‘Great musicians don’t come out of nowhere’
As the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra turns 50, its members reflect on its legacy
For Kathleen Kajioka, playing with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra as a teenager felt like what she imagined climbing Mount Everest to be, an experience as challenging as it was rewarding.
The professional musician, best known for her work as a radio host on The New Classical FM, recalled her first rehearsal with the ensemble, at age 15, as she sight-read Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 7.”
“I think my eyes doubled in size and I don’t think I blinked for an hour and a half because I had never seen music like that on my stand before,” said Kajioka, who played viola in the TSYO for four years, beginning in the 1988-89 season. “I was moving my bow back and forth, grabbing whatever notes I could, and I think I got maybe a fraction of the piece. But every week, I was nailing more and more of the symphony and, by the time of the concert, it was totally in my grasp. It was the fastest progress I ever made.”
Kajioka’s experience is one shared by the hundreds of other instrumentalists who have played in the orchestra. Over the past five decades, the TSYO has firmly established itself as one of the country’s most important orchestras for young musicians, offering a space for them to hone their craft alongside professional musicians. On Saturday, TSYO musicians past and present will gather at Roy Thomson Hall for a special concert marking the orchestra’s 50th anniversary, a milestone that some of its members say is a testament to the institution’s legacy.
“It’s so important to have a training ground like this because great musicians don’t just come out of nowhere and we don’t grow in a vacuum,” said Kajioka in an interview. “The TSYO showed me what was possible and inspired me to strive toward that level.”
Established in 1974, the TSYO was envisioned as a high-level orchestra for local musicians under the age of 22. The audition process is competitive and the program itself is rigorous: the group frequently tackles full-length symphonies and, each year, the young musicians perform with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at “side-by-side” concerts. They also receive professional mentorship and master classes from international artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Pinchas Zukerman.
In all, more than 2,000 youth have played in the TSYO, some of whom have gone on to join the TSO and other international ensembles.
Performing in the TSYO was one of the experiences that prompted violinist Shane Kim to pursue a professional music career. “Up until then, I had dreams of maybe doing something in environmental sciences,” said Kim, who was part of the youth orchestra between 1991 and 1997 and is currently a member of the TSO. “I started to see that I could do this, and part of that was because the coaches and teachers were so encouraging and supportive. When other people see the potential in you, you can start to see it in yourself as well.”
Kim is now on the other side of that equation. This is his fourth year as a coach for TSYO violinists, a role which he says remains endlessly fulfilling.
“It’s a big responsibility because you never know who among the youth orchestra members will decide to pursue music, or whether what I do, what I offer and how I teach them might influence them,” he said. “I have a responsibility to prepare them for the concerts, help them learn the notes and teach them the music, but I think in a bigger picture, what I say and how I teach can also have a lifelong impact on the students.”
It’s not merely young musicians who’ve benefited from the TSYO, with the ensemble also serving as a training ground for emerging conductors.
Simon Rivard, conductor of the TSYO, said he’s benefitted from the program as much as the musicians in the orchestra. “It’s a very reciprocal relationship,” said Rivard, who began his tenure in 2018, shortly after graduating from McGill University. “They teach me how to be a better leader, what works and what doesn’t. They made me the conductor that I am now.”
Saturday’s 50th-anniversary concert marks, in some ways, the end of one era and the beginning of another. Though the orchestra has several other events planned this season, including a side-by-side concert with the TSO conducted by music director Gustavo Gimeno, this performance will be the final one led by Rivard. He’ll be replaced by Trevor Wilson, the TSO’s new resident conductor who was appointed to the role in 2022.
Rivard said Saturday’s concert is symbolically programmed to look back and forward simultaneously. It opens with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” which was played at the TSYO’s inaugural concert in the 1974-75 season. Ilan Mendel, a trombonist with the orchestra, will conduct that piece. Wilson will then lead Kalevi Aho’s “Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra,” featuring soloist Cian Bryson. Rivard will conclude the performance by conducting the TSYO through Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1.”
For violist Angelina Sievers, 18, Saturday’s concert will also be one of her final appearances with the TSYO, a mainstay in her life for the past five years. She said it will be bittersweet in many ways, as playing with the TSYO inspired her to become a professional musician. (Sievers is heading to university later this year to study music.)
When she steps onstage at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday, she says she’ll be taking it all in. Performing in that hall, especially as a young musician, is an experience like none other, she said. “The lights are blinding and there are nerves, but you don’t realize the scale of the hall until you’re onstage looking out at the audience. It’s incredible.”