The Meridian Arts Centre is a performing arts venue in the North York district of Toronto , Ontario , Canada. It opened on October 16, 1993, as the North York Performing Arts Centre and was designed by Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler for musicals, theatre productions and other performing arts . At opening, North York awarded management of the centre to Livent , which sold the naming rights in 1994 to Ford Motor Company of Canada . It became the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts . Later, it debranded as the Toronto Centre for the Arts .
19-778: In January 2019, TO Live (formerly Civic Theatres Toronto, a City of Toronto agency which manages and operates the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts , Toronto Centre for the Arts, and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts ) announced a new sponsorship deal with Meridian Credit Union , which saw the theatre rebranded in September 2019. The building originally housed three theatres: the Main Stage Theatre with 1,727 seats,
38-531: A 1993 production of Show Boat that transferred to Broadway . After Dancap ceased operation, the centre had difficulty finding enough tenants for the Main Stage, and began a series of renovations from 2014 to 2016 that divided the Main Stage into two smaller theatres. The Greenwin Theatre seats 296 and was built on the original stage and backstage areas, while the remainder of the original auditorium became
57-515: A permanent position at the university the following year. The quartet began their own association with the university in 1968, and the founding members began teaching at the Faculty of Music in 1972. From 1965 to 1967, the quartet toured Canada on behalf of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, with visits to France and Austria, and a debut recital at Carnegie Hall on 22 November 1967. The quartet continued touring after they began their association with
76-738: A rental house. The Centre has since hosted a wide variety of performers, including the Gryphon Trio ; the St Lawrence and Tokyo string quartets; Marc-André Hamelin ; Jon Kimura Parker ; the Chamber Players of Toronto; MegaCity Chorus; Nexus; the ORIANA Women's Choir; Youth and Music Canada; and the Elmer Iseler Singers , who premiered Pimooteewin: The Journey (Melissa Hui, composer; Tomson Highway, librettist) at
95-649: A summer music camp for Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada at Mont-Orford National Park in Quebec . The summer camp developed into the Orford Arts Centre, now Orford Music. Lorand Fenyves , a violinist and teacher then based in Geneva , began teaching at the music camp in 1963. The summer of 1965, two Canadians that Fenyves was teaching in Geneva, Andrew Dawes and Kenneth Perkins, came to study at Orford. With
114-718: The CA$ 3 -million construction cost was shared by the city and the Centre's patrons. The Bluma Appel Theatre has been the Canadian Stage Company ’s main stage for over 25 years. The "Town Hall" was renamed the Jane Mallett Theatre in November 1984, in memory of Canadian actress Jane Mallett . It is used mainly for recitals, chamber concerts, public debates, stage and film presentations. Henry Tarvainen
133-535: The Order of Canada in 1991. The citation for Dawes reads in part, "His leadership, commitment and endurance were largely responsible for the sustained quality, esteem and respect the [Orford String Quartet] garnered among musicians and audiences alike worldwide." The quartet performed their last two concerts at Music at Sharon in 1991, at Sharon Temple in Sharon, Ontario . The second last concert consisted entirely of
152-635: The 1967 Canadian Centennial . It houses two auditoriums, the 868-seat Bluma Appel Theatre and the 499-seat Jane Mallett Theatre. The centre is municipally owned and was operated from 1983 to 1987 by CentreStage Company (named Toronto Arts Foundation 1964-73, then Toronto Arts Productions 1973-83). General managers of the St. Lawrence Centre have included Mavor Moore 1966-70, Leon Major 1970-80, Victor C. Polley 1980-1, Bruce Swerdfager 1981-5, Michael Noon circa 1985-94, David Wallett circa 1996-2007, and James Roe in 2007. The CA$ 2.6 -million St. Lawrence Centre for
171-432: The Arts was designed by Gordon S. Adamson and Associates . It opened on 2 February 1970 after eight years of planning and construction. The building originally housed the 863-seat "Theatre" and the 483-seat "Town Hall". The "Theatre" was initially adaptable for thrust stage , proscenium , and caliper formations, and was used for dramatic presentations until 1982, when it was redesigned by The Thom Partnership (Toronto) and
190-752: The Centre in February 2008