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By Wah Keung Chan & Gianmarco Segato
Montreal
Steven Osborne
Photo: Ben Ealovega
Ladies Morning Musical Club (LMMC)
The Montreal music season begins with two recitals from LMMC Concerts’ Sunday series in their second season at Oscar Peterson Hall, their venue while McGill’s Pollack Hall is still under renovations. A Sept. 7 concert features cellist Alban Gerhardt with pianist Steven Osborne; the latter will return again with a solo recital on March 1, 2026. The Isidore String Quartet, winner of the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, will perform on Sept. 28.
Musica Camerata Montréal
One of Canada’s premier chamber-music ensembles, Musica Camerata Montréal, comprised of Marc Djokic and Luis Grinhauz, violins; Elvira Misbakhova, viola; Eric Friesen, cello; and Berta Rosenohl, piano, begin their 56th season on Sept. 20 with Erno von Dohnanyi’s Piano Quintet, Op. 26, Benjamin Godard’s Trois pièces Op. 18, and Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Op. 44.
Peter Richard Conte
CIOC: Grand Organ Festival
The Canadian International Organ Competition Grand Organ Festival presents 15 events in Montreal and across Quebec from Sept. 6 to Oct. 26 with performances from Rashaan Allwood, Sound Rebellion, Inspirationz Ensemble, Maria Gajraj, Henry Webb, Elisabeth Hubmann, Quentin Guérillot, Shen Yuan, Yves-G. Préfontaine, and a special screening of the documentary film Pipe Dreams. The headline concert on Oct. 4 features Peter Richard Conte.
Karen Cargill
Photo: Nadine Boyd
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
After last year’s stirring Symphonie fantastique, Maestro Rafael Payare opens the Montreal Symphony season (Sept. 17 & 18) with Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano (Marguerite), Andrew Staples, tenor (Faust) and Sir Willard White, baritone (Méphistophélès). Canadian violinist James Ehnes plays the Brahms Violin Concerto while Payare leads the orchestra in Dvorák’s Symphony No. 6 (Sept. 25 & 27).
Orchestre Métropolitain
Yannick Nézet-Séguin celebrates the upcoming Mahler anniversary with a performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony with mezzo Joyce DiDonato as soloist on Sept. 23.
www.orchestremetropolitain.com.
Andrea Núñez
Photo: Stephanie Sedlebauer
Opéra de Montréal: Don Giovanni
Opéra de Montréal opens its season with Mozart’s Don Giovanni, featuring American baritone John Brancy in the title role. Watch for Canadian sopranos Kristen LeBlanc as Donna Anna and Andrea Núñez as Donna Elvira. Stephen Lawless directs. Japanese-American conductor Kenson Watanabe leads Orchestre Métropolitain. Sept. 27 & 30, Oct. 2 & 5m.
Cris Derksen
Orchestre classique de Montréal
OCM’s new Music Director Andrei Feher leads the orchestra’s 86th season with a tribute to Indigenous excellence on Oct. 5 during the week of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, Mohawk violinist Tara-Louise Montour, and Cree cellist Cris Derksen star in a program of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony with visual projections by Oneida artist Alanah Jewell Morningstar; the Quebec premiere of Spider Being by Cris Derksen; songs by Tomson Highway; and a violin concerto by Malcolm Forsyth composed especially for Tara-Louise Montour.
Toronto
Carminho
Photo: Fernando Tomaz
Koerner Hall
Portuguese fado singer Carminho, whose work on the Oscar-winning film Poor Things has brought her a legion of new fans, appears on Oct. 4. American pianist Stephen Kovacevich kicks off Koerner’s piano recital series on Oct. 5 with piano sonatas by Beethoven, Schubert and Berg.
Andrew Haji
Photo: Sam Gaetz
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The TSO launches its season with Orff’s monumental Carmina Burana featuring a host of international soloists including French coloratura and 2023 Operalia winner Julie Roset, Canadian tenor Andrew Haji, and American baritone Sean Michael Plumb. The program also includes the Canadian premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Orchestra (Sept. 18-21). Superstar pianist Lang Lang headlines the orchestra’s gala on Sept. 24, playing Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto with Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice also on the docket, all under TSO Music Director Gustavo Gimeno’s baton. He also leads concerts on Sept. 25 and 27 which feature TSO principal flute Kelly Zimba Lukić in Ibert’s Flute Concerto as well as Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony. From Oct. 2-4, former TSO music director Peter Oundjian returns for Elgar’s poetic “Enigma” Variations, and Concertmaster Jonathan Crow playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
Rachel Podger
Photo: Broadway Studios
Tafelmusik
The group’s principal guest director, violinist Rachel Podger, returns to open the season, leading the orchestra in symphonies by Mozart and Schubert. As the company notes, the latter was “gently haunted by the magic notes of Mozart’s music” while writing his Symphony No. 5, making for an intriguing symphonic pairing. Sept. 26-28.
Canadian Opera Company
The COC opens its season Sept. 27 with a work that hasn’t appeared on its stage in more than 30 years, Gounod’s romantic take on Roméo et Juliette. The production hails from Sweden’s Malmö Opera, staged by Amy Lane, the director behind another French opera at the COC last season, Gounod’s Faust. The international and Canadian cast includes American tenor Stephen Costello and Russian Kseniia Proshina in the titular roles, with Canadians Gordon Bintner and Korin Thomas-Smith alternating as Mercutio, Robert Pomakov as Frère Laurent, Megan Latham as Gertrude, Owen McCausland as Tybalt, Alex Halliday as The Duke and Alex Heatherington as Stéphano. Yves Abel conducts.
Ehnes Quartet
Music Toronto
Toronto’s 50+-year chamber music mainstay opens its season Sept. 30 with the Ehnes Quartet—violinists James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Che-Yen Chen, and cellist Edward Arron—who have been performing together in various combinations for decades. They will perform Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59/1.
Igor Pikayzen
Sinfonia Toronto
The Toronto-based chamber orchestra launches its season with a celebratory party entitled Insider Stories, billed as an evening of live music, art, fine dining, tales of performance adventures and misadventures. The venue is the historic Arts and Letters Club (Sept. 18). Their concert season opens more formally on Sept. 27 at the Meridian Arts Centre with Dvořák’s Love Letter, featuring violinist Igor Pikayzen in Shostakovich’s Sonata for Violin, Percussion and Orchestra, Op. 134. Also on the program are Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 2 in D major and Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings all conducted by the orchestra’s music director, Nurhan Arman.
Ottawa
National Arts Centre Orchestra
In an unusual bit of programming, the orchestra opens its season with an opera, Puccini’s Tosca, in a semi-staged production playing Sept. 10 and 12. The cast includes Ailyn Pérez in the title role, Matthew Cairns as Cavaradossi, and Nathan Berg as Scarpia. Edmonton Opera’s Joel Ivany directs and NACO Music Director Alexander Shelley conducts in what is his final season with the orchestra.
He is on the podium again for concerts on Sept. 17 and 18 with Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot who will play Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto / No. 1 in a program that also includes Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Pianist Lang Lang joins the orchestra for an already sold-out, all-Beethoven concert on Sept. 29. Composer, vocalist, improviser, drag performer and researcher Gabriel Dharmoo presents Wanmansho, a theatrical work for solo vocalist and orchestra on Oct. 2 in a program that also includes Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.
Ottawa Chamberfest
The national capital’s chamber music series kicks off on Sept. 25 with the CelloFellos duo, Bryan Cheng and Leonard Disselhorst. They’ll present a wide-ranging program inspired by Argentinian tango and New York jazz.
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