Toronto Symphony Orchestra

And my dad, uh, my dad is in the arts.

I mean, my mom was an art teacher, but my dad's, like, a violinist in the Toronto Symphony.

Mm.

So he kind of was, you know, culture...

And so a lot of this evolution has happened over several years, but I'm glad to see how the Toronto Mass Choir has been able to be at the forefront of so many of those discoveries, collaborations.

not only just being the first to record a big mass choir recording like that, but, you know, doing recordings with the Toronto Symphony and, you know, with the Jazz Orchestra and, you know, Ben Heppner and, you know, just different things.

And so it pretty much...

Every time we would take on a project, it would be like we're the first ones to do it.

Who do we got in this group of comedians? Do you know any of the names?

Yes, it's the same group we did a show with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra here.

They're all very talented young people.

Gotcha,

I am your host, Sandra Mogensen, and I love to explore how a composer goes from nothing to a fully developed piece of music which moves and inspires listeners.

Our guest today is composer Linda Catlin-Smith, whose orchestral work, The Horizon, will be receiving its world premiere with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on September 24th, with performances on September 26th and 7th as well.

Now, we will discuss the creative process and the life of a composer with Linda in this episode.

And I'd just like to welcome you, Linda, to the Women of Notes podcast.

First, I've been very, very thankful for the ministry of David and Julie up here along with the team.

I don't know if many of you know this, but they actually had to leave, so they're probably not hearing this, but David played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 15 years.

And I had a chance to...

I grew up as a classically trained violinist as well, and I'm kind of living my life vicariously by hearing his story.

And I think I saw you at the symphony right when you were close to moving or something.

It was a Yuja Wang concert in Toronto with the TSO.

And I remember it was right around the time when you had just moved or you were just about to...

And how did you find that transition? Was it like scary to move to Toronto? Or was it because you already had so many connections there? Or was it a little unsure at the beginning?

And so I think it, it's my responsibility to step up, to say, "I understand what I've got here, and I'm not gonna let it go."

I'm, I'm sure my whole life I've been going to football and hockey games and baseball games where they always play the national anthem before the game, but they never used to at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra or the Canadian Opera Company or Stratford, and now they do before the performance begins.

What do you think of that?

I think, yeah, I, at first I didn't know what to think of it because, again, I was...