The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra aims to mark the holidays with a celebratory program that brings the spirit of New Year’s Eve to the middle of December. Their concert New Year’s Eve! takes place on December 13, and features 14 year old Wachiyo Cho, the winner of the 2025 North York Music Festival Concerto Competition as a soloist.
“Holiday-ish — we’ll call it holiday adjacent,” says CSBO Music Director Martin MacDonald.
“Every year, we try to do something that’s seasonal […] but we still have meaty repertoire for the orchestra to play.”
Theme: New Year’s Eve
The program includes the kind of music that’s typical for a New Year’s Eve/Day concert. The list includes:
- Strauss, Jr.: Fledermaus: Overture
- Godfrey Ridout: Frivolités Canadiennes (1973)
- Strauss, Jr.: Thunder and Lightning Polka, Op. 324
- Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22
- Verdi: Nabucco: Overture
- Lehar: Gold and Silver Waltz, Op. 79
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Polonaise from Christmas Eve Suite
- Bizet: L’Arlésienne: Suite No. 2
- Strauss, Sr.: Radetzky March, Op. 228
“We couldn’t do it without the Strausses,” MacDonald says.
“Die Fledermaus is a classic New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day [piece],” he says. “It’s sort of a mix of the two. Come celebrate New Year’s Eve on December 13, which is the opposite of 31,” he laughs.
Incorporating polkas and waltzes, it’s a typical Viennese-style holiday program in many respects. The Overture to Nabucco includes a reference to opera, another European New Year tradition.
“We’ve been doing these holiday-ish programs every year now. We just thought we’d change it up this year.”
Outside the holiday theme, Wachiyo Cho will perform the first two movements from Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2. As MacDonald points out, the work has become a standard in the concerto repertoire for violinists.
“It’s very tuneful and romantic — a big, flashy violin concerto.”
Wachiyo Cho began studying the violin before moving to Canada. She currently studies at the Taylor Academy at The Royal Conservatory of Music on a scholarship with Dr. Timothy Ying. Wachiyo has won several awards, including the first prize in the North York Music Festival’s Concerto Competition, which garnered her the performance with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra. She has served as the concertmaster of the Junior Chamber Orchestra, and is dedicated to using music as community service. She performs each year at nursing homes each year, and in 2024, took part in the Violins of Hope exhibition.
Wachiyo Cho plays the 3rd movement of the Bruch G Minor Violin Concerto:
Christmas itself isn’t ignored in the program. MacDonald notes that Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite does include a nod to the Christmas season, incorporating the traditional Provençal carol March of the Kings in the last movement. “The Lehar Gold & Silver Waltz sounds quite Christmassy,” he adds. In addition, Rimsky Korsakoff’s Polonaise comes from his Christmas Eve Suite.
Canadian Content
“The fun one from me is the Godfrey Ridout,” Martin says. “He’s from the old guard of Canadian composers.”
Ridout’s Frivolités Canadiennes is based on melodies by Joseph Vézina, an older conductor, composer, organist and music professor (1849 – 1924) who lived in Québec City.
Godfrey Ridout (1918 – 1984) was a composer, teacher, writer, and conductor who was born in Toronto. He studied organ and counterpoint at the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Charles Peaker. He also studied conducting (with Ettore Mazzoleni), and piano (with Weldon Kilburn). He received a scholarship for his piece Ballade for Viola and Strings in 1938, which allowed him to continue studying. The Ballade won him recognition early in his career, and was performed in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain.
He began teaching at TCM in 1940, and later at the University of Toronto in 1948, where continued teaching until his retirement in 1982 as professor emeritus.
“The last movement is a march, a waltz, and a presto,” MacDonald describes. “It gives the musicians a bit of a workout,” he adds. “It’s very tonal in the Viennese style. It’s a very unknown piece. It doesn’t get much play.”
The Concert
“Radetzky March is the encore,” MacDonald finishes.
Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra’s NEW YEAR’S EVE! concert takes place December 13 at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto.
- Find concert details and tickets [HERE].
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