History

Peter Oundjian Music Director

Previous TSO Music Directors Luigi von Kunits Sir Ernest MacMillan Walter Susskind Seiji Ozawa Karel Ancerl Victor Feldbrill Sir Andrew Davis Gunther Herbig Jukka-Pekka Saraste

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canada's foremost symphonic ensemble, celebrates its 88th season in 2009|2010. More than 300,000 patrons and 70,000 students visit the Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall each year, and an additional five million Canadians tune in to concert broadcasts on CBC Radio. At the same time, the Orchestra maintains an international presence, built by a history of touring, most recently in Europe in the spring of 2000, and reinforced by recordings available in music stores around the world.

The Orchestra was founded in 1922 by a group of Toronto musicians and Viennese-born conductor Luigi von Kunits. The New Symphony Orchestra, as it was then called, gave its first performance in April 1923 at Massey Hall. The name Toronto Symphony Orchestra was adopted four years later.

Von Kunits served as Music Director until his death in 1931. Sir Ernest MacMillan, appointed that year, would become the Orchestra's longest-standing Music Director, presiding from 1931 until 1956. During MacMillan's 25 seasons on the podium, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra soared in stature and scope, introducing Toronto audiences to then-contemporary composers such as Holst, Sibelius, and Stravinsky, who conducted the Orchestra in performances of his own music in 1937.

Since then the Orchestra has had 8 music directors: Walter Susskind (1957-1964), Seiji Ozawa (1965-1969), Karl Ancerl (1969-1972), Victor Feldbrill (1973-1978), Sir Andrew Davis, now Conductor Laureate (1975-1988), Gunther Herbig (1989-1994), Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1994-2001) and Peter Oundjian (2003 to the present).

The Orchestra moved from Massey Hall to Roy Thomson Hall in 1982. During the 2001/2002 season, Roy Thomson Hall underwent a successful sound makeover; the Roy Thomson Hall Acoustic Enhancement Project resulted in improved acoustics.

Throughout its history, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has welcomed some of the greatest international artists, including Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Yo-Yo Ma, Evgeny Kissin, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Karen Kain, and actor Christopher Plummer. Renowned composers Henri Dutilleux, R. Murray Schafer, and the late Sir Michael Tippett, among many others, have been in attendance for the Orchestra's presentations of their music.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra serves the community with one of the largest music education outreach programmes in Canada. Each year, the Symphony reaches more than 100,000 young people in the Greater Toronto Area and throughout Ontario with curriculum-based programmes, recognized throughout North America as leading examples of their kind.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a proud member of Orchestras Canada, the national association for Canadian orchestras

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