On Tuesday, September 12, The Toledo Symphony, a member of the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts, announced that Music Director Alain Trudel’s contract has been extended through the 2025/2026 season. The TSO also announced that frequent guest conductor Steven Jarvi has been named Principal Pops Conductor for the 2023/2024 season.
As the Toledo Symphony begins its 80th anniversary season this week, the organization is thrilled to share that the option to extend Alain Trudel’s contract as Music Director has been exercised through the 2025/2026 performance season which will be Trudel’s 8th season with the Toledo Symphony.
“I have often said that the TSO is not just an orchestra in Toledo, but truly Toledo’s Orchestra,” says Alain Trudel. “I am thrilled to continue to be on the podium not only for this milestone anniversary season, but for seasons to come. The Toledo Symphony and TAPA are my Toledo family. I feel truly at home when I am here.”
“Alain Trudel is a confidant, a friend, a thoughtful and caring leader, and a visionary thinker,” says Zak Vassar, President & CEO of the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts. “We are so fortunate to work alongside him and to have him on our stage. I look forward to working with Alain on several exciting projects in the seasons ahead!”
Alain has conducted well over 150 performances of the Toledo Symphony during his tenure including major Masterworks programs with renowned soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Augustin Hadelich, André Watts, Jon Nakamatsu, Olga Kern (returning in January 2024), and so many more. He also performs with the orchestra in surrounding communities near and far such as Rossford, Sylvania, Greenville, Findlay, Tiffin, Napoleon and more. He leads the orchestra’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah (December 3) at the Rosary Cathedral and Toledo Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker at the Stranahan Theater (December 9-10).
“I am particularly excited about this season,” says Trudel. “After a few years of having to limit the number of musicians on stage, it is going to feel really good to get back to the major repertoire such as Rite of Spring, The Planets, and of course we have some Mahler thrown in there for good measure! Plus, we have a world premiere to celebrate Toledo’s position in the path of totality of the solar eclipse next spring. We might be celebrating our 80th birthday, but we are also celebrating our community.”
Alain Trudel comes from a musical family. His mother was a cabaret singer, and his father was a jazz drummer. When Alain started playing in a brass band at 12, he spent his youth going from jam session to jam session. He has played with jazz giants such as Herbie Hancock, Henry Mancini and Branford Marsalis and recorded the best-selling Jazz Quartet album Jericho’s Legacy on the Naxos label. Alain Trudel was named Artistic Director of the Toledo Jazz Orchestra for the 22/23 season and will continue in that role for the 23/24 season.
In addition to Alain’s contract extension, the Toledo Symphony is pleased to name Steven Jarvi as Principal Pops conductor. A Michigan native, Jarvi has been praised for his “uncommonly expressive and detailed” performances by the Miami Herald and described as an “eloquent and decisive” conductor by The Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as the Music Director of the Dearborn Symphony and is former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony.
“I’ve been guest conducting the Toledo Symphony for a number of years and have always enjoyed every aspect of the work,” says Jarvi. “From the fantastic players to the wonderful audiences and staff, I’m so pleased we are making our relationship formal and are performing together more frequently.”
Jarvi won the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award while the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, and previously served as the Conducting Fellow with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, an Associate Conductor for New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, and the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Conductor with the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center.
“Naming Steven Jarvi as Principal Pops Conductor just made sense,” says Merwin Siu, Principal Second Violin and Artistic Administrator of the Toledo Symphony. “He’s easy to work with, a great communicator, and his presence on the podium is confident and poised while also being fun.”
Steven Jarvi will conduct most performances on the KeyBank Pops series, a number of holiday neighborhood concerts, and special events including Guster (September 20), Simply the Best: The Music of Tina Turner (September 30), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert (May 4), and more.
“Education and outreach are some of my favorite aspects of what we will be doing together as a group, but I certainly can’t downplay how much I’m looking forward to the absolute fun of our Pops performances,” says Jarvi. “My face always aches from smiling so much because I’m having so much fun.”
Among TAPA’s 2023/2024 Season Highlights:
- American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Branford Marsalis performs with both the Toledo Symphony (Saturday, September 16) and Toledo Jazz Orchestra (Thursday, September 14) to open the season.
- Toledo Symphony celebrates its 80th season with a concert paying tribute to TSO’s first performance featuring works by Brahms, Mozart, Ravel, and contemporary composer Samuel Adler. Pianist Nicholas McCarthy performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto for Left Hand.
- Toledo Ballet will perform its 83rd presentation of The Nutcracker, the longest-running annual production in the nation. Spring 2024 will showcase Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet The Sleeping Beauty.
- Gustav Holst’s The Planets returns to the Peristyle complemented by a world premiere orchestral composition celebrating Toledo’s path in the full solar eclipse.
- TSO performs Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony.
- Award winning pianist Olga Kern returns to the TSO in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.
- Spoken word artist and activist Aaron Dworkin narrates An American Rhapsody.
The Rita Barbour Kern Masterworks series will feature twelve performances on either Friday or Saturday evening at 8PM.
The KeyBank Pops Series will feature six performances including two on Friday evenings and four on Saturday evenings. The concert start time for the KeyBank Pops series returns to 8PM.
The Andersons Inc. Charitable Foundation Family Series will include three performances, one Thursday evening performance and two weekend matinees.
The Hartmann Bogan Jazz Series will feature five performances including two Thursday and three Saturday evening performances.
For full program information regarding the 2023/2024 season, visit artstoledo.com. For questions, please contact Vanessa Gardner, Vice President, Marketing & Operations for the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts at vgardner@artstoledo.com.
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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.
