Returning with my In The City series with a personally curated list of various arts and culture offerings across Toronto.
As always, you will notice some favourite venues. I am sharing a mix of music, film and exhibitions that should appeal to many of you.
Music
Venezuela Viva
Upper Canada Choristers & Latin ensemble Cantemos
Grace Church on-the-Hill
May 16, 2025 | 7:30pm ET
The concert celebrates Venezuelan choral music with elements of its vibrant African, Spanish, Caribbean, and Indigenous cultural influences. César Alejandro Carrillo, leading Venezuelan composer and poet, and La Petite Musicale of Toronto, a choir which originated in Trinidad and Tobago are special guests.
Reflecting the country’s multicultural roots in a calypso number and a diversity of other styles, the choir is conducted by the respected Toronto-based musician and educator Lindy Burgess in his 50th anniversary year as musical director.
Unable to make it in person? The concert also streams live through the Upper Canada Choristers’ website or on YouTube. There is no charge, but donations are gratefully welcomed.
The Sellers & Newel Literary Society Presents
Sal – Big Turnip Recording Artist
Sellers & Newel
May 16, 2025 | 8:00pm ET
Admission to all Literary Society events is by a minimum donation. 100% of the money donated goes to the performers. Only seats for which donations have been made are guaranteed.
Donations can only be made by e-transfer to sellers@sellersandnewel.com.
Beethoven’s Eroica
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Roy Thompson Hall
May 28 – May 31, 2025
Experience the heroic and triumphant grandeur of Beethoven’s “Eroica”, a symphony that uplifts with its stirring power and grand themes, in this program conducted by Kristiina Poska. The concert opens with Arvo Pärt’s meditative Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, an homage to the British composer, followed by Callaloo—A Caribbean Suite for Piano and Orchestra by Stewart Goodyear, a vibrant piece written and performed by the composer and pianist, inspired by the joy and energy of Caribbean music and culture.
Film
Toronto Metropolitan Film Festival (TMFF)
Nighttime Screenings
May 16 – May 17, 2025
The TMFF showcases the diverse innovative works of students from The Creative School at the Toronto Metropolitan University, including a special selection of Image Arts Thesis Films.
Victims of Sin (Víctimas del Pecado, 1951)
Eyesore Cinema
May 18, 2025 | 7:00pm ET
Violeta (Ninón Sevilla), a cabaret dancer saves an infant from a trash can and decides to raise the child herself.
It is considered a melodrama from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Criterion describes it as a “gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical”.
Exhibitions
Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot
Bata Shoe Museum
May 2025 – October 2025
Since their invention in the late nineteenth century, cowboy boots have embodied contradiction. They have symbolized labour and leisure, freedom and domination, tradition and reinvention. Cowboy boots were born out of industrialization yet refined through expert craftsmanship, they have been used to both celebrate individualism and forge cultural cohesion.
The Bata Shoe Museum will host various events as part of this exhibition. I would recommend the Country Music Trivia night on May 27, 7:00 pm ET.
Muqarnas: Form and Light
Aga Khan Museum
Continues until September 7, 2025
This exhibition showcases the intricacy and diversity of muqarnas in Islamic architecture through a selection of photographs by Toronto-based artist Glenn McArthur.
From Spain to Central Asia, uncover the complex elegance of muqarnas — intricate, three-dimensional surfaces found inside domes and above portals. These multi-cell surfaces, crafted in materials ranging from wood to mirrored glass, create an elegant transition between the square base of a building and its rounded ceiling, casting a mesmerizing play of light and shadow reminiscent of the heavens.
