't covered off that you were hoping to talk about while we're here today?
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. Well, Colin, I would like to appreciate this this thing you said because we are grateful with your support and your your financial support for this program. It means a lot for us. All these these amounts help us to do this program to grow Prisma, to to get to the next level. We are definitely very ambitious and and plan to make you know, to grow on to make this a huge festival.
Arthur Arnold:And that will take a few years, but it is it is growing.
Andy Rice:I think there are some there are definitely some parallels between what you guys both do professionally at such a high level, and I think there's certain tools that you use to make the decisions you make. I wonder if that would be if we have a couple minutes just to unpack that a little bit. You know? I'm thinking of, you know, a musical score, you know, there that that Arthur uses to to bring the notes to life off the page, you know, and and the amount of studying and and looking at those scores and and familiarizing, you know, really just digesting all of that stuff. You know?
Andy Rice:And and so so I know what Arthur reads when he gets up in the morning, and I assume, Collin, you're you're look you're looking out for you're reading things pertaining to your profession. You're looking at the markets and looking at reports and looking at things that and there's there's certain tools that you use that you both use to inform the decisions that you make. But there's also a certain amount of trust and maybe intuition and experience that comes with making good decisions. You can have all the tools in the world, but if you don't know how to use them, you know, you you're not gonna make you're not you're not gonna have a good a good financial outcome, or you're not gonna have a good sounding concert or or, you know, a a musical ensemble that's performing to its highest level. So I I would love to ping pong a couple things back and with you guys to see really, there's I think there's there's a lot in common, you know, between doing something that's fairly high high high stakes sometimes.
Andy Rice:It's it's fairly you know, you're managing other people's experiences as well. Right? You know, Colin, you're you're dealing with clients who trust you, and and Arthur's dealing with audiences who who trust him and who trust Prisma and doing the best for them. And, you know, you have to put a certain amount of of trust in in each other. And and I just think that's really interesting.
Andy Rice:I wonder if there's more because I just have a sort of a bird's eye perspective on what you both do without knowing nearly as much about what both do as you each do. I'm wondering if if there's if there's something there you can share and add and and talk about because I think that would be really interesting for people to to hear and to chew on.
Colin White:Well, I I can kick it off, Arthur, and you can take it where you wanna take it. I would say that anybody I have ever witnessed, a couple of things, anybody that gets to the top of their field and becomes an expert in something has a level of curiosity. They have an interest in how things are, why they are, It's almost insatiable. More curious you are, the more roads you travel down, the more you can learn. Curiosity and thoughtful curiosity learning how the world works and operates around begin to one day you wake up and you have a perspective that is different because you have experienced more and you understand more and then you bring back that perspective and then the final leg or the final part of the journey is can I turn this into a way that I communicate it to people who don't have this perspective?
Colin White:You know? Can I take what I've learned on my journey and curiosities of figuring how things work? Can I take all of that learning and then can I communicate it? So there's there's there's kind of three different for me, you know, rings that people pass through. Arthur, I'd love to hear your thoughts as to whether you think that that translates or that describes the musical journey.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah. That's great analysis. And curiosity, of course, is one of the main ingredients to to even open a score and and start to understand what a composer did and why he did it, if you ever get can find that answer of the why. But it's it's interesting. I of course, we make music for our audiences, but we also make music for ourselves.
Arthur Arnold:We need, we have to. I cannot live without music. I have to do it. In the pandemic, for example, I would go to the vaccination clinic to play cello because I had to make music for people. And it proved there and then that people needed that music equally badly and wouldn't leave the vaccination clinic.
Arthur Arnold:You know, we had to kick them out for the new groups to arrive. So this is a strong need for us as human beings. And I would say we have the audience to play for. But as musicians, we also need to trust as conductors from our orchestra. We have to build this relationship with them, with all these individual musicians that are so well, so incredibly good in what they are doing.
Arthur Arnold:And now you, me as a conductor, have to tell them how to play a certain passage. Because if everybody does it in their own way and they all will do it very well, but it won't be a uniform thing. To work on that balance. It's like your portfolio. You probably don't want to have 20% of one type of stock in the portfolio and, you know, you want to balance it.
Arthur Arnold:As with an orchestra, we always have to balance the sound, the score. How do you not cover certain melodies in the orchestra? Good composers, I'm looking at, writes literally here in front of me is this score of Mahler, and he does such interesting things in the orchestration. So if you want to look at the score as your portfolio, in this case we have five flutes and five oboes, five clarinets, five bassoons, it's huge, eight horns and, five trumpets, four trombones tuba, a big percussion section including timpani and then this whole string section. So all these people, those 84 people on stage, need to be balanced so that the whole product is something that will come to life in the way that you can actually beautifully hear the piece without things being covered, melodies being covered, certain things making, you know, this is and then how do you do the phrasing, how do you do the shaping, how do you time it?
