2021-22 Concert Season Begins At The Royal Conservatory Of Music

The Royal Conservatory of Music will open its doors to audiences for the first time since last year, when it managed to offer a few concerts at the very beginning of the season. Over 90 concerts in uniquely curated series, including Quiet Please There's a Lady on Stage and TD Jazz Concerts: Jazz From Around the World to piano, vocal, chamber, and string concerts, featuring the world's top musicians, are planned for 2021.22.

As Mervon Mehta, Executive Director of Performing Arts, put it: "this special concert season is infused with a restoring and revitalizing energy, and we are overjoyed to welcome audiences back in our venues to share the vitality of live music together in person again. We also understand that the situation might change quickly and that some might not feel comfortable in public spaces yet, therefore we are also offering the option to enjoy many of our performance presentations online from the comfort of home. One thing is certain, we cannot wait to be back in the concert hall with our patrons and artists to share live music once again."

Season Gala

The Royal Conservatory presents Follies in concert on Saturday, October 16 at 8pm and Sunday, October 17 at 3pm

Starringa??Cynthia Dale, Ma-Anne Dionisio, Eric McCormack, and Marcus Nance

witha??Jenni Burke, Mary Lou Fallis, Denise Fergusson, Lorraine Foreman, Ben Heppner,

Roger Honeywell, Charlotte Moore, Jackie Richardson, and Avery Saltzman

and featuring Gabriel Antonacci, Tess Benger, Katelyn Bird, Andrew Broderick, and Kimberely-Ann Truong

Book by James Goldman

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Richard Ouzounian

Music Director Paul Sportelli

Designer Nick Blais

Choreography by Genny Sermonia

Produced originally on Broadway by Harold Prince

Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

By special arrangements with Cameron Mackintosh and Music Theatre International

An all-star cast of Canadian theatre, opera, and television icons and orchestra perform the legendary masterpiece considered by many to be the greatest musical ever created. Surreal, sophisticated, compelling, heart wrenching, and epic in scope, including hit songs "Losing My Mind," "I'm Still Here," and "Broadway Baby." This star-studded event in support of The Fund for Koerner Hall celebrates Sondheim's 91st birthday. Director Richard Ouzounian remarked: "I can think of no better way to celebrate Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday than with this all-star concert presentation of his landmark musical, Follies. Koerner Hall will resound with Paul Sportelli conducting a 24-piece orchestra playing Jonathan Tunick's glorious original orchestrations, while a cast featuring a galaxy of Canadian stars brings all the hilarity and heartbreak of this brilliant work to life."

Only at Koerner Hall! A star-studded spectacular event in support of The Fund for Koerner Hall.

Gala dinner tickets are still available - please call 416.408.2824 x447 for more information.

Classical music

Royal Conservatory Orchestra

Andrei Feher, Music Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, has earned a reputation for his musical maturity and integrity, natural authority on the podium, and an imaginative and intelligent approach. He conducts the first Royal Conservatory Orchestra concert on Thursday, October 7, in Beethoven's Symphony No. 3. Part of the Temerty Orchestral Program at The Glenn Gould School (GGS), the Royal Conservatory Orchestra is widely regarded as an outstanding ensemble and one of the best training orchestras in North America. It consists of instrumental students in the undergraduate and graduate programs of The Glenn Gould School. Graduates of the RCO have joined the ranks of the greatest orchestras in the world. Presented in association with the Bureau du Québec.

Chamber Music Concerts

As Strad observes, "with their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement, and taut ensemble," the Dover Quartet is "pulling away from their peers." The Quartet, which catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, at which they won every prize, plays Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4, Schubert's String Quartet No. 12, and William Grant Still's Lyric Quartette, on October 24. They are joined by the extraordinary young baritone Davóne Tines for Samuel Barber's "Dover Beach" and Caroline Shaw's By and By. The New York Times has praised Tines's "depths-plumbing bass-baritone voice that can find a range of contradictions within a single note. And his body and face match that voice in their expressiveness."

String Concerts

Frequent Koerner Hall guest Gidon Kremer returns with his Kremerata Baltica, praised by the Chicago Tribune for "the freshness of their performances and refusal to settle for routine programming continue to set them apart." On October 31, they perform a concert titled From Bach to Piazzolla, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla and 75th birthday of Gidon Kremer with works by Piazzolla, Valentin Silvestrov, and Johann Sebastian Bach, plus a special homage to Glenn Gould.

Free Concerts

The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists presents the first Taylor Academy Showcase Concert on October 23, featuring leading young classical musicians in Canada aged 8-18.

Music on Film

For the 10th year, The Royal Conservatory will co-present six music documentaries with our Bloor Street Culture Corridor partners, Hot Docs. The Music on Film series commences on September 28 with Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, a film by Lonnie Price which chronicles the joys and sadness of Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince's ill-fated Broadway show, Merrily We Roll Along. Mervon Mehta will host a post-screening chat and mini concert with cast member Charlotte Moore and Richard Ouzounian, director of the Conservatory's season gala event, Follies in Concert. The second installment, on October 19, Strings Attached, follows on on- and off-stage lives of the Dover Quartet, all four of whom will join for a post-concert chat along with director Bruce Broder.

RoyalConservatory.Live

The Royal Conservatory will livestream numerous concerts this season and audiences are encouraged to check the website 30 days prior to each concert if interested in this option. Single livestreams are available for $20 per household. The Conservatory is also offering new streaming "for pick your own" passes - $99 for 5 concerts, $130 for 10 concerts, and $199 for the full season per household. Each concert will be available for viewing for seven days. Please visit The Royal Conservatory's new digital channel www.RoyalConservatory.Live.

Before the concert season officially starts on October 7 with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, two concerts from The Royal Conservatory archives will be streamed for free on the conservatory's new platform. In October 2015, nine Canadian musical icons, all recipients of the prestigious Order of Canada award, performed works by Oscar Peterson and others at Koerner Hall. The lineup included Jens Lindemann, the late Tommy Banks, Guido Basso, Terry Clarke, Phil Dwyer, Phil Nimmons, Don Thompson, Dave Young, and Joseph Macerollo. The "Order of Canada" Band will stream starting on Thursday, September 23 at 3pm ET, followed a week later, on Thursday, September 30, by a concert from the 21C Music Festival 2016, featuring the Kronos Quartet and throat singer, experimental musician, painter, and novelist Tanya Tagaq.

Season Start at The Royal Conservatory of Music

Andrei Feher conducts the Royal Conservatory Orchestra

(Royal Conservatory Orchestra & Canada On Stage)

Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 8pm; Koerner Hall; $25-$60

Season Gala: Follies in Concert

(Season Gala): Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 8pm concert is at capacity

for concert plus gala dinner tickets please call 416.408.2824 x447

Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 3pm; Koerner Hall; $99-$350

Taylor Academy Showcase Concert

(Taylor Academy Concerts): Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 4:30pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall; free

Dover Quartet with Davóne Tines

(Chamber Music Concerts): Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 3pm; Koerner Hall; $35-$90

Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica: From Bach to Piazzolla

(String Concerts): Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 3pm; Koerner Hall; $50-$115

All concerts take place at The Royal Conservatory of Music

TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto

A limited number of $15 Rush Tickets are available

starting 3 hours before all performances presented by The Royal Conservatory.
Rush Tickets are limited to one ticket per person.

Seat locations are assigned at the discretion of the box office and locations may vary.

Rush Tickets are available by phone only, on a first-come first-served basis.

Many concerts will be livestreamed.

Please check our website for details 30 days before each concert.

Single concerts for $20; 5 concerts for only $99; 10 concerts for only $130

The entire 2021.22 season of online concerts for only $199. Pass prices are per household.

Tickets and subscriptions are available online at www.rcmusic.com/performance,

by calling 416.408.0208, or in person at the Weston Family Box Office

To learn more about attending the Follies season gala dinner and concert,

please call 416.408.2824 x447.

Follow us on Facebook at facebook/koernerhall and Twitter @KoernerHall #koernerhall

Music on Film

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 6:30pm

Strings Attached: Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 6:30pm

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Tickets: $17 (Members: $12, $10, Free)

Tickets can be purchased at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema box office (506 Bloor St. W.)

or at www.hotdocscinema.ca.

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