Noteworthy

Have you ever wondered who decides what is played at a Toronto Symphony concert? For example, when Yuja Wang comes to Toronto to play Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in September with Gustavo Gimeno conducting, who chose that piece? Was that Gimeno’s choice? It’s his orchestra, after all, but Yuja Wang is, well, Yuja Wang. Doesn’t she get to choose what she plays? And with a whole orchestra of brilliant, driven, creative, and, perhaps, artistically exacting individuals with so many competing priorities, who could possibly bring them all on board and fill Roy Thomson Hall without blowing the budget? 

Welcome to the world of Loie Fallis, the Toronto Symphony’s Vice-President of Artistic Planning, who, at the end of this season, will step down after a truly remarkable 46 seasons programming countless concerts with countless performers, walking the very fine lines between guidance, leadership, and collaboration.

So, what prepares a person for a career like that?

Loie grew up in Toronto in a music-loving family where the kids all took piano lessons, sang in choirs, and saw the Symphony at Massey Hall. Loie played the French horn in school and attended Queen’s University for music. While still in school, she played in the Kingston Symphony, and soon learned that she loved to organize concerts as well. 

“The Queen’s University Performing Arts Office needed help with concert administration, so I did that, and soon I was organizing shows at the arena—Elvis Costello, Rush, and George Carlin. I loved the challenge of bringing people together and producing something,” she says. “I loved making it work.” 

After completing school and a course at the Banff Centre, she was hired at the Canadian Opera Company as Assistant Publicist. “I would drive the singers to press interviews. And after the opera I made sure the reviewers had a ride back to their offices at The Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star so they could meet the deadline for the next day’s papers,” she remembers. “It was exciting work, but I knew that the symphony orchestra was my art form.”

That became the truth in 1980 when Walter Homburger (legendary TSO Managing Director, 1962–1987) and Wray Armstrong (TSO Artistic Administrator, 1979–1991) hired Loie to manage the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

“It was like a small version of the big orchestra, and soon I was programming TSO Education concerts. And I sat in on everything! Meetings at the highest levels and so many concerts. With Walter and Wray, you were always learning and being taught. I became Manager of Pops, then the Ontario Place summer series, so that when Walter retired in 1987, I became head of programming. It was a very natural progression.”

That is 39 years of programming concerts with one of the country’s greatest orchestras, in a city that has almost doubled in size. 

“Toronto is a city that musicians want to come to,” Loie says. “We have an orchestra that is always prepared, always ready for anything, and open to new ideas and challenges. We are always looking for where we need to be going next, bringing the orchestra further into the community. When we tour, we always take music by Canadian composers, including Indigenous composers, Chinese-Canadian composers, and we feature Canadian soloists. It is part of who we are. I’m retiring now, but I’m also actively planning TSO concerts and events that won’t happen for another two or three years—a fantastic South Asian music program and Lunar New Year programs. We have built and are building something really great, and at the same time, there is still so much more to do.” 

Asked for favourite memories, Loie named three: 

• “The 1987 tour to the Northwest Territories with Andrew Davis is a special memory. We became the first symphony to perform in Inuvik. There were children, parents, grandparents, all together. There was such a rush of joy. It was magical to share music and such a connection between people. It was life-changing.”

• “On Valentine’s Day in 2007, our guest conductor was snowed under in New York. Yannick Nézet-Séguin was conducting Gounod’s Faust at the Canadian Opera Company, so Gary Kulesha (former TSO Composer Advisor) led the first half of our concert, and at intermission, Steven Philcox took over at the Opera while Yannick ran across the street to the TSO and brought the house down. It was a thrill to see his brilliance as he was still rising to such great heights.”

• “And on April 9, 2022, to mark the TSO’s 100th anniversary, we brought together five of the orchestra’s Music Directors—Sir Andrew Davis (1975–1988), Günther Herbig (1989–1994), Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1994–2001), Peter Oundjian (2004–2018), and Gustavo Gimeno (2020–present). It was a great honour to have worked with each of those wonderful musicians, and to welcome them back, to see again how brilliantly and differently each one connects with the orchestra, and to see them share the stage and interact with each other. An unforgettable time for me.” 

So…how does one person get all of those brilliant people to work together and make something special that they, and the city around them, can see as a true source of pride? 

“My role is to bring out the best in an artist, whether a composer, a soloist, or a conductor. If they’re not comfortable, they’re not going to perform well. We have to push the boundaries with our creativity. It takes patience and trust, but when that happens, it is tremendously satisfying.”

Tom Allen is a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller who has hosted CBC Radio music programs and TSO concerts.