Toronto Symphony Orchestra Announces Upcoming Season

Earlier today, TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian announced the 2013/2014 season of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), this will be the orchestra's 92^nd season. This upcoming season, on-stage at Roy Thomson Hall between September 2013 and June 2014, marks Music Director Peter Oundjian's 10th season.

New to the 2013/2014 season, Oundjian announced, are a Friday Night concert series and a Chinese New Year special concert led by conductor Long Yu, featuring pianist Yuja Wang (Feb 3, 2014). TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian leads a Season Opening Gala, featuring pianist Lang Lang performing two Mozart piano concertos, to kick off the 2013/2014 season (Sep 21, 2013). Returning is the critically acclaimed New Creations Festival (Mar, 2014) and the audience favourite Mozart festival (Jan, 2014).

The 2013/2014 season begins TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian's 10th season. In his tenure with the TSO, Oundjian created the annual New Creations Festival which the New York Times called "the orchestra's signal success in the handling of contemporary music" and launched the orchestra's self-produced record-label TSO Live featuring seven live recordings and an eighth to be released (Apr, 2013). Under Oundjian's direction, the orchestra is flourishing by attracting new audiences to the TSO's home at Roy Thomson Hall and leading two critically acclaimed visits to Carnegie Hall and a return to touring in the southern United States.

"I am thrilled to be continuing my tenure as TSO Music Director, and celebrating my 10th season with the orchestra," said TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian. "Together with the exceptional musicians of the TSO, we have achieved so much and I look forward to continuing to share the power of musical experiences that bring meaning to our lives, and connection within our community."

As a major fundraising initiative for the TSO, the 2013/2014 season kicks off with an Opening Gala led by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian and featuring pianist Lang Lang performing two Mozart piano concertos: No. 17, K. 453; and No. 24, K. 491 (Sep 21, 2013). Also on the programme is Wagner's stirring Overture to Tannhäuser, celebrating the composer's 200th anniversary. Following the concert, the whole audience is invited to stay and celebrate with TSO musicians in the post-concert lobby party.

The TSO announced its first annual Chinese New Year special concert modeled after a similar programme of the New York Philharmonic. In the 2013/2014 season, Long Yu, Chief Conductor of the China Philharmonic and Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, leads the TSO in traditional Chinese and western orchestral music, including Rachmaninoff's dazzling Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, performed by Yuja Wang (Feb 3, 2014).

2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten. The TSO celebrates the centenary of the reverEd English composer with several of his pieces performed in the fall of the 2013/2014 season: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, led by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian (Sep 18 & 19, 2013); the Canadian première of an arrangement by Colin Matthews of Movements for a Clarinet Concerto (Sep 25 & 26, 2013); the Violin Concerto performed by Canadian violinist James Ehnes (Oct 10 & 12, 2013); and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings featuring TSO Principal Horn Neil Deland and tenor Nicholas Phan (Oct 31, Nov 1 & 2, 2013).

The TSO also honours the 100th anniversary of esteemed Polish composer Witold Lutos?awski with a performance of his Piano Concerto by one of Canada's most acclaimed pianists, Janina Fialkowska (Oct 24 & 25, 2013).