On Monday, April 4, 2022, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and Toledo Ballet, together as the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced its 2022/2023 performance season. Subscriptions are now available for purchase by calling the TAPA Box Office at 419.246.8000. Single tickets will go on sale on Monday, August 1. For a full listing of events, visit toledosymphony.com or toledoballet.com.

“With the 2022/2023 season, our commitment to the spirit and vitality of the performing arts remains strong,” says Zak Vassar, President & CEO of TAPA. “We believe very deeply in the power of the arts and its ability to connect our community. We are particularly excited for ways our amazing performances and educational programs can intersect. There are several opportunities for our talented and creative students to work alongside our professional musicians, which is truly unique to TAPA.”

The Toledo Symphony celebrates its 79^th season and Alain Trudel’s 5^th season as Music Director. "This ‘artistic hub’ we call TAPA continues to grow and thrive, bringing relevant and exciting live performances to our community,” says Trudel. “The 2022/2023 season features traditional and new symphonic works, your favorite ballets, and now one of America’s greatest artforms and my first love – jazz – with our new partners at the Toledo Jazz Orchestra. I look forward to sharing our passion and creating beautiful moments with our audiences.”

Trudel will serve his inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Toledo Jazz Orchestra (TJO). “This season, we also launch a new partnership with our friends at the TJO. The TJO recently celebrated its 40th anniversary,” continues Vassar. “With funding from the Strategic Alliance Partnership program at the Greater Toledo Community Foundation, TAPA is proud to support the TJO’s performances and looks forwarding to building upon this relationship.”

The Toledo Ballet celebrates its 83^rd season and continues to present the longest-running, annual production of The Nutcracker in the nation. Guest director and internationally-known principal dancer Eris Nezha will work with Toledo Ballet students and faculty to stage, produce, and direct Toledo Ballet’s 82^nd Nutcracker. Eris currently serves on the faculty at Pasadena Civic Ballet and has danced on stages around the world as principal dancer for Boston Ballet, La Scala, and many others.

Among the 2022/2023 Highlights:

• 2021 Grammy-winner and powerhouse vocalist Ledisi joins the TSO to perform music by the legendary singer, songwriter, and activist Nina Simone.
• Midori performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on a program paired with Dvo?ák’s Seventh Symphony.
• Toledo Ballet’s 82^nd presentation of The Nutcracker, the longest-running, annual production in the nation.
• Singer, trombone player, and songwriter Aubrey Logan, Music Director Alain Trudel, and the TSO perform Christmas at the Peristyle.
• Handel’s Messiah at Rosary Cathedral.
• The TSO will perform live soundtracks for the films Mary Poppins and Psycho.

“When we established TAPA more than three years ago, our vision was to bring our community together through the performing arts. The 2022/2023 season achieves this in remarkable ways,” says Vassar. “With our new partnership with the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, we now have even more possibilities to share the performing arts with the community and connect with each other across these artforms.”

The new season also marks TAPA's return to the Valentine Theatre and Toledo Club. “During the pandemic, we presented nearly every performance at the Peristyle,” says Vassar. “It provided excellent social distancing and COVID safety protocols, and the Toledo Museum of Art remains an incredible partner. This said, we’re excited to collaborate once again with our friends at the Valentine Theatre and Toledo Club. These spaces are local treasures and are immensely popular with our audiences.”

In September 2019, the Valentine Theatre and Toledo Symphony unveiled an acoustic shell, which was custom engineered to enhance the sound of live performances on the Valentine stage. “It was a game changer for us,” recalls Trudel. “The sonic impact was immediate for everybody on stage and in the audience. We only had a couple of performances there before COVID entered our world. We look forward to spending more time at the Valentine next season and working again with those fabulous new acoustics.”

The ProMedica Masterworks Series includes 12 concerts on either Friday or Saturday evenings. The season opens with music inspired by Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo & Juliet, and Bernstein’s West Side Story (Sept. 10). The TSO returns to the Valentine Theatre to perform works by Bach, Strauss, and Schumann (Sept. 23 & 24) and an All-Mozart program (Oct. 21). The TSO celebrates Alain Trudel’s five years as Music Director with Beethoven’s Fifth (Nov. 4 & 5). Pianist Stewart Goodyear returns to Toledo on the first program of the new year to perform his own Callaloo, a Caribbean suite for piano and orchestra paired with dance-inspired works by John Adams and Sergei Rachmaninoff (Jan. 14). The TSO performs an all-French program, including Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Boléro for one-night-only on Feb. 4. Works by Women in Classical Music take center stage on Mar. 3. TSO Concertmaster Kirk Toth performs and leads his comrades in the music of Haydn & Mozart featuring soloists from the orchestra (Apr. 1). Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker makes his TSO debut with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 paired with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (Apr. 14 & 15).  Violinist Kerson Leong performs Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2 on a program featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (May 12 & 13). The series and 2022/2023 season concludes with Mahler’s Third Symphony with Susan Platts on June 2 and 3.

The KeyBank Pops Series features the orchestra along with renowned special guests in 6 concerts at the Peristyle and Stranahan Theaters. The series opens with the music of John Williams and pays tribute to one of the greatest living composers of our lifetime (Sept. 17). Grammy-winner and powerhouse vocalist Ledisi pays tribute to singer, songwriter, and activist Nina Simone (November 19). Singer, songwriter, and trombonist Aubrey Logan joins Alain Trudel and the TSO for Christmas at the Peristyle (Dec. 3). The TSO performs Mary Poppins: Film with Orchestra at the Stranahan Theater for its first performance in the new year (Jan. 21). Referred to as “the new voice of the American Rock and Roll songbook,” Michael Cavanaugh joins the TSO for an evening of rock n’ roll favorites by Elton John (Feb. 25). The series concludes with The Music of ABBA on May 20.

The Buckeye Broadband & The Blade Chamber Series returns to the Toledo Club for four performances and Alain Trudel performs a special concert at the Toledo Museum of Art GlasSalon. An Evening with Alain Trudel opens the series featuring his life’s work as a trombone player and composer (Sept. 18). The TSO showcases its newly acquired Taskin/Hubbard harpsichord on a program of eclectic chamber music (Oct. 2). The Jan. 29 performance will feature Elizabeth Raum’s Relationships, Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 1, and selections from Elvis Costello’s The Juliet Letters. Robert Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano highlights the program on March 12. The series concludes on May 21 with Summer Music.

The Andersons Inc. Charitable Foundation Family Series returns with 3 family-friendly events at the Valentine Theatre and Peristyle Theater, including the Halloween Spooktacular (Oct. 30), Fly Dance Company (Feb. 23), and Toledo Ballet’s Spring Production (Apr. 28 & 29).

The Toledo Jazz Orchestra presents a 5-concert series with Alain Trudel as Artistic Director, including The Great American Songbook (Nov. 17), A Swingin’ Christmas (Dec. 17), Take the A Train (Mar. 23), An Evening with Matt Catingub (Apr. 8), and The Art of Art Tatum (May 6).

“Though the Toledo Jazz Orchestra has been a fantastic ensemble, we have operated in relative anonymity for over 40 years,” says Scott Potter, President of the TJO Board of Directors. “Partnering with TAPA elevates our presence and provides us a terrific opportunity to widen our audience. The TJO is also very excited to work with Artistic Director and Toledo Symphony Maestro Alain Trudel. Alain has remarkably diverse musical interests and is a legitimate jazzer.”

This season’s Special Events include Psycho (film with orchestra) on October 28, Handel’s Messiah on December 4, Toledo Ballet’s 82^nd Nutcracker December 10-12, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria on March 26.

Subscribers can add Special Event tickets to their subscriptions by visiting the TAPA Box Office at 1838 Parkwood Avenue or calling 419.246.8000. Single tickets for all events will go on sale to the public on August 1.

For full program information regarding the 2022/2023 season, visit toledosymphony.com or toledoballet.com. For questions, please contact Vanessa Gardner, Director of Marketing & Communications for the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts at vgardner@artstoledo.com.

ABOUT TOLEDO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Toledo Symphony Orchestra is a community-supported organization of professional musicians and teachers who deliver quality performance and music education for all.

Formed in 1943 as The Friends of Music and incorporated in 1951 as the Toledo Orchestra Association, Inc., the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has grown from a core group of twenty-two part-time musicians to a regional orchestra that employs sixty-nine professional musicians who consider the Toledo Symphony their primary employer, as well as numerous extra players annually as repertoire demands.

The Toledo Symphony reaches more than 260,000 individuals annually through performances and education programs. The series concerts (Masterworks, Pops, Chamber, and Family Series) are the critical underpinning of the orchestra’s artistic mission and regularly draw people from 135 postal zip codes. Education programs, student performances, and community concerts are held in schools, neighborhood churches, performing arts centers, and community facilities throughout the region; many are offered at no charge or provided at a reduced fee to help expand participation.

ABOUT TOLEDO BALLET 

Toledo Ballet is a pre-professional dance company that inspires the passions and spirit of the Toledo community through dance. Toledo Ballet provides quality dance instruction and exceptional performance opportunities to over 250 students throughout northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan annually. 

Founded in 1939 by Marie Bollinger Vogt, Toledo Ballet continues to offer quality dance education spanning all ages and ability levels. Classes include ballet, contemporary, tap, tumbling, and Adaptive Dance, a unique class providing those with special needs an opportunity to learn to move in ways that come naturally to them. Acting, voice, musical theater, and conditioning are also offered at the school. In addition, Toledo Ballet brings in world-renowned, professional dancers each year to lead its summer intensive programs, drawing students from across the region seeking to advance their skills. 

Toledo Ballet students have competed at the national and international level, including the Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP), the world’s largest international student ballet competition, and many have pursued dance professionally at some of the most prestigious ballet institutions in the nation, including New York City Ballet, Chicago Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet. 

ABOUT TOLEDO ALLIANCE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

On January 1, 2019, the Toledo Ballet and Toledo Symphony officially merged to form the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), a new non-profit organization dedicated to providing exceptional live music and dance performances and education for the region. Stemming from an 81-year partnership and annual presentation of The Nutcracker in Toledo, this merger is one of only a few in the nation and promises to create new and invigorating programs, provide cost and revenue synergies in operations, and integrate the arts through shared educational missions. 

ABOUT THE TOLEDO JAZZ ORCHESTRA

Since 1979, the Toledo Jazz Orchestra has worked with dozens of industry legends, including Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Clark Terry and Zoot Sims. This 18-member group also performs the works of the major big bands from the past eight decades along with arrangements commissioned specifically for the orchestra. The Toledo Jazz Orchestra has two albums to its credit titled “Groovin’” and “Out of Nowhere.” For more information about TJO, visit toledojazz.org.