Arthur Arnold:We have so many choices, tempo, but also how to stretch a sentence, a musical sentence. So, I mean, that's balancing. It's a balancing act the whole time, in the moment.
Colin White:Yeah, there's a level of understanding on any complex topic that it goes from being mechanical to being art. You can calculate things to a certain point, but after you finish all the calculations, there's a limitation to that. And then how do you artfully balance things? And that absolutely applies to the financial world. There's a bunch of stuff we can calculate, but the future is unknown.
Colin White:If there is an art form of getting that balance that resonates just properly in a given situation that helps all of the stakeholders. I think when it comes to music, for sure, if you're not making genuine music for yourself, then the audience is gonna struggle to enjoy it. So that understanding that you're satisfying something within yourself in front of other people, and then hitting that note where everybody is enjoying it in their own way from their own perspective. That is all a perspective thing. And that is all about all that time you spent curious about all those different attributes you just spoke of, like your curiosity about all those different tempos and all of those different instruments, all that you accumulated over your lifetime that you can bring together in a room in a cohesive way and then deliver on that big stage all those little pieces.
Colin White:But I cannot undersell how curious I have been over my lifetime and the people that I have met who I have got the most respect for, how curious they have been their whole life and how curious they remain because it is all of those little learnings along the way that allow you perspective to get on the big stage and pull it all together in a way that satisfies all of the stakeholders that are present for something like that.
Arthur Arnold:Yes, and then there's another thing I think which will account for both of us is in the moment, what happens in the moment? You have to react, you have to deal with it. Like a company might go bankrupt or a company might make weird decisions or fire a CEO or whatever and there's results in the financial market. And we have, during a concert, things will happen. It's live music.
Arthur Arnold:If somebody will make a mistake or somebody will the instrument won't respond, how do you deal with it? What do you do? In the moment react so that the stuff doesn't fall apart. And you have to be quick and on the ball and that's probably exactly the same thing for you. How do you deal with surprise?
Colin White:Well, there is no military expression being from Halifax, which is a naval town. Has a plan until they get punched in the mouth or everybody has a plan until you encounter the enemy. And, you know, when you walk on stage, you have a plan right up until something doesn't work, and now you need a new plan. So, you know, again, being able to adapt to all those various things is is a very it's a high level skill that develops over time. I suspect you probably have stood in front of many rooms where things didn't go exactly according to plan that you learned from.
Colin White:So when something doesn't go to plan now, you probably have more of a depth of experience on how to bring it back or how to save the day, if you will.
Arthur Arnold:Yeah, of course. Interesting question, Anif, that you put there.
Andy Rice:I thought it would be interesting for you guys to answer, that's why I wanted to bring it to you together. I thought it was fascinating to hear those perspectives come together on something like that for sure. Thanks for diving into that for me, guys.
Arthur Arnold:Great.
Colin White:I just want to make sure we manage expectations. This conversation in no way, shape or form is going to improve my performance on the eighteenth. This is completely not going to help me, so I'm going to flounder on stage appropriately in a way hopefully that is found to be instructive and inspiring for the young conductors in the room. Big finish to record here. Thank you guys for coming out.
Colin White:It's wonderful. Can't wait to take part and see this wonderful event close-up and encourage anybody who's listening to either apply to try to get on stage next year or if you're close enough to Powell River, come on out and have a look because it's going to be a spectacle to behold.
Kathryn Toope:Have you ever wondered why your financial advisor is making a recommendation? In an industry where conflicts of interest are everywhere, it's important to understand how they affect you. For more info, contact us at Verican. You can find us at annoyingthecompetition.com. For more information on the subject of today's podcast or any other financial topic, please visit us online at verecan.com.
Kathryn Toope:That's verecan.com. There's plenty of information there or you can reach out to someone on the team. Thanks for listening. Please note, the information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only. It is not intended as financial investment, legal tax, accounting, or other professional advice.
Kathryn Toope:Our discussions are not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to make any specific investments. Any decisions, based on information contained in this podcast, are the sole responsibility of the listener. We strongly advise consulting with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Listeners should be aware that investing involves risks and that past performance is not indicative of future results. Barenaked Money is produced by Verecan Capital Management Inc, a licensed portfolio management company in Canada.
Kathryn Toope:We operate under the regulatory framework established by the provincial securities commissions in the provinces within which we operate. The views expressed in the podcast are our own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any regulatory authority. Remember, at Verecan Capital Management Inc, we focus on aligning our goals with yours, prioritizing integrity and transparency. For more information about us and our services, please visit our website. Thank you for listening, and let's continue to challenge the norms of the financial services industry together.