Simon Rivard is one of the most sought-after conductors on the Canadian music scene.

Since 2018, he has been the conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 2022–23, he will make his debut with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre classique de Montréal. In addition, he will conduct the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke, and the Edmonton Opera in Puccini’s Tosca. 

Between 2018 and 2022, he held the title of RBC Resident Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. At the TSO, he was mentored by Music Director Gustavo Gimeno. In addition to leading concerts throughout the season, he has been assisting world-class conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, John Storgårds, Barbara Hannigan, Xian Zhang, and Eun-sun Kim. Since 2019, he has been an Equilibrium Young Artist, as part of Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan's internationally acclaimed mentorship program for early-career professional musicians. 

Simon Rivard is also an excellent choral conductor. Since 2020, he has been involved with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Canada’s largest choral organization. He served as Associate Conductor (2020–2022), and as Artistic Collaborator (2022–present).

As a guest conductor, he has conducted orchestras in North America and Europe. He recently made his début with Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Orchestre symphonique Sherbrooke, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. In February 2022, he made his début at the Edmonton Opera in Puccini's La Bohème. He also recently collaborated with the celebrated Toronto-based opera company Against The Grain, in Holst’s Sāvitri.

In 2018, he was invited to participate in the first Conducting Mentorship Program at the Verbier Festival Academy (Switzerland), at the conclusion of which he was awarded a Special Prize. In 2022, he was invited by the Verbier Festival to be a coach of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.

In 2017–18, he served as Resident Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (Ontario, Canada). In 2017, he stepped in for Jean-Philippe Tremblay as Interim Music Director of the Orchestre de la Francophonie.

TSYO Conductor generously supported by the Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee

Toronto-born violinist Shane Kim has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2012.

Prior positions include Principal violinist of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra and concertmaster appearances with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and at the Aspen, Spoleto-Charleston, and Lakes Area music festivals.

Winner of the Orford String Quartet Award, Shane is a founding member of the XIA String Quartet, with fellow TSO musicians Theresa Rudolph and Joseph Johnson, and Robert Uchida of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Shane has performed chamber music at the Ravinia Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, and Encuentro de Musica in Santander, Spain; and has served as a resident artist at the Toronto Summer Music Festival.

Shane received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied with noted pedagogue David Zafer and chamber music with Lorand Fenyves. Mr. Kim continued his studies at the Yale School of Music with Peter Oundjian and the Tokyo String Quartet. Other important teachers include Paul Kantor, Gerard Kantarjian, and TSO violinist Mi-Hyon Kim.

A native of Toronto, Peter Seminovs is currently in his sixth year as violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to joining the TSO, Peter performed with the Utah Symphony, where he had the opportunity to travel on a month-long tour throughout Germany, Austria, and Slovenia in 2005. In 2011, Peter performed in the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley, Idaho and will be returning in 2012.

Peter began playing the violin at the age of five. His studies led him to a Violin Performance Degree at the University of Toronto (where he also minored in Fine Art History) and from there to a Master's diploma at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. His principal teachers include Yaakov Geringas, Atis Bankas and Sally Thomas. From an early age, Peter won competitions and scholarships throughout North America including prizes at the Kiwanis International Music Festival, The Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto, the Mannes College of Music, and First Prize at the National Canadian Music Competition.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Peter is particularly interested in the music of his Latvian heritage and has performed at various Latvian Concert Association programs throughout Canada and the United States. An avid chamber musician, each year Peter enjoys playing with fellow colleagues from the TSO in the Five Small Concerts series held by the Toronto Symphony Associates.

In the community, he is a member of the Bach Consort, a charity ensemble that performs works by J.S. Bach and others to raise money for local not-for-profit organizations, including the TSO for its education programs. Peter regularly coaches the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, and is in his fifth season participating in the TSO's Adopt-A-Player program. Peter enjoys teaching privately, and specializes in helping other aspiring violinists prepare and take orchestral auditions.

Peter enjoys playing tennis, golf, collecting antique watches, traveling, relaxing at the cottage and taking his dog, Harley (Pug and Jack Russell Terrier mix) on long walks.

Theresa Rudolph joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Viola in 2011.

She is also a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, a position she has held since 2018. Theresa began her orchestral career as the youngest member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, shortly after graduating university at the age of 21. She has also held positions with the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada Orchestras, and performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician and recitalist, Theresa has performed at festivals across North America, including the Vancouver, Great Lakes, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, Ottawa Chamberfest, and New Music Detroit. Frequently heard on series throughout Ontario, she appears regularly as a member of the TSO Chamber Soloists, and has been featured on CBC/Radio-Canada and The New Classical 96.3 FM.

Increasingly sought-after as a teacher, Theresa maintains a robust studio at the University of Toronto, and was recently appointed as the Viola Faculty of the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She has been a guest clinician at the Universities of Alberta, Western Ontario, and Ottawa, and was a faculty member of the inaugural online viola workshop, BratsheTogether. Theresa is also the Viola Coach of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Theresa was raised in a musical household in Vancouver, BC. She studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music as a student of Gerald Stanick, who inspired her to pursue her passion for the rich, dark sound of the viola. The recipient of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, she then obtained her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Robert Vernon. While at CIM, she toured and recorded with the Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, was a prizewinner at the prestigious Fischoff Competition, and performed in Carnegie Hall.

Theresa and her husband, violinist Csaba Koczo, are the proud parents of three energetic young children. Theresa is also an avid runner, whose favourite race distance is the half-marathon.

Principal cellist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2009, Joseph Johnson previously held the same position with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as principal cellist of the Santa Fe Opera.

Prior to his Milwaukee appointment, Joseph Johnson was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra cello section for 11 years. He was a founding member of both the Prospect Park Players and the Minneapolis Quartet, the latter of which was honoured with The McKnight Foundation Award in 2005.

Mr. Johnson has been heard throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. His festival appearances include performances in all classical genres at the American festivals of Santa Fe, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Bard, Cactus Pear, Grand Teton, and Music in the Vineyards as well as the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Virtuosi Festival in Brazil. Recent highlights include the Canadian Première of the Unsuk Chin Cello Concerto with the Esprit Orchestra, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Kingston Symphony and Etobicoke Philharmonic. Upcoming concerts include concerto engagements with the Niagara Symphony and Symphony Nova Scotia.

A gifted and inspiring teacher, Mr. Johnson is Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of Toronto, as well as the cello coach for the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL. He conducts numerous masterclasses for a wide range of institutions and ensembles.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Joseph Johnson earned his master’s degree from Northwestern University. Awards and honours include a performer's certificate from the Eastman School of Music and first prize from the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.

Mr. Johnson performs on a magnificent Paolo Castello cello crafted in Genoa in 1780.

Miles Jaques has been serving as clarinetist and solo bass clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since the 2017 season, after serving as acting associate principal for the 2016-17 season. Before moving to Canada, Mr. Jaques was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida.

An accomplished orchestral musician, Jaques has performed and toured across North America in many ensembles, including The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Orchestra, and Florida Grand Opera.

As a chamber musician, Jaques regularly performs as a part of the TSO Chamber Soloists and has appeared in numerous festivals and societies throughout the US and Canada, including Toronto Summer Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Amici Ensemble, ChamberFest Dubuque, Baltimore Chamber Music Society, among others.

A committed educator, Jaques serves on the clarinet faculty of the University of Toronto and as the woodwind coach for the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. Additionally, he has presented masterclasses at the Royal Conservatory, Iberacademy, University of Antioquia, and the University of South Dakota.

Mr. Jaques is a Buffet-Crampon Artist playing exclusively on Buffet-Crampon instruments and a D’Addario Woodwind Performing Artist.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Horn Nicholas Hartman joined the TSO in 2017, after previously serving with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

He has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and Canada, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Breckenridge Music Festival, and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. In 2012, Nicholas was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC as part of their ongoing Conservatory Project. He was a 2011 and 2012 Tanglewood Music Center fellow, a 2010 National Repertory Orchestra fellow, and in 2009, he was invited to Québec to record the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Orchestra de la Francophonie Canadienne.

Nicholas is a 2012 graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, where he studied with Houston Symphony principal horn William VerMeulen.

Joseph Kelly joined the TSO in 2018 as Assistant Timpani and Section Percussion. He is also a coach of the percussion section for the TSYO.

Previously, Joe was a member of the percussion section at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Mr. Kelly has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Fort Worth Symphony.

In 2013 and 2014, Mr. Kelly was selected to be a member of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, where he performed orchestral and chamber works and was the soloist in Evan Antonellis’s Multiple Histories. In 2014, Joe joined the Lucerne Festival Academy and toured Europe under the direction of Matthias Pintscher, performing works by Lachenmann, Berio, and Pintscher. When he returned to Lucerne in 2015 as a member of the Academy, he was also invited to perform as an Alumni Guest at the Tanglewood Festival during its Festival of Contemporary Music. The following summer, Joseph was invited to be the solo percussionist of the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble. This included being the resident ensemble for a composer workshop run by Wolfgang Rihm, as well as the set group for a large commissioning project from the festival. The Alumni Ensemble gave 21 world premières during the 2016 Lucerne Festival.

Mr. Kelly received his bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and master’s degree in orchestral performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a recipient of the Elizabeth Beineke Scholarship and the Outreach Award at the 2015 Commencement. He was awarded the 2012 Kerope Zildjian Concert Percussion Scholarship. Mr. Kelly holds a professional diploma in orchestral studies from Roosevelt University and was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Former teachers include Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton, She-e Wu, Erik Charlston, Vadim Karpinos, and Ed Harrison.