Harbourfront Centre opens a new chapter for landmark outdoor concert series
Toronto, ON, August 23, 2021 – Harbourfront Centre’s beloved Summer Music in the Garden series welcomes genre-defying “new music revolutionary” Gregory Oh as its new curator for the 2022 season. The award-winning pianist, Dora-nominated music director and conductor takes the helm of this landmark summer event beginning September 2021.
“We are delighted to announce that Gregory Oh is the new Curator for Summer Music in the Garden, succeeding founding Artistic Director Tamara Bernstein. Gregory is an acclaimed Toronto-based pianist, conductor and curator with a remarkably versatile career and a deep curiosity for music programming that is relevant to today’s audiences. We look forward to Gregory’s dynamic vision and our return to the Garden in summer 2022.” – Nathalie Bonjour, Director Performing Arts, Harbourfront Centre.
Harbourfront Centre’s 2022 summer season marks a much-anticipated return to in-person concerts integrating works from the Nordic Region through Nordic Bridges 2022, a year-long national initiative highlighting contemporary Nordic art and culture, and Canadian commissions with the performances of emerging and celebrated local artists. With a deep commitment to contemporary work, Oh will infuse the series with his fresh artistic vision.
“Since I moved to Toronto in the 90s, crossing under the Gardiner overpass has been a gateway to the most wondrous intersection of place and culture in the city. I feel like any resident of Toronto can hop on the streetcar, pedal the Martin Goodman, or stroll to the very bottom of Spadina and find things new or mysterious, or sometimes a potent reminder of another place they also call home. In programming Summer Music in the Garden, I hope to continue in this tradition – to surprise, to discover, to remember who we were, examine who we are, and look forward to what we can become.” – Gregory Oh, Curator, Summer Music in the Garden.
Harbourfront Centre’s Summer Music in the Garden has welcomed thousands of patrons to the Toronto Music Garden since 2001. These free concerts take place most Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings beginning in late June and feature a diverse range of musical styles from across Canada and around the globe. Classical and baroque music is presented alongside contemporary classical and global roots as a nod to the garden’s conception by internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, which interprets Bach’s Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007 for unaccompanied cello. Loyal audiences and newcomers alike will discover mind-opening music over the series of concerts slated for this pivotal season.
Summer Music in the Garden is presented with the generous ongoing support of our patrons’ circle and the SOCAN Foundation and produced by Harbourfront Centre in partnership with the City of Toronto. Harbourfront Centre gratefully acknowledges its Programming Partners: Government of Canada, Ontario Arts Council, Government of Ontario, Canada Council for the Arts and City of Toronto.
About Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre is a leading international centre for contemporary arts, culture and ideas, and a registered, charitable not-for-profit cultural organization operating a 10-acre campus on Toronto’s central waterfront. Harbourfront Centre provides year-round programming 52 weeks a year, seven days a week, supporting a wide range of artists and communities. We inspire audiences and visitors with a breadth of bold, ambitious and engaging experiences, and champion contemporary Canadian artists throughout their careers, presenting them alongside international artists, and fostering national and international artistic exchange between disciplines and cultures.