Roy Thomson Hall is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Located

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

in the city's entertainment district, it is home to the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1906, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982, and since then has performed at Roy Thomson Hall. The TSO also manages the Toronto ...

, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the

Toronto Defiant Toronto Defiant is a Canadian professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Defiant compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) and are a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018, Toronto began play as one of eigh ...

. Opened in 1982, its circular architectural design exhibits a sloping and curvilinear glass exterior. It was designed by Canadian architects Arthur Erickson and Mathers and Haldenby.

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

acted as a special advisor to the architects on accessibility needs for disabled performers and guests. The hall seats 2,630 guests and features a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

built by Canadian organ builder Gabriel Kney from

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...

. The hall was formerly known as The New

Massey Hall Massey Hall is a performing arts theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. An intimate theatre, it was originally designed to sea ...

during its construction and pre-construction phase. It acquired its official name on January 14, 1982, as thanks to the family of Roy Thomson (first Lord Thomson of Fleet and founder of the publishing empire

Thomson Corporation The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to fo ...

), who had donated C$4.5 million to complete the fundraising efforts for the new hall. The hall was renovated over a period of six months in 2002, after years of complaints from musicians about the quality of its acoustics. Filmmaker Jeffery Klassen's 2005 film, ''Toronto Architecture'', interviews Arthur Erickson about the structure. Erickson talks of the point of the grey structure being that of a container which people were to fill up with their own decorations. The pond was originally designed to be used as a skating rink in the winter. The building was influenced by Erickson's journeys in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and his relationship with the North American Aboriginals. Peter Oundjian - Conductor of Toronto Symphony Orchestra 2014

The hall is one of the main venues used by the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

, with many gala screenings held there each year including a festival-closing screening of the year's

People's Choice Award The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

winner. The concert hall was used in scenes of the 2000 film ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...

''. The science fiction television series

The Expanse Expanse or The Expanse may refer to: Media and entertainment ''The Expanse'' franchise * ''The Expanse'' (novel series), a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey * ''The Expanse'' (TV series), a television adaptation of the ...

use it as the setting for the United Nations headquarters. The Amazon series The Boys also uses the hall as the bottom base for the otherwise digitally created superheroes’ tower Vought Headquarters. The hall was the venue of the state funeral of federal Leader of the Official Opposition and

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

leader

Jack Layton John Gilbert Layton (July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) was a Canadian academic and politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2003 to 2011 and leader of the Official Opposition in 2011. He previously sat on To ...

on August 27, 2011.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Arthur Erickson buildings Modernist architecture in Canada Concert halls in Canada Music venues in Toronto Thomson family PATH (Toronto) Music venues completed in 1982 1982 establishments in Ontario Toronto Defiant Esports venues in Canada

See also

References

External links