Toronto Symphony Orchestra Tour
2025/26 European Tour Assets
Tour Announcement Trailer
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
25/26 Bio (Long Version)
Wordcount: 478
For more than a century, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has played a fundamental role in shaping and celebrating Canadian culture. The TSO’s commitment to musical excellence and ability to spark connection remain as strong as ever. With a storied history of acclaimed concerts and recordings, Canadian and international tours, and impactful community partnerships, the orchestra is dedicated to engaging and enriching local and national communities through vibrant musical experiences. Music Director Gustavo Gimeno brings an expansive artistic vision, intellectual curiosity, and sense of adventure to programming the 93-musician orchestra that serves Toronto—one of the world’s most diverse cities.
As a group of artists, teachers, and advocates who share the belief that music has the power to heal, inspire, and connect people from all walks of life, the TSO engages audiences young and old through an array of community-access, health-and-well-being, and education initiatives: It holds open houses and free concerts for members of the public at its long-time home of Roy Thomson Hall. Its Relaxed Performances are designed to be more welcoming for Neurodiverse patrons, including those on the autism spectrum, and those with sensory and communication disorders, ADHD, and dementia. Art of Healing, its partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), supports clients through musical storytelling and composition. Symphony for the Soul brings members of the orchestra to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre for intimate performances that uplift and provide moments of solace for patients receiving treatment. TSOUND Connections harnesses music and technology to connect TSO musicians with seniors in care, to reduce social isolation and support well-being. Its Morning with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra program offers Open Rehearsals for high school music students from across the Greater Toronto Area. Through the School Concerts program, over 30,000 students in the GTA experience live orchestral music annually. In partnership with the Toronto Public Library, Symphony Storytime features orchestra members performing live alongside the reading of children’s books, expanding access to literacy and music education for families and children. And the TSO-affiliated Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra is a tuition-free training program that has been dedicated to cultivating the next generation of Canadian artists for more than 50 years.
Since the TSO’s first release in 1952, recordings have been an integral component of the orchestra’s artistic legacy. Of the more than 150 titles in its discography, many have been recognized with prestigious awards. Most recently, its first recording on the internationally renowned Harmonia Mundi label, Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, received the 2025 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble). Moreover, the TSO’s 2019 recording of works by Vaughan Williams, under TSO Conductor Emeritus Peter Oundjian, and 2021 recording of Massenet’s Thaïs, under late TSO Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis, both on Chandos, won JUNO Awards, with the former also receiving a GRAMMY® nomination. Subsequent recordings under the TSO’s multi-disc partnership with Harmonia Mundi have included Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (2025) and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin (2026).
25/26 Bio (Web Version)
Wordcount: 184
For more than a century, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has played a fundamental role in shaping and celebrating Canadian culture. The TSO’s commitment to musical excellence and ability to spark connection remain as strong as ever. With a storied history of acclaimed concerts and recordings, Canadian and international tours, and impactful community partnerships, we are dedicated to engaging and enriching local and national communities through vibrant musical experiences. Music Director Gustavo Gimeno brings an expansive artistic vision, intellectual curiosity, and sense of adventure to programming the 93-musician orchestra that serves Toronto—one of the world’s most diverse cities. As a group of artists, teachers, and advocates who share the belief that music has the power to heal, inspire, and connect people from all walks of life, we engage audiences young and old through an array of community-access, health-and-well-being, and education initiatives including the TSO-affiliated Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra—a tuition-free training program dedicated to cultivating the next generation of Canadian artists. Symphony With Us at a concert at Roy Thomson Hall, or experience the TSO in your neighbourhood. Visit TSO.CA or Newsroom.TSO.CA.
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Video
Gustavo Gimeno
Biography
(410 words)
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 2025/26 season, Gimeno and the TSO explore major symphonic works—including Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 6, 8, and 9, Prokofiev’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9—as well as vital compositions from contemporary creators. Gimeno shares the stage with, among other soloists, Lang Lang, María Dueñas, Pablo Ferrández, Abel Selaocoe, and Anoushka Shankar. Highlighting their international presence, Gimeno and the orchestra embark on a six-country European tour, performing with soloists Bruce Liu, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anna Prohaska, and Christina Landshamer.
February 2024 saw the release of the first commercial recording Gimeno and the TSO made together, in May 2023, memorializing Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie as part of a new multi-disc partnership with Harmonia Mundi. It received the 2025 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble). Subsequent recordings with Harmonia Mundi have included Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin. This builds on Gimeno’s relationship with the label, for which he recorded Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, and Stravinsky’s ballets The Firebird and Apollon musagète with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL).
Gimeno served as Music Director of OPL for a decade, beginning in the 2015/16 season. The 2025/26 season marks his inaugural year as Music Director of Madrid’s Teatro Real. As an opera conductor, he has appeared at renowned houses such as the Liceu Opera Barcelona, Opernhaus Zürich, and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia. He is also much sought-after as a symphonic guest conductor worldwide: In 2025/26, he débuts with the New York Philharmonic and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and recent highlights include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Berliner Philharmoniker.
In March 2025, Gimeno was appointed a Commander of the Order of Civil Merit by His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain. Additionally, following Gimeno’s tenure with OPL, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg appointed him an Officer of the Order of Civil and Military Merit of Adolph of Nassau.
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Anna Prohaska
Biography
(222 words)
2024 Opus Klassik Female Singer of the Year, the Austrian-English soprano Anna Prohaska, made her debut aged 18 at Berlin’s Komische Oper as Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and soon after with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, entering the ensemble at age 23. She has since gone on to have an extraordinary international career with some of the world’s greatest opera houses and orchestras.
