Past Events

University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra - Concerto Marathon
Featuring winners of the UTSO Concerto Competition

Legendary French-Canadian roots band, La Bottine Souriante, first appeared on the Québec music scene in 1976 and has released 13 albums, four of which are certified Gold and three Platinum.

Sean Jones, Juno Award winner, creator of the “WestJet Boarding Sessions” and star of the acclaimed summer series “Soul In The City” at the Historic Casa Loma, alongside his 10-piece band The Righteous Echo, are set to deliver the holiday celebration of the year.

The Elora Singers’ annual holiday event!

Perlman and Friends is a very special evening that will mark a once-in-a-lifetime presentation featuring some of the brightest classical music stars: Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Juilliard String Quartet.

The Elora Singers’ annual holiday event!

Experience the humanity and goodwill of Handel’s beloved choral masterpiece.

Let’s get festive! Our December concert combines holiday favourites by Canadian composers with opportunities for you to stretch your lungs and join in the singing!

Composed in a mere three weeks, Messiah has endured for over 275 years. Rejoice greatly as the TSO presents its cherished perennial performances of Handel’s powerful and devotional tour de force.

Top Canadian songwriters come together with host Blair Packham to perform their music and tell us about the inspiration, the songwriting process, and the stories behind the songs in the popular SongBird North series.

“Punch Brothers take bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage, drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart.” (Washington Post) Band members Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass), released their latest album, Hell on Church Street, in January 2022.

Mozart’s genius burns with brooding intensity in the legendary Requiem that was to become his own funeral music. Instantly recognizable thanks to its use in the multi-Academy-Award-winning film Amadeus, to experience it live is to feel its brilliance.

Mozart’s genius burns with brooding intensity in the legendary Requiem that was to become his own funeral music. Instantly recognizable thanks to its use in the multi-Academy-Award-winning film Amadeus, to experience it live is to feel its brilliance.

Hailed as “one of the greatest violinists in the world” by Classic FM, Grammy Award-winning violinist, violist, and conductor Maxim Vengerov began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels, including Melodia, Teldec, and EMI.

Award-winning British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason became a household name after his performance at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, and there’s no better spotlight for his incredible talents than Elgar’s poignant concerto, one of the most well-known and beloved in the repertoire.

Meditation honouring a grandmother, Mozart’s ‘Dissonant’ quartet, and a modern romance for bassoon and marimba

Montreal-born Jean-Michel Blais has been a celebrated figure in the post-classical piano world since the release of his critically acclaimed debut album II in 2016. His compositions have earned him a Libera Award, two Polaris prize nominations, a #1 on the Billboard Classical chart and a Time magazine top 10 album of the year.

New song cycle by Liza Balkan and Lembit Beecher features GGS students and alumni. Flutist Susan Hoeppner is joined by percussionist Beverley Johnston to perform Christos Hatzis’s Arctic Dreams for flute, vibraphone, and electronics, along with the world premiere of a piece called Ice Woman by Alice Ho.

Iconic jazz pianist, educator, and HIV/AIDS activist Fred Hersch and his trio are joined by RCM Quartet-in-Residence, Dior Quartet, to perform new works from Hersch’s new album, Breath by Breath. Toronto-based trumpeter Andrew McAnsh performs Music of The Great Lakes: A Songbook for The Canadian Indigenous, a five-part suite.

A spectacular night of new Canadian works! Three pieces by Métis composer Ian Cusson based on paintings of Hieronymus Bosch played by Trio Arkel, Duo Concertante, and Charles Hamann alongside the world premiere of an RCM commission by Stewart Goodyear for piano and jazz musicians Michael Occhipinti (guitar), Joy Lapps-Lewis (steel pan), Roberto Occhipinti (bass), and Larnell Lewis (drums).

With Fragments, cellist Alisa Weilerstein creates a space for performer, composer, and listener that is at once physically intimate and philosophically expansive.

Wind Ensemble

After Shostakovich’s music was publicly denounced for failing to conform to the Soviet ideal, his Fifth Symphony was a work on which his life depended—literally.

Curated and conducted by Brian Current, the Conservatory’s own Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble performs an immersive afterhours celebration of the mysteries of the night, including Bekah Simms’ Foreverdark and R. Murray Schafer’s iconic Hymn to Night. Experience these inspiring works bathed in a candlelit listening wonderland.

A dramatic song cycle composed by Matthew Ricketts, with libretto by Mark Campbell, starring tenor Karim Sulayman. Unruly Sun is inspired by the life of filmmaker and queer activist Derek Jarman and his popular memoir, Modern Nature.

Canada’s blues music all-star concert and annual awards event features performances by some of the hottest blues musicians from across the country and an after-party with the musicians.

For the first time in over 100 years, the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Toronto! This concert marks the finale of their North American tour - and Maestro Riccardo Muti's final tour as Music Director and conductor.

For the first time in over 100 years, the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Toronto! This concert marks the finale of their North American tour - and Maestro Riccardo Muti's final tour as Music Director and conductor.

Imagine…
Wind Symphony
Pratik Gandhi, conductor

University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Uri Mayer, conductor
MacMillan Theatre

The iconic Canadian story The Hockey Sweater is brought to life through the music of Abigail Richardson-Schulte in this TSO co-commissioned work. Enjoy a charming winter tale, narrated by author Roch Carrier, that will appeal to all budding hockey fans

Bach Collegium Japan was founded by Masaaki Suzuki, its inspirational Music Director. Comprised of both Baroque orchestra and chorus, the ensemble has won a German Record Critics’ Award, a BBC Music Magazine Award, and the Choral category of the 2017 Gramophone Awards.

“For never was a story of more woe…” No music captures the passion, drama, and emotional depth of Shakespeare’s tale more fully than Prokofiev’s spectacular ballet score compiled by Gustavo Gimeno, a thrilling showcase for the TSO’s virtuosity.

Earl Lee is a renowned KoreanCanadian cellist and conductor, currently Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony.

“There is probably no more inspirational musician working today” says Gramophone about violinist Rachel Podger, whose sparkling Tafelmusik debut more than a decade ago left a lasting impression on our musicians and audiences alike.

In a deeply emotional program, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins perform a personal and powerful song cycle—composed by Jake Heggie based on original poetry by Margaret Atwood—that conveys the tragedy of lives needlessly lost.

Rhapsody in Blue is the focal point in this special gala concert of big band jazz by composers such as Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole, Tommy Dorsey, and more.

Anton Nel is “an uncommonly elegant pianist” (The New York Times). “The South African-born and internationally acclaimed pianist … a consummate performer with an ear for musical detail in a recital which can best be described as a study in refined artistic elegance.”

Anton Bruckner – Symphony #4 Rafael Luz Conductor

Chamber Choir, MacMillan Singers, Soprano-Alto Chorus, Tenor-Bass Choir Thomas Burton, Dr. Elaine Choi, Dr. Lori-Anne Dolloff, Kathy Haddadkar, and Dr. Jamie Hillman, conductors Eunseong Cho and Joy Lee, collaborative pianists

​An afternoon of iconic anthems of struggle and revolution through history, commissioned by and for The King’s Singers, who have become one of the most frequent guests in Koerner Hall’s 12 seasons.

Almost exactly 100 years after its very first concert, the TSO returns to its original home to perform a piece from that same program—Tchaikovsky’s passionate Fifth Symphony—led by Gustavo Gimeno.

In our first Spring 2023 Music at Met performance, we will be partnering with the singers and instrumentalists of the Trinity Bach Project to present Bach’s Cantata 23 and motet Singet dem Herren, BWV 225, as well as Brahms’ Geistliches Lied and other masterworks.

Germany’s stellar BRuCH ensemble visits Toronto’s beautiful Harbourfront Theatre with an immersive and dreamlike program of works commissioned for their unique instrumentation, in dialogue with Ravel’s classic Dreams of Madagascar.

Renowned French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie performs Mozart’s glorious Piano Concerto No. 23, an awe-inspiring display of Mozartean brilliance written amid an astounding stretch in which masterpiece after masterpiece poured forth as if fully formed.

With “a voice hued like polished teak ... arrestingly vulnerable" (The New York Times), Emily D'Angelo's critically acclaimed debut album, energeia, won Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist) at the 2022 Juno Awards.

Grammy Award nominated vocalist Somi’s album, Zenzile

"For me, music begins where words cease..." declared Sibelius.

We are thrilled to present a programme of music inspired by the exciting dances of this continent, and to share the stage with Denis Plante (originally scheduled to perform with Orchestra Toronto in 2020).

Kerem Hasan leads the Orchestra in Mozart’s graceful and high-spirited “Haffner” Symphony.