During those dog days of summer, the Toronto Concert Orchestra is offering a concert series with a sense of fun that any music lover will enjoy. Iconic cultural figures, stories, and familiar songs and music create an intimate and inclusive atmosphere.
From July 21 to August 25, 2026, Symphony in the City concerts take place at the Palais Royale with its gorgeous views of Lake Ontario. Each of the concerts revolve around a specific theme, and audience members are invited to become part of the show by dressing up for the occasion.
Orchestral music can be artistically rich and accessible — that’s the premise. It’s the perfect city summer outing.
LV talked to Artistic Director Sharon Lee and Co-Artistic Director Marcus Scholtes about the concert series.
First, here’s a look at what you can expect.
Toronto Concert Orchestra: Summer In The City At A Glance
Along with standard tickets, upgrades are available, including reserved high top tables, and access to the VIP lounge, which offers gourmet charcuterie to nibble on, a private bar, and waterfront sunset views.
Elton Rohn (July 21, 2026)
Elton Rohn, aka Ron Camilleri, and his band have headlined more than 400 theatre and festival shows across North America, and in Barbados. The band is led by JUNO Award winning musician Len Solomon, and performs in a variety of configurations.
For the TCO event, they’ll be backed by an orchestra to add lush textures to the iconic hits of Elton John, including Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer, Your Song, and many more. Rohn is known for his distinctive vocals and virtuosic piano performance, along with a high energy stage persona that does justice to the iconic artist.
Dress up Elton-style in sequins, feathers, and glitter.
Pandora’s Piaf (July 28, 2026)
The enduring appeal of Édith Piaf and her music come to life with the ambience of a Parisian cabaret at this event. Pandora Topp, a multidisciplinary artist and educator, sings Piaf’s iconic hits from La Vie en Rose to Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
Topp has extensive stage experience in theatre, and performing as a singer, as well as on screen on TV and in film for almost three decades. As a singer, she has toured with a variety of ensembles, and she’s been singing her homage to Piaf since 1998.
Dress up in French chic style from any era.
We Care About Opera (August 11, 2026)
Soprano Natalya Gennadi and tenor Romulo Delgado get together with TCO and NYC-based guest conductor Mark Shapiro for an evening of opera highlights. Passion and true love, a call to drink and be merry, and more are on the menu as the Palais Royale fills with song and glorious music.
The program includes much loved arias and songs such as Puccini’s O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi and Un bel dì, vedremo from Madama Butterfly, Wagner’s Dich, teure Halle from Tannhäuser, and Bizet’s La fleur que tu m’avais jetée from Carmen, along with orchestral works such as Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture, Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus Overture, and Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra Overture.
Dress up in black tie formal wear for this elegant evening of opera.
Have I Ever Told You You’re My Hero (August 18, 2026)
Violin soloist Lucas Ju joins TCO in this celebration of heroes in music. The program includes a range of styles and genres, from David Bowie’s Heroes and the Bette Midler hit Wind Beneath My Wings to Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Sibelius’ Finlandia.
Lucas Ju will be featured in the first movement of Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No 3, and the evening also includes the world premiere of Toronto composer Liza McLellan‘s Zodiac Suite.
Dress up as your own personal hero, whoever that may be.
007: Symphony Royale (August 25, 2026)
The hit songs and dramatic orchestral scores combine in this program that celebrates the glamour and seductive charm of James Bond. The music is thrilling and cinematic, and TCO mixes in a few classics such as movements from Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, Chopin’s Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2, and Puccini’s E lucevan le stelle from Tosca to spice up the musical mix.
Dress up in your favourite dinner jacket or gown for this event.
Artistic Director Sharon Lee, and Co-Artistic Director Marcus Scholtes: The Interview
Programming such a mixture of music and artists takes time and planning.
“Yes,” says Lee, “we’ve already started for the next summer. It takes over a year.”
“And then even by September and October, we’re preparing the promotional materials,” adds Scholtes.
Most of the guest artists are local, including Elton Rohn, who tours the world from his Toronto home base. Pandora Topp is based in Sudbury. “Everybody’s local, everybody’s Canadian,” Lee says.
There is one exception. “We have a conductor who’s coming in from New York.” Mark Shapiro is a versatile conductor who’s worked with a diverse repertoire, and orchestras, opera, and choruses. He’s won six ASCAP Awards leading three different ensembles, and will be leading the evening of opera.
The Shows
It begins with Elton Rohn’s tribute show. Elton John was named the 15th laureate of the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize earlier this year. His music has become so popular it’s easy to forget his immense musical gifts.
“Edton John’s music, of course, people love it because it’s happy music,” Sharon says. “But it takes a lot of skill to make happy music. None of them are cookie cutter music happy,” she adds. “Some of his melodies are haunting. He’s a fantastic writer and singer.”
“When you have the orchestra backing, it’s the icing on the cake,” says Scholte. “Especially when you add an orchestra to a pop singer, it adds so much texture to the songs.”
Lee points out that many of John’s original songs include string sections and other orchestral instruments. “People are used to that sound, and they don’t even know they are used to that sound.”
It’s part of the music mix that TCO has made part of their overall sound.
“I love doing that,” Sharon says. “I will live by the motto that good music is good music, and I don’t think we need to put anything in a box.”
She recalls TCO’s late founder Kerry Stratton and his thoughts on offering audiences a wide variety of music. “Things that they want to hear, things that they need to hear, and things that they ought to hear,” she paraphrases. “You have to sometimes feed your audience vitamins and they don’t even know it’s vitamins,” she adds.
“That’s something we’re aiming to do with our programming, is to make it diverse,” Lee says. It creates a repertoire that has broad appeal. “If you’re a classical listener, there is something her for you,” she says. “Also to slightly push your envelope.”
She mentions the orchestral versions of David Bowie’s Heroes and Better Midler’s hit Wind Beneath My Wings, which appeals to lovers of pop music who may be introduced to the sound for the first time in a live setting. “That emotion exists absolutely outside classical music. I think it’s a great way of bringing them in and letting them hear the symphonic sound.”
“Just having that variety changes it up and keeps the concert exciting and fresh,” Marcus adds.
The Piaf tribute comes next. Pandora Topp is a long time collaborator with TCO. She was invited to audition for then artistic director Kerry Stratton years ago. “She auditioned for Kerry and completely blew everyone away,” Lee recalls. “She’s been working with us I think every year. Pandora’s been a friend of the orchestra for a very long time.”
As Lee explains, it’s about her approach to the music. “She doesn’t sing them as tributes or covers.” She notes her theatrical background. “She really gets into the songs, she channels the music. It’s very hard to look away. She’s magnetic.”
Pandora tells the stories of what went into Piaf’s songs, including the major composers she partnered with. “Pandora shares the stories behind them. She weaves the real life stories into [the performance]. It’s very powerful.”
“It’s a very exciting program,” Scholtes says.
Opera Night
Sharon notes that TCO has worked with both Natalya Gennadi and Romulo Delgado on previous occasions. “These are two singers that we absolutely love working with us,” she says. Lee says the two don’t often work together, however, and last did so with TCO in 2021. “We just loved how their voices worked together.”
The We Care About Opera concert will feature both artists, together and individually. “They have individual arias, and then then come together for duets,” Marcus explains. He points out that the orchestra will also get a share of the spotlight in playing the overtures.
Sharon studied with conductor Mark Shapiro at Juilliard. She recalls commuting from Toronto for a weekly Wednesday night class for a whole semester.
“We have to give all the credit to the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council,” she says. The organizations helped to fund the endeavour. In return, he’s been invited to conduct TCO on more than one occasion. “The last time we has was here was two summers ago.”
TCO will be taking advantage of Shapiro’s expertise while he’s here. “We’re doing a mini residency with Mark,” Lee explains. “He’s also doing a conducting workshop.” TCP has selected a group of young emerging and midcareer conductors to benefit from the experience. “This is an environment where Mark really shines,” she says.
As Sharon points out, even in conducting school, students don’t get much time at the podium. “The actual hours of podium time the students get is not that many. [They’ll] have three action packed days where the participants walk away with 90 minutes of podium time.”
Scholtes recalls attending two summer intensives of six days each at Juilliard learning from Shapiro. He says it was instructive not only when Shapiro focused on his own work, but also in observing him working with the other students. “Seeing Shapiro working with them, there’s so much you can learn. It’s a really special three days we have coming up.”
Everyday Heroes
Have I Ever Told You You’re My Hero is a newer addition to the Summer in the City series. “This is the most freshly programmed concert out of all of them,” Lee says. “We had this moment where Marcus and I were watching a Western on TV.”
They made the connection to TCO. “The last piece that was written for Kerry was All My Heroes Were Cowboys,” Sharon says. Scottish-born, Canadian-based composer Bobby Harriot was a close associate of TCO. “It was a Western medley.”
From there, the idea grew to incorporate heroes of all kinds. “This program is a dedication to all the small and large heroes in our lives. I think this is what we need to hear, especially at this time in our lives,” Lee adds. “This is for the bakers who stay open during times of war, the nurses who go above and beyond.”
She notes that Liza McLellan was inspired to compose her Zodiac Suite by the people in her life who’d made an impact on her. “That is exactly what we are hoping to achieve with this concert. The heroes who keep life going.”
Audience Participation
Dressing up with the concerts has become a popular feature of each event. “The dress up is so fun,” Sharon says. “We don’t have a huge budget. We are a smaller organization.”
Planning the events, the focus was on how to create a great experience for their audience within those constraints. “How can we make these experiences very immersive? How do we make the audience really feel like they’re part of the story? That’s how we came up with dressing up.”
She says that audience members sometimes go to elaborate lengths to create just the right look. “They really embraced it. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m hoping we will get some superheroes for the Heroes concert.”
The venue adds to the appeal as well. “We have this huge patio, you don’t even feel like you’re in the city,” Marcus says. “It really is a complete night out.”
“We were looking for something that has 400 to 600 [seats],” Lee recalls. “We love that Palais Royale has this great musical history.” It was a renowned jazz club decades ago.
“And also that it felt really intimate, but we can still get in about 400 people before it starts to feel really crowded,” she adds. “It’s special. This is really intimate,” she continues.
“We become family. It’s created a nice environment where you’re really right up and close with the audience.”
The Details
Toronto Concert Orchestra is a professional entertainment orchestra that was founded by the late Kerry Stratton in 2008. Including Symphony in the City, TCO performs 45 concerts each year, and tours Southern Ontario to bring large scale music to smaller communities.
- Find tickets and show details for Symphony in the City [HERE].
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