TSO & Guest Appearances
Our guest appearances
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir has sung classical masterworks with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Each season, we perform a number of great choral works with the TSO. We also make other guest appearances throughout the season.
2024/25 season
October 9-12, 2024
Saraste Conducts Mozart’s Requiem
Former TSO Music Director Jukka-Pekka Saraste presents Mozart’s final words, his haunting Requiem, famously featured in the film Amadeus. Experience the profound emotions of this monumental work, powerfully delivered by the voices of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Get more details on the TSO website.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor
Siobhan Stagg, soprano
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Frédéric Antoun, tenor
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
November 21-23, 2024
Brilliant Bartók
Enter the Hungarian folk-inspired world of Béla Bartók in this live-recorded performance. The ballet score to The Miraculous Mandarin, with its alluring melodies and seductive rhythms, tells a saucy tale of desire and intrigue, while his Concerto for Orchestra is an electrifying display of orchestral brilliance. Get more details on the TSO website.
Gustavo Gimeno, conductor
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
December 17-22, 2024
Messiah with the TSO
Rejoice greatly! Jean-Sébastien Vallée leads your TSO and the vibrant voices of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir along with four outstanding soloists in a resplendent rendition of Handel’s beloved oratorio. Gather friends and family for Toronto’s grand musical holiday tradition—a majestic performance that will leave you singing “Hallelujah!” Get more details on the TSO website.
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, conductor
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
Nicholas Burns, countertenor
Josh Lovell, tenor
Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
2023/24 season
December 17-23, 2023
Messiah with the TSO
TMChoir joins the TSO and great soloists for this annual holiday Toronto favourite – Handel’s stirring Messiah. Composed in a mere three weeks, Messiah has endured for over 275 years. Rejoice greatly as the TSO presents its cherished perennial performances of Handel’s powerful and devotional tour de force! Get more details on the TSO website.
Dame Jane Glover, conductor
Lauren Snouffer, soprano
Krisztina Szabó, mezzo-soprano
Colin Ainsworth, tenor
Joshua Hopkins, baritone
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
February 28, 2024 – Grand Théâtre de Québec, Québec City
March 2, 2024 – Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto
March 7 & 8 2024 – Southam Hall, Ottawa
Hétu Symphony No. 5 with NACO + OSQ
Alexander Shelley leads the combined forces of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Québec, paying homage to one of Canada’s most original voices, Jacques Hétu, with a performance of his final work, the Fifth Symphony, originally commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The four movements of Hétu’s Fifth portray 1940 before, during, and after the Nazi invasion of France, capped off by the poem “Liberté” set to music. Hétu passed just three weeks before the TSO’s première of his work in 2010. Opening the performance is Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which, as one piano critic stated, “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach”—a nod to the work’s contrasting themes and solo piano line, which is virtuosic yet not too flashy, performed by young artist Kevin Chen. Get more details on the NACO website.
Alexander Shelley, conductor
Kevin Chen, piano
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Orchestre symphonique de Québec
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
June 12-15, 2024
Mahler Symphony No. 3 with the TSO
The combined force of soprano and alto voices and a treble choir, and the soaring solo vocals of contralto Gerhild Romberger, bring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Masterworks series to a magnificent close in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. The six movements of this monumental work characterize the composer’s philosophy of the interconnectivity of nature and man to the heavens—each movement embellishing nature’s next plateau, from simple birdsong to celestial transformation, punctuated by choral passages. “Earth”, a movement from Elements, the avant-garde a cappella choral work of Canadian composer Katerina Gimon, is a complementary opener that celebrates the natural wonder of our own blue planet. Get more details on the TSO website.
Gustavo Gimeno, conductor
Gerhild Romberger, alto
Members of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
Toronto Children’s Chorus
Zimfira Poloz Artistic Director, Toronto Children’s Chorus
2022/23 season
December 17-21, 2022
Messiah with the TSO
TMChoir joins the TSO and great soloists for this annual holiday Toronto favourite – Handel’s stirring Messiah. Composed in a mere three weeks, Messiah has endured for over 275 years. Rejoice greatly as the TSO presents its cherished perennial performances of Handel’s powerful and devotional tour de force! Get more details on the TSO website.
Gustavo Gimeno, conductor
Lauren Fagan, soprano
Stephanie Wake-Edwards, mezzo-soprano
Michael Colvin, tenor
Elliot Madore, baritone
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
January 11-15, 2023
Mozart Requiem with the TSO
Mozart’s genius burns with brooding intensity in the legendary Requiem that was to become his own funeral music. Instantly recognizable thanks to its use in the multi-Academy-Award-winning film Amadeus, to experience it live is to feel its brilliance. Stellar vocal soloists join the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, conductor Michael Francis, and the Orchestra for this must-see concert event. The stage is set with reverent choral works by Gregorio Allegri and Hildegard von Bingen, along with an intricate and visionary piece by Beethoven. Get more details on the TSO website.
Michael Francis, conductor
Jane Archibald, soprano
Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano
Isaiah Bell, tenor
Kevin Deas, baritone
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Toronto Mendelssohn Singers
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, chorusmaster
2021/22 season
December 15-19, 2021
Messiah with the TSO
TMChoir joins the TSO and great soloists for this annual holiday Toronto favourite – Handel’s stirring Messiah. This year conducted by TSO Resident Conductor and TMChoir Associate Conductor Simon Rivard! Get more details on the TSO website.
Simon Rivard, conductor
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
June 15-19, 2022
Gimeno + Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” with the TSO
A triumphant rallying cry to hope, humanity, and universal fellowship, Beethoven’s eternal and transcendent Symphony No. 9—culminating in the ecstatic and uplifting “Ode to Joy”—reflects a moment in our history like no other. This unforgettable Toronto concert, which combines the Orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists, will be one for the ages. More details on the TSO website.
Gustavo Gimeno, conductor
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
2020/21 Online projects
Completed with the TSO during the pandemic
December 2020
Messiah: Complex
TMChoir was thrilled to be part of Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) and the TSO’s innovative, multi-lingual cross-Canada project in December 2020. The Choir had the honour of singing the Hallelujah Chorus for this project. Learn more about the project here: https://atgtheatre.com/upcoming/messiah-complex/
May 2020
Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine
In May 2020, 126 choristers and orchestral musicians from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra came together under the artistic leadership of conductor Simon Rivard to create a virtual performance of Fauré’s lyrical Cantique de Jean Racine. You can enjoy it on YouTube.