This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6, 2022. For more details on what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.

Elijah/Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

Wednesday Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall. $40+ (30 and under $25)

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir revives its namesake’s grand and once-popular oratorio, with Russell Braun in the title role and backup by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Jean-Sébastien Vallée conducts. More information and tickets here.

Corcoran Concerto Competition/Royal Conservatory of Music

Wednesday Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. Koerner Hall. Free.

The final three of 40 original candidates play a concerto (with piano) in the hopes of winning prize money and a gig next season with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. Open to instrumentalists and vocalists, so the talent net is cast wide. More information and tickets here.

Jonathan Oldengarm/Organ Recital/MET

Thursday Nov. 3 at noon. Metropolitan United Church. Free.

The newly-appointed minister of music at Metropolitan United inaugurates a free noontime organ recital series on the church’s formidable Casavant. Repertoire comprises works by his predecessors in the post. Hear it online here, program information here.

Karen Donnelly and Andrew McCandless/Trumpet Duo

Thursday Nov. 3 at 12:10 p.m. Walter Hall. Free.

The principal trumpets of the TSO and NACO get together for what should be a fun session in Walter Hall. Baroque selections include movements from Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets and Petronio Franceschini’s Sonata for Two Trumpets; among the more recent pieces are Verne Reynolds’s Calls and Echoes and Britten’s Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury (with an assisting trumpeter playing third). Schedule & livestream link here.

Venus and Adonis/Royal Conservatory of Music

Friday Nov. 4 at 7:30 (repeats Nov. 5 at 7:30). Mazzoleni Concert Hall. $20+

John Blow’s through-composed masque of 1683 (or thereabouts) is the earliest known English opera. Peter Tiefenbach leads a Glenn Gould School cast of allegorical and pastoral types and a Baroque orchestra of 10. More information and tickets here.

Fazil Say/Royal Conservatory of Music

Sunday Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. Koerner Hall. $45+

The high-profile Turkish pianist plays Couperin, Mozart (Sonata K. 331), Debussy (Suite bergamesque) and three of his own works, including Black Earth, which evokes Turkish tradition with plucked piano strings. More information and tickets here.

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Arthur Kaptainis

Arthur Kaptainis was classical music critic of the Montreal Gazette from 1986 to 2022 and wrote for the National Post from 2010 to 2016. His articles appear in Classical Voice North America and Gramophone as well as Ludwig Van. Arthur holds an MA in musicology from the University of Toronto. He is president of the Music Critics Association of North America.

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