James Ehnes Plays Barber

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This concert is a classic TSO smorgasbord: everything from Spotlight Artist (& Canadian legend) James Ehnes shredding the Barber concerto to works by a female Métis composer, a Mexican composer, and, to wrap the whole thing: Bernstein's Symphonic Dance from West Side Story. Last fall was all about Tár, but this fall, it will be all about Bernstein. A spirited program celebrating the Americas that is not to be missed!

There will be a free pre-concert performance by the TSO Chamber Soloists before the Saturday, October 21 performance. See the TSO Chamber Soloists page for more information.

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GRAMMY® Award–winning violinist James Ehnes stars as the soloist for Samuel Barber's lyrical and tender Violin Concerto. Ehnes returns this season as a Spotlight Artist to continue his nearly 30-year relationship with the orchestra, and his first appearance with Music Director Gustavo Gimeno conducting the TSO. Gimeno's expansive vision for dynamic programming is on display in this fully-fledged concert that also includes Leonard Bernstein’s vigorously percussive Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Canadian composer Karen Sunabacka's The Prairies, inspired by nature and her Métis heritage; Ehnes’s take on the virtuosic third movement of French-Cuban composer José White Lafitte’s Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor, and the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of Sensemayá by Mexico’s Silvestre Revueltas. Join your TSO for this smorgasbord of a concert, served by one of Canada's most compelling talents on the violin. 

There's a free pre-concert performance by the TSO Chamber Soloists before the Saturday, October 21 performance. See the TSO Chamber Soloists page for more information.

Program

Gustavo Gimeno, conductor

Gustavo Gimeno’s tenure as the tenth Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra began in 2020/21. Since his appointment, he has reinvigorated the artistic profile of the Orchestra, engaged with musicians and audiences alike, and brought performances of familiar works as well as some of today’s freshest sounds. Further, he has overseen renewed community engagement and sown the seeds for an ambitious program of commissioning new works from emerging and established composers.

During the 2023/24 season, Gimeno and the TSO usher in a bold new beginning for the Orchestra in its 101st year, with major symphonic works—including Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, Respighi’s Pines of Rome, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Pulcinella—presented alongside an unprecedented number of pieces never before performed by the TSO. Gimeno will share the stage with, among other soloists, Daniil Trifonov, James Ehnes, Emily D’Angelo, Frank Peter Zimmermann, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

February 2024 will see the release of the first commercial recording Gimeno and the TSO made together, in May 2023, memorializing Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie under the Harmonia Mundi label. This builds on Gimeno’s relationship with the label, for which he has recorded Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, and Stravinsky’s ballets The Firebird and Apollon musagète with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. 

Gimeno has held the position of Music Director with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg since 2015, and will become Music Director of Teatro Real in Madrid in 2025/26—he currently serves as their Music Director Designate. As an opera conductor, he has appeared at renowned houses such as the Liceu Opera Barcelona; Opernhaus Zürich; Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia; and Teatro Real, Madrid. He is also much sought-after as a symphonic guest conductor worldwide. In 2023/24 he returns to orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, NSO Washington, Dallas and Cincinnati symphony orchestras.

James Ehnes, violin

James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls.

Recent orchestral highlights include the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, NHK Symphony, and Munich Philharmonic. Throughout the 2023/24 season, Ehnes continues as Artist in Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada and as Artistic Partner with Artis—Naples. During this season, he will make débuts with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall (including the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas in 2019/20, and the complete violin/viola works of Brahms and Schumann in 2021/22), Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival, and Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two GRAMMY^® Awards, three Gramophone Awards, and 11 JUNO Awards. In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the 2021 Gramophone Awards, which celebrated his recent contributions to the recording industry, including the launch of a new online recital series entitled Recitals from Home, which was released in June 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of concert halls. Ehnes recorded the six Bach sonatas and partitas and six sonatas of Ysaÿe from his home with state-of-the-art recording equipment, and released six episodes over the period of two months. These recordings have been met with great critical acclaim by audiences worldwide and Ehnes was described by Le Devoir as being “at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution.” 

Ehnes began violin studies at the age of 5, became a protege of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at age 9, and made his orchestra début with l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at age 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a Visiting Professor. 

Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

Images and Video

James Ehnes (Photo by Ben Ealovega) - 1James Ehnes (Photo by Ben Ealovega) - 3James Ehnes (Photo by Ben Ealovega) - 2

Resources + Further Readings

Noteworthy: From Début to Spotlight: Meet Our Two 2023/24 Spotlight Artists

TSO Spotlight Artists