This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between Jan. 15 and Jan. 21, 2024. For more of what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Steven Banks/Peter Oundjian

Wednesday Jan. 17 at 8 p.m., Saturday Jan. 20 at 8 p.m., Sunday Jan. 21 at 3 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall (Sunday at George Weston Recital Hall). $48+

The TSO welcomes saxophonist Steven Banks — and welcomes back conductor emeritus Peter Oundjian — in a program featuring the Canadian premiere of John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s underrated Symphony No. 3. Read our interview with Steven Banks here. The starter is a new piece by TSO NextGen Composer Katerina Gimon. Info here.

Alliance française/Alliance String Quartet

Friday Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. Alliance française (24 Spadina Rd.). $18

A foursome led by Mayumi Seiler on first violin offers a program of Ravel, Beethoven (Op. 18 No. 6) and the Vancouver composer Stefan Hintersteininger. All by candlelight, no less. Read our Preview here. Info here.

RCM/Fazil Say and Friends

Friday Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. Koerner Hall. $21

The outspoken Turkish pianist performs his own music with mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender, Lara and Scott St. John (violins), Barry Shiffman (viola) and Winona Zelenka (cello). This is the opening of the Conservatory’s 21C Music Festival. Info here.

RCM/Lara St. John

Saturday Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. Mazzoleni Concert Hall. $21

Women composers — plus J.S. Bach — are the subject as the New York-based Canadian violinist gives a solo recital of more than a dozen works in Mazzoleni Concert Hall. Seven are Canadian premieres. Read our interview with Lara here. Info here.

RCM/Bridget Kibbey/Calidore String Quartet/ Mervon Mehta

Sunday at 3 p.m. Koerner Hall. $21

The American harpist is the star of a program mixing solo transcriptions (Bach, Debussy, Fauré, Albéniz) with contemporary works involving string quartet (Jessie Montgomery and Sebastian Currier) and André Caplet’s Conte fantastique (1921-22), a piece based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death – which our RCM friend Mervon Mehta will narrate. Read our interview with composer Sebastian Currier here. Info 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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