{"id":125136,"date":"2026-06-15T10:31:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=125136"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:31:03","slug":"critics-picks-classical-music-events-absolutely-need-see-week-june-15-june-21-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/06\/15\/critics-picks-classical-music-events-absolutely-need-see-week-june-15-june-21-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"CRITIC\u2019S PICKS | Classical Music Events You Absolutely Need To See This Week: June 15 \u2013 June 21 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R
L-R (clockwise): Soprano Julie Lumsden (Photo courtesy of the artist); 10 Days in a Madhouse creative featuring soprano Mireille Asselin (Photo: \u00a9 Dahlia Katz); The Philip Glass Ensemble (Photo courtesy of PGE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between June 15 and 21, 2026. For more of what\u2019s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Luminato Festival\/Tapestry Opera\/Canadian Opera Company: 10 Days in a Madhouse<\/h3>\n

Tuesday, June 16, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, June 18, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 20, 3:30 p.m., Sunday, June 21 1:30 p.m.
\nSt. Lawrence Centre for the Arts \u2014 Bluma Appel Theatre, $69+<\/p>\n

Ah, Luminato. This super-chill cross-discipline summer festival always brings a few provocative things. This new opera project, a collaboration of Tapestry and Opera Philadelphia, treads in the long subject of mad women. As a child, I wondered why Salem had so many witches, and no-one really could explain. As I learned more, read more, and paid attention a little more to the world we live in, I realized that being labeled \u2018crazy woman\u2019 usually meant something else \u2014 including strong-willed, non-passive, curious and rights-seeking. Journalist Nellie Bly\u2019s adventure into the infamous Blackwell\u2019s Asylum in New York City in 1887, a place also described as a \u2018penitentiary, institution for people with disability or in need of welfare\u2019, covers many feminist issues as well as socioeconomical, and human right issues of women, the sick, immigrants, and the poor. With continuous budget cuts in long term social and health care everywhere in the world, and the never ending warmongering by the patriarchy, seeing this subject cast in new light by Ren\u00e9 Orth with libretto by Hannah Moscovitch is not a surprise, but certainly a curiosity. Come and see where this production will take you \u2014 who is mad, and who will believe it? When we say we understand sanity and insanity, do we? Read our Interview with Hannah Moscovitch here<\/a>, and our Interview with Ren\u00e9 Orth here<\/a>. Info here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

University of Toronto, Faculty of Music: Dr. Arlan Vriens: Futureproofing<\/h3>\n

Saturday, June 20, 7:30 p.m.
\nWalter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 80 Queen\u2019s Park, free<\/p>\n

It is astonishing to think how much technology has changed in just the last 50 years. Many of the readers here would remember their first Hi-Fi, the cassette tapes and the little plastic tab that could make the recording \u2018permanent\u2019 as you break it off (until you put a tape over it), the rituals of listening to an album from the beginning to the end, sometimes with a flip in the middle, the dial-up internet and screamy loud dot-matrix printers\u2026 all the way to the phones powerful enough to be a small TV production office, and nearly instantaneous international broadcasting in everyone\u2019s hands. The Gen-Xers and Millennials had to crash through brand new technology platforms every few years, and so much of this tech left many memories in childhoods. Vriens\u2019 Futureproofing is a research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in disguise as a concert, starting with near-obsolete technology, including radio transmitters, and printing calculators, to pachinko slots, five new commissions will feature mashing of violin and tech \u2014 a retro adventure in electronic music. Come out and enjoy this whimsical evening. Info here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Luminato Festival: The Philip Glass Ensemble<\/h3>\n

Saturday, June 20, 8 p.m.
\nKoerner Hall, $44+<\/p>\n

Another fun offering from Luminato. Philip Glass is a major American icon, and his early works made a great impression on audiences beyond the classical realm. The PGE is featuring a program of Glass\u2019s early hits, including: Glassworks, Dance 1 from Einstein on the Beach, Grid from Koyaanisqatsi, and Funeral from the opera Akhnaten. Starting at two 20s and a bit of change, this is a great way to hear these works live, with top notch musicians in the beautiful acoustics of Koerner Hall. Come and enjoy the pulsations, and be ready to be hypnotized. Read our Interview with PGE\u2019s Andrew Sterman here<\/a>. Info here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Harbourfront Centre: Summer Music in the Garden: The Sovereignty of Song<\/h3>\n

Sunday, June 21, 4 p.m.
\nToronto Music Garden, 479 Queens Quay W., free<\/p>\n

The lovely Summer Music in the Garden series returns for another interesting season, opening with Julie Lumsden and Kate Carver, presenting a M\u00e9tis-centered vocal-piano program, including Ian Cusson\u2019s Five Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont. Dumont, born in northeastern Alberta, has been a busy poet and educator of Cree and M\u00e9tis heritage, and as another Canada Day approaches, it would be good to refocus on that big elephant in the room in our Canadian History \u2014 Indigenous history and culture. For SMiG, we last heard this piece in 2022, a version for voice and string quartet \u2014 it\u2019ll be extra interesting for those who remember to see how a work can change depending on instrumentation. Come and join the lovely atmosphere of summer late afternoon in this lovely garden, beautifully and gently designed. Info here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! \u2014 local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox <\/em>HERE<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classical music and opera events in Toronto for the week of June 15 to 21, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":125139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42533,42192,10,76,19,3895,38,43,59,63],"tags":[28720,43003,39686,9494],"yst_prominent_words":[7173,9143,19850,12857,20146,7549],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-2026-06-15T103017.609.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-wyk","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125140,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125136\/revisions\/125140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125136"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=125136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}