#8 — JAMES EHNES & THE TSO, OSETINSKAYA AT KOERNER HALL, & SCOTT JOPLIN’S TREEMONISHA
+ Our top picks for events happening near you
Welcome back to the smARTcircle Toronto! It’s going to be a great week in music on the other side of this long weekend, and I’ve rounded up the best concerts to keep an eye on. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra enters the home stretch of its historic centenary season with a string of heavy-hitting programs and guest performers, beginning with James Ehnes this week. As a preamble to that concert, I’ve borrowed an excerpt below from our recent interview with the TSO’s Music Director, where we get a look behind the scenes on what makes him tick. Like what you’re reading here? Be sure to like, share, and check out The smART Ensemble series in our latest issue for more. From soloists and creative duos, to multidimensional composers alongside Canada’s premier orchestra, The smART Ensemble is our coverage of the movers and shakers in classical music on the global stage. — Michael Zarathus-Cook
The DNA of the TSO
In 2020, Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno took up a new post as Music Director at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO). The timing could not have been more challenging; the COVID-19 pandemic immediately disrupted any kind of consistent planning, even as the TSO geared up to celebrate its centennial in the 2022/23 season. But under the leadership of Gimeno and his artistic team, the TSO has returned triumphantly to the stage, combining world-class orchestral quality with a series of initiatives which respond to this unique cultural moment.
The TSO’s renewed joie de vivre is on full display in the Celebration Preludes, a set of ten three-minute orchestral works commissioned from Toronto-area composers to commemorate the orchestra’s centennial and its beloved home city. Speaking with smART Magazine, it’s clear that the Celebrations project is an evolution of Gimeno’s love for Toronto’s vibrant cultural scene. “As we searched for these works, we wanted a variety of styles and backgrounds because that’s what’s faithful to Toronto and to Canada,” he reflects. “We started this project from a desire to hear different voices, and especially those who are under-represented. And from that starting point, by definition, you also get contrasting styles of composition, especially where composers choose to bring in folk music influences. For example, in Luis Ramirez’s Mi Piñata there was a clear influence of Mexican folk music, and Iranian folk music came through in Afarin Mansouri’s Mithrā.”
smARTpicks | TOP CONCERTS AND EVENTS HAPPENING NEAR YOU
1) Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto + Pictures at an Exhibition | Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Canada’s own James Ehnes is next to the podium for this positively flammable program that features equal parts solo flair and symphonic fanfare. As a prefix to Tchaikovksy’s towering monument for violin and orchestra, and Mussorgsky’s sprawling Pictures, Alison Yun-Fei Jiang’s Hwa (Flowering) will be making its world première. | MAY 24–27
2) A Little Night Music | Koerner Hall
For one night only (unfortunately) a massive staging of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music will be gracing Koerner Hall, replete with a stellar cast of creatives, and directed by smART Magazine’s own Richard Ouzounian. | MAY 26
3) Nîpîy's Songwalks | Toronto Botanical Garden
This is how you close out a season: an outdoor concert featuring a prelude with a loosely scattered choir dispersing “pockets of song”, and thereafter a world premiere of Cree cellist and composer Cris Derksen’s original composition. Here’s hoping for great walking weather. | MAY 27
4) Baroque Music from the Greatest Movies of All Time | Koerner Hall
Recital halls could use more pianists like Polina Osetinskaya: equally adept at designing an entertaining program as she is in executing its performance. For her solo debut in Koerner Hall, she’s given a great deal of thought to the music behind some of the most celebrated films of the last century, the result of which is a program that delivers equal amounts of Bach and Kubrick. | JUNE 3
5) Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha | Bluma Appel Theatre
As I hinted in a recent Globe & Mail piece, this next year is going to be a great one for Black opera in Canada. While Obsidian Theatre’s Of The Sea kicked off this relay of black stories and perspectives on the operatic stage, Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha – presented by the combined efforts of TO Live and LUMINATO – will certainly be one of the shining beacons of this stretch. | JUNE 6–17