Jukka - Pekka Saraste & the Toronto Symphony

In 1986, approximately 40,565 Canadian claimed Finnish ancestry, with about 60% of that population living in the province of Ontario. If you figure 3% of any population has an interest in classical music, then you might expect to be able to draw about 1200 Finns to a concert. If you made the concert a hugely "Finnish" event, and bussed them in from across the province, you might get a larger audience.

I still don't know how the Canadian Friends of Finland (CFF) packed Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto for the performance of Sibelius' "Kullervo Symphony" by the CJRT Orchestra conducted by Paul Robinson in May of 1986, but I do suspect that the managers of the Toronto Symphony noticed that they had a potentially huge audience in Canadian Finns.

It wasn't long before the Toronto Symphony Orchestra had an internationally acclaimed Finnish conductor on the podium!

Jukka-Pekka Saraste held the post of Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1994-2001.

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqIo3a9bS4g

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