TORONTO, September 17, 2025 – November concert highlights include An Intimate Evening with Renée Fleming: Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene Concert. In her Conservatory debut, the superstar soprano performs a breathtaking program drawn from her Grammy Award-winning album, exploring the deep and evolving relationship between music and nature, heightened by a stunning National Geographic film, produced specially for her, projected above the stage. In the second half of the evening, she performs favourite songs and arias. Fleming will be accompanied by the Royal Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Robert Moody. A day before, the soprano will front a day-long symposium entitled Music and the Mind with musicians, neuroscientists, policy makers, and athletes discussing the benefits of music on early childhood brains.
Presenting sponsor: Power Corporation of Canada
Dinner supporter: Generously supported In Memory of Gary Miles
Media sponsors: Toronto Life, Classical 96.3 FM
Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage series continues with sharply detailed lyricism, graceful musicianship, and mesmerizing harmonies of I’m With Her as they tour their latest album Wild, Clear and Blue. Opening the concert are Ye Vagabonds, an Irish alt-folk group described as “being at the fore of a new wave of Irish folk.”
The multi-Grammy and Emmy Award-winning vocal ensemble Soweto Gospel Choir returns to Koerner Hall to perform a joyful program of South African freedom songs, traditional spirituals, and some classics, featuring the spirited music of Aretha Franklin, Harry Belafonte, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen, and more!
Presented in association with Batuki Music Society
Media sponsors: Toronto Life, JAZZ.FM91
Government supporter: OCAF
Sold-out piano recitals include Sir András Schiff; Conservatory alumnus Jan Lisiecki (RCM ‘18); and First Prize winner at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, Seong-Jin Cho. Limited tickets are available for Canadian pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the First China International Music Competition, performing Bach, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms at his Koerner Hall debut.
Series generously supported by Michael Foulkes & Linda Brennan and an anonymous donor
Jan Lisiecki concert generously supported by the Ihnatowycz Family Foundation and an anonymous donor Tony Siqi Yun concert media sponsors: Toronto Life, Classical 96.3 FM
String concerts include legendary violinist Kyung Wha Chung with Kevin Kenner, and First Prize winner of both the Yehudi Menuhin and Queen Elizabeth Competitions Ray Chen with Chelsea Wang.
Media sponsors: Toronto Life, Classical 96.3 FM
Armenian Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (Honorary Fellow of The Royal Conservatory, 2004) gives new life to beloved children’s songs, lullabies, and prayers that have been passed down generation after generation from her homeland, accompanied by live drawing by Kevork Mourad, in a program titled Ancestral Songs, Prayers, and Lullabies.
Concert generously sponsored by Alexanian Flooring
Media sponsors: Toronto Life, Classical 96.3 FM
Royal Conservatory Orchestra with conductor Mei-Ann Chen features the world premiere of Stewart Goodyear’s (Artist in Residence at The Royal Conservatory) Seasons, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Ginastera’s Harp Concerto played by Zane Mallett (RCM ‘25), winner of The Robert W. and G Ann Corcoran Concerto Competition.
Part of the Temerty Orchestral Program
Presenting Performance Partner: TELUS
Tickets and subscriptions are available online at www.rcmusic.com/performance, by calling 416.408.0208, or in person at the Weston Family Box Office.
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About Koerner Hall
Koerner Hall is The Royal Conservatory of Music’s crown jewel performance venue designed in the tradition of Europe’s great concert venues. With flexible seating from 200 to 1,135, it is beloved for its architectural beauty and architectural acoustic excellence. Since opening in 2009, it has hosted hundreds of concerts and events reaching more than one million individuals around the world.
To learn more or purchase tickets, please visit rcmusic.com/performance.
About The Royal Conservatory of Music
Established in 1886, The Royal Conservatory is one of the most respected music education and performance institutions in the world. The RCM advances the transformative effect of music through a unique ecosystem of learning, teaching, training, research, and performance. The RCM is comprised of: the Oscar Peterson School of Music community school; the degree-granting Glenn Gould School; The Taylor Academy extracurricular program for exceptional artists aged 8-18 years; the 138-year-old RCM Certificate Program and expansive teacher training programs; the ground-breaking Smart Start early childhood program that seamlessly links neuroscience and music, and Koerner Hall, a world-class performance venue.
Learn more at rcmusic.com
