Landmarks and Beacons

8:00 pm, Friday, October 20, 2023

Guest Artist: Andrew Wan, Violin

Join the Etobicoke Philharmonic on Friday, October 20, 2023 at Martingrove Collegiate Institute - 50 Winterton Drive, Etobicoke (map) - for Landmarks and Beacons.

Our season opener sparkles with superstar soloist, Andrew Wan, concertmaster of Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, performing the Beethoven violin concerto. This passionate, expressive piece is an icon now but had a tepid reception initially , taking several decades to capture the public's imagination due to its length, complexity and expansive symphonic thought—revolutionary! Now, we recognize it as a beacon lighting the way from the classical to the new romantic era. Well into that new era, nearly a century later, Sibelius' love of his homeland inspired landmark works that became synonymous with the independent Finland. See if you agree with the critic at the premiere of his second symphony who saw a historic throughline: "one of the few symphonic creations of our time that point in the same direction as Beethoven's symphonies".