The Caledon Music Festival returns in 2025 from August 2 to 31, bringing some of Canada’s top classical music talent to the pastoral locale. The theme this year is “Inside Stories” — an exploration of storytelling through music.
How does music tell stories, and take its audience to a different place and mindset? That idea is explored through a variety of works, including both traditional and beloved works of the classical canon and some of its brightest hidden gems.
We spoke to Artistic Director Terry Lim about this year’s lineup.
Festival at a Glance
August 2: Davis Family Farm — Song and Dance
Surrounded by the gorgeous blooms of a sunflower farm on a beautiful summer evening, audience members will be able to sip beverages as they enjoy the music. There will even be a crescent moon after the glory of the sunset.
Soprano Emily Vondrejsova performs a variety of songs from the jazzy style of Edith Piaf’s La Vie en rose to pop music, jazz classics and more. The program also includes Arvo Part’s minimalist Fratres for cello and piano, and two tangos by Piazzolla: Adios Nonino for solo piano, and The Four Seasons. The works will be performed by Festival Artists Joonghun Cho (piano), Terry Lim (flute), and Amahl Arulanandam (cello).
August 17: Alton Mill Arts Centre — Youthful Passions (Side-by-Side)
During the Festival, Lim and the Festival Artists work with young artists who are largely recommended by the Festival Artists. They’re paired up to learn from a working professional.
The highlight of the Side-by-Side experience is this concert, where their collective efforts are showcased. Festival Artists Luri Lee (violin), Christina Choi (violin), Carolyn Blackwell (viola), and Drew Comstock (cello) will be on stage with four young artists.
The repertoire will include Mendelssohn’s Octet, and Bach’s Double Concerto for two violins in D minor, along with a selection of vocal repertoire from Handel, Mozart, Bellini, and Dvorak performed by Emily Vondrejsova, who is a native of nearby Erin, Ontario.
August 23: Westminster United Church — A Journey into Cabaret and Broadway
Violinist Luri Lee, cellist Peter Eom and pianist Joonghun Cho perform works revolving around cabaret and Broadway. That includes American composer Paul Schoenfeld’s Café Music Music for violin, cello and piano, a trio he developed performing cabaret music with friends at a café in Minneapolis. Also on the bill is a series of Gershwin pieces, including the Porgy & Bess Fantasy for violin and piano along some solo piano works, and Prutsman’s chamber work Four Broadway Showtunes for cello and piano.
August 31: Alton Mill Arts Centre — The Grand Finale
The concert closes with a positive note, and a program centred around Bach’s iconic Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, one of the most beloved works of all time. Lim has paired the Concerto with the Haydn-Mozart Toy Symphony, along with Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D Major, featuring flutist Sarah Moon, and Vaughan William’s The Lark Ascending. The latter will be performed by Kai Rousseau on violin, the Young Festival Artist. The other Festival Artists performing will include Sarah Kim, violin; Douglas Kwon, violin; Laurence Schaufele, viola; Daniel Hamin Go, cello, and Terry Lim on flute.
Terry Lim: The Interview
In programming the season, Lim says that he establishes the theme first, and then assembles repertoire that works into it — some thematic, others without an obvious backstory. The musicians are handpicked.
There’s a process while he’s creating the programs. “Let’s put together Mendelssohn’s octet,” he begins. Mendelssohn wrote the piece while he was in his teens, and with the details, he creates a story to weave around the music.
It’ll be part of the Side-by-Side Concert, which features teenage musicians.
“I just wanted to develop our programs with young artists,” he says. “It’s just worked out well,” he says of the initiative. “They get a chance to play some solos,” he adds of the young artists.
The educational side of the festival is something Lim would like to expand upon — depending on the funding situation, which, as he notes, is ever changing.
Along with the young artists of the Side-by-Side program, Young Festival Artist Kai Rousseau performs in the festival finale. Local artist Kai Rousseau, who hails from Belfountain, is studying towards a Master’s degree in music at the University of Toronto. “It gives him a chance to play with high level professionals,” Lim notes.
“That’s something that I want to grow.”
The Music
The music was chosen by Lim together with the Festival Musicians.
“Each musician had stories behind the works they wanted to perform,” he says. “I’m pretty much happy with all the concerts.”
The artists will talk a little about the repertoire they will perform, and why they chose the specific works.
“Each year, I try to do something different,” he says. “The fun part is programming and putting things together.”
He says he tries to strike a balance between appealing to the out of town and local audiences, some of whom may not be so familiar with classical music at all. “I try to program it so that they can enjoy it all the way to the end.”
He’s guided by comments from festival goers of previous years, who left helpful suggestions. As with every complex endeavour, putting a music festival together has a learning curve.
Some details come from direct experience.
“Last year, when we did the sunflower farm for the first time, I had no idea about the mosquitoes,” laughs Lim, who lives in downtown Toronto. “I was playing flute, and it kept hitting my head.”
The Festival Experience
“It’s been really exciting to meet people out there,” Lim says. He’s spent a lot of time getting to know the area and its residents. It’s an ongoing process. “I take their feedback very seriously.”
He’s also become familiar with the region’s venues in order to choose the right one for each concert.
“I pick certain venues,” Lim says. That includes the Davis Farm, the Alton Mills Arts Centre, and Westminster United Church in Orangeville. “Toronto people don’t know about [them],” he says. “I think about atmosphere. I pick out particular spots.”
In the case of the Davis farm, the festival’s relationship goes beyond that of a simple venue. The Davis family is sponsoring the event, and in return, Lim will donate 10% of the ticket sales to the Celiac Foundation, in honour of one of the family members who lives with the disease.
“It’s a beautiful spot.”
At the Alton Mills Arts Centre, they’ll be performing in an open space with a permanent roof.
“It somehow makes it almost like a church inside.,” he says. “[There are] weirdly good acoustics out there.”
- Find tickets and passes, and more concert details, [HERE].
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