Something to Celebrate

The Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra Looks Forward to Live Concerts

The executive director and general manager of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra hopes the 2021–22 season will allow the ensemble to celebrate its 60th season with live performances again. Now that there appears to be light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the ensemble has made plans to resume its regular concerts.

The season will “start small,” in late October, Ryleigh Dupuis says, with concerts at Hilldale Lutheran Church. The audience may be smaller than at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, the symphony’s usual home, but the orchestra will be there in full force. Artistic director Paul Haas should be back in Thunder Bay, unless travel restrictions keep him out of the country, and RBC resident conductor Maria Fuller will be here for another season as well.

Family concerts for young audilastences are slated to resume, starting with the Halloween concert on October 31. A few weeks into the season, Dupuis hopes that everyone will be back at the Auditorium. “Our first show back at the Auditorium is our annual holiday pops concert. We’re really looking forward to it,” she says.

Many of the concerts on the calendar this season are concerts that people were looking forward to before the pandemic started. According to Dupuis, “Jim Witter, [and his show] The Piano Men is going to be presented [at] the end of January 2022.” Paul Fowler should be making an appearance on Earth Day 2022. Other planned shows include Steven Page performing with the TBSO, as well as Jeans ‘n Classics. Juno-nominated Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil is scheduled to be making an appearance in the Masterworks series.

Planning during a pandemic comes with a unique set of challenges. “We have contingencies for our contingencies,” Dupuis says. “We will adapt and change as necessary.”

“I’m just really looking forward to being able to have our musical community back together,” she continues. “It really feels like having an audience to play for is going to be a really special thing. We’ve had really great relationships with people digitally over the last year. But nothing can compare to that live audience experience.”

Ticket sales will hopefully start in September; for updates, visit tbso.ca or find them on Facebook @thunderbaysymphony.