It is a checklist of live shows we’re attending, wishing we may attend, or occupied with attending between November 17 and 23, 2025. For extra of what’s occurring round Toronto, go to our calendar here.
Royal Conservatory of Music: Ray Chen, Violin, with Chelsea Wang, piano
Wednesday, November 19, 7 p.m.
Koerner Corridor, $55+
The younger, good, and charismatic Ray Chen returns to Koerner, with Chelsea Wang, pianist. Chen wants no additional introduction. He was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, then received first prizes in each the Yehudi Menuhin (2008) and Queen Elizabeth (2009) competitions. Regardless of the classical music scene’s setback with the Nice Recession (2007-09), Chen’s affect solely grew stronger together with his unbelievable social media savvy, and he now has over 2.3 million followers. With a lovely new Stradivarius violin on his palms and charisma to spare, Chen is a power to be reckoned with. Wang, additionally a Curtis graduate, is making her Koerner debut; identified for her collaboration with the greats, together with Sir András Schiff, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emerson Quartet, to only title just a few, she’ll be a formidable accomplice for this night’s program. It’s filled with panache, starting from solo Bach to Romantic favourites, together with Kreisler preparations, and the beloved Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate. A beautiful option to refill a boring November darkish weeknight with explosive, fascinating fireworks. Learn our Interview with Ray Chen here. Data here.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Romeo & Juliet
Thursday, November 20, 7:30 p.m., Friday, November 21, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 22, 7:30 p.m.
Roy Thomson Corridor, $38+
Gimeno brings two superb works of Prokofiev to the stage — Symphony 3, and Romeo and Juliet — together with a model new work by Matthew-John Knights, Strains, Layers, Ligaments. Many composers and artists have taken on the everlasting tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, however Prokofiev’s take is a very superb model, from essentially the most fantastically balanced and resonant chords in fairytale romance, shifting in timeless development, to the brutality portrayed by crushing orchestral tuttis — that menacing timbre that solely Prokofiev can draw out from the orchestra with unstoppable, inevitable dread — it’s actually one in all his greatest works. Prokofiev’s obsession with Valery Bryusov’s Gothic novel, The Fiery Angel, one other love story (this one twisted by non secular obsession, sexual deviation and occult-mysticism) led to his opera of the identical title. Nevertheless, after eight years of wrestle, Prokofiev, having lastly managed to get a dwell efficiency of its second act beneath the baton of Serge Koussevitzky, determined to remodel the work right into a symphony. Beginning with bell tolls and hellfire, the work is stuffed with drama and ecstasy, with that actually Prokofiev magic. Gimeno’s been remodeling the TSO since his arrival, and this explicit night is a superb likelihood to take the time to essentially sink your enamel into the world of Prokofiev with two superb works, the place photographs are conjured with essentially the most intense magnificence and terror — a real apocalypse, Guide of Revelation grade. Data here.
FILMHarmonique Orchestra: Toy Story
Friday, November 21, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 22, 2 p.m.
Meridian Corridor, $75+
The Pixar mission that actually began all of it, Toy Story, has been a world cultural icon since its premiere in 1995. The franchise, which has grossed over 3.3 billion USD worldwide, remains to be going sturdy, with Toy Story 5 scheduled for a June 2026 launch. Thirty years later, the primary group of kids who have been mesmerized with the beloved characters, Woody and Buzz, and the stunning, bumbly, and unpredictably foolish gang of mates, are actually of their adulthoods, with a particular nostalgia for this cinema magic. And I guess there have been just a few mother and father, grans, and babysitters whose eyes have been touched with tears by the sincerity, loss, and pleasure of this superb friendship story through the years. So come all the way down to the Meridian Corridor, for the very first Canadian debut of Toy Story in Live performance, and listen to Randy Newman’s intimate, superb scores dwell by the FILMHarmonique Orchestra beneath the baton of Francis Choinère. Learn our Interview with Francis Choinère here. Data here.
Royal Conservatory Orchestra with conductor Mei-Ann Chen
Friday, November 21, 8 p.m.
Koerner Corridor, $25+
The formidable RCO, filled with younger, centered, and bold musicians of the Glenn Gould College, and alumni, steps on to the stage with Mei-Ann Chen, Taiwanese American conductor whose good mind and communication ability has led her to work with over 150 orchestras up to now. Her work, particularly with academic orchestras, is phenomenal. Tongue-in-cheek, most tier-1 orchestras are able to cope with something in efficiency, together with horrible conductors. They’ve honed their craft, they know the repertoire of their hearts, and their ensemble communication is so environment friendly that the sections might play with out, and even regardless of the conductor on the rostrum. There are orchestras with out conductors — essentially the most notable was Les Dissonance: their rendition of huge scale works similar to La Mer (Debussy), Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev), and Daphnis et Chloe (Ravel) leaves some doubt; what does a conductor do? It was with the Nationwide Youth Orchestra of America’s NYO2 Hindemith video the place I first noticed the good capability and charisma that Chen brings to a efficiency. She has labored with LA Phil, Atlanta, Baltimore, Memphis, Chicago Sinfonietta, and plenty of extra; it’s thrilling to see the place Chen could lead on the RCO along with her humanity, experience, and character. The featured soloist, Zane Mallett, winner of the Corcoran Concerto Competitors, brings the not often heard Ginastera Harp Concerto. As among the finest of non-European composers, Ginastera’s music is significant and evocative, and his mastery of orchestration, together with that particular rhythmic drive, is just great. Together with Stewart Goodyear’s Seasons (world premiere), and Stravinsky’s The Ceremony of Spring, it is a implausible program — the place may you expertise all of this beginning at $25? You possibly can hardly get a lunch across the RCM for that. So come on down, and see the place the youth, and this inspiring conductor, might take us. Data here.
Soundstreams: Mass for the Endangered
Saturday, November 22, 7:30 p.m.
Trinity St. Paul’s United Church and Centre for Religion, Justice and the Arts, 427 Bloor St. W, $22.60+
The primary full-length program for Soundstream’s 25/26 season begins on an ominous notice. Centred on Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, SS have curated a kaleidoscope of shifting sonic worlds and timbres by the music of Andrew Balfour, R. Murray Shafer, Chris Hutchings, Olivier Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt. There’s a sure reluctance about attempting out new issues, and the outdated picture of crusty lecturers writing bizarre music in ivory towers nonetheless stays iconic. Nevertheless, contemplate the fact the place good music, whatever the time of its inception, at all times manages to talk to the center. Cliche, however the world is continually altering. And the sonic world individuals dwell in now could be so completely different from the instances of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. So why solely stick across the canon, and proceed to be afraid of the world that we dwell in now? In any case, we continuously search authors of our personal time, the films and tv collection of our personal time — this isn’t any completely different, regardless of the golden aura of bygone grandeur that the classical music trade has created, whether or not deliberately, or coincidentally. With high notch performers, together with Soundstreams Choir 21, a chamber choir with the calibre to carry out tough but hauntingly stunning modern works (this isn’t your traditional church choir!), we will come with out the load of all expectations, besides one: excellence. Data here.
Aga Khan Museum: eleventh Duende Worldwide Flamenco Pageant: Alter Ego
Sunday, Nov 23, 8 p.m.
Nanji Household Basis Auditorium, $48.75+
The annual Aga Khan Museum’s Duende Worldwide Flamenco Pageant began on Sunday, November 16, with many performances, masterclasses, and group workshops, and this live performance marks the ultimate efficiency of this 12 months. For the weekend, there are three exhibits: Cruces (Friday), Flamenco: Made in Canada (Saturday), and Alter Ego (Sunday). For Alter Ego, evoking a sport of mirrors, Alfonso Losa and Paula Comitre deliver their modern version of flamenco to Toronto; it was lately featured because the New York Metropolis Middle’s Flamenco Pageant’s opening evening program, and has offered out internationally — in Madrid, Jerez, and London’s Sadler’s Wells. Flamenco, each dance and music, has captured the creativeness of many musicians over the centuries, and the impression is deeply felt in Western classical music, past the nationwide music of Albéniz and de Falla. Conventional flamenco constantly attracts individuals over with its hypnotic rhythm and extremely expressive music; and the place are they going now? Come out and see the probabilities in flesh. Data here.
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Cecilia tumbled into ‘critical’ music research when she determined to keep away from attending medical faculty. At the moment working within the area of classical music, recording, and Korean-English interpretation, she tends to get her nostril soiled in many various issues within the metropolis. Cecilia holds a DMA in Piano Efficiency from the College of Nebraska-Lincoln.