Plans for the 25/26 season include the Governess Turn of the Screw directed by Deborah Warner for Opera Roma; Ismène Antigone in Pascal Dusapin's world premiere conducted by Klaus Mäkelä; a return to Zabelle in George Benjamin's Picture a day like this at the Teatro di San Carlo; and Susanna The Marriage of Figaro with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and at the Liceu Barcelona.
On the concert platform, Anna will join the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who she appeared with as a Spotlight Artist in the 24/25 season, for their European tour performing Mahler 4; she will also reunite with Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Henze's Floß der Medusa with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
The season sees Anna perform with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; the Varian Fy Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic; and the Phantasm Viol Consort. She will also continue to tour Kurtág's Kafka Fragmente with violinist Isabelle Faust.
Bruce Liu
Biography
(377 words)
First Prize winner of the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition 2021 in Warsaw, Bruce Liu has emerged as one of the most compelling pianists of his generation — a musician praised not only for his dazzling technique, but for his curiosity and artistry that combines “nimble versatility” (New York Times) and “playing of breathtaking beauty” (BBC Music Magazine).
In high demand as a soloist, he has recently performed with many of the world’s finest ensembles including the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and Wiener Symphoniker, and with conductors including Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Antonio Pappano, Lahav Shani, and Dalia Stasevska.
In summer 2025, Liu made his anticipated BBC Proms debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop at Ravinia, and went on European tours with the NCPA Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko.
Highlights of Liu’s 2025/2026 season include several major international tours including Japan with Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, China with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Daniele Gatti, and Germany, Austria, Belgium and Paris with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Kazuki Yamada. As a spotlight artist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Liu appears multiple times in the season to collaborate with Franz-Welser-Möst and Gustavo Gimeno.
A distinguished recitalist, Liu has performed at major concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, and Philharmonie de Paris. In 2025/26, he gives recital debuts at the Berliner Philharmonie and Lyon Opera House, and returns to Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein and major venues in Italy and Japan. He appears at various international festivals, including Edinburgh, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Verbier, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Rheingau, Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals.
An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, Liu was awarded Opus Klassik’s ‘Young Talent of the Year’ prize 2024 for his debut studio album ‘Waves’. His second studio album, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Seasons, was released in November 2024 receiving rave reviews and praised for its “fresh music-making unadorned by superficial virtuosity.” (Gramophone).
Born in Paris and raised in Montréal, Bruce Liu’s artistry reflects his multicultural heritage -blending European refinement, North American dynamism, and the long tradition of Chinese culture. He studied with Richard Raymond and Dang Thai Son.
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Christina Landshamer
Biography
(388 words)
Few artists of her generation show themselves to be as versatile with a wide variety of repertoire as Christina Landshamer, which has made her a concert, opera and lieder singer in demand around the world today. Her collaboration with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Alan Gilbert, Marek Janowski, Franz Welser-Möst and Christian Thielemann has led her to such important orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre de Paris, the Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Swedish Radio Orchestra Stockholm. In the USA and Canada she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Early opera engagements took the soprano to the Stuttgart State Opera, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg and the Komische Oper Berlin, as well as to the Theater an der Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and to the Salzburg Festival under Sir Simon Rattle. She sang Pamina at the Bavarian State Opera and Het Muziektheater Amsterdam in Simon McBurney's Magic Flute, Ännchen in the new production of Weber's Freischütz under Christian Thielemann at the Semperoper Dresden, Almirena/Rinaldo at Glyndebourne and Sophie/Rosenkavalier at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. At the Bavarian State Opera, Christina Landshamer most recently sang Woglinde in Wagner's Rheingold under Kirill Petrenko and Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute. She also appeared in a spectacular La Fura-dels Baus production of Haydn’s Creation in Paris and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York.
With her warm, lyrical soprano voice, Christina Landshamer is also an ideal Lied singer: together with her piano partner Gerold Huber, she is a welcome guest at Lied centres such as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Berlin's Pierre Boulez Hall, Wigmore Hall London, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall New York or Kioi Hall Tokyo. She was also invited by Thomas Hampson to perform a Schubert programme in Berlin's Pierre Boulez Hall.
More than 50 CD and DVD recordings for labels such as Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Sonymusic, Pentatone, BR Klassik, Oehms Classics, Phi, EMI, Accentus, Unitel etc. document Christina Landshamer's artistic activity.
Since 2024, she has also been appointed professor of singing at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja
Biography
(339 words)
Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us—now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance, and humour, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times as “a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition,” Kopatchinskaja adopts a distinctive approach that always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin-repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.
Kopatchinskaja is a boundary-crosser who thrives on the challenge of musical experiments and describes contemporary music as her lifeblood, and her absolute priority is the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and collaborations with living composers such as Francisco Coll, Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, Márton Illés, György Kurtág, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Aureliano Cattaneo, Stefano Gervasoni, and many others. She directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors, and festivals worldwide. Starting from the 2024/25 season, she will serve as the Artistic Partner of the SWR Symphonieorchester. A virtuoso, storyteller, and all-around phenomenon, Kopatchinskaja will provide artistic direction that involves designing her own programs, which will include both established concert formats and innovative theatrical and interdisciplinary approaches. Among these is the staged concert The Peace Project, which reflects on centuries of existential suffering caused by war through a kaleidoscope of Baroque and modern works up to the present day. The project addresses the numerous reports from war zones, the violent disruption of daily life, and the constant fear for one’s life and loved ones. Kopatchinskaja will also be Artist in Residence at the 2025 Klarafestival, where she will continue to actively support themes related to environmental protection and sustainability in innovatively curated projects. Furthermore, she holds the position of Associated Artist of the SWR Experimentalstudio, one of the most important international research centres in the field of electronic music.
Read more about Patricia Kopatchinskaja at patriciakopatchinskaja.com.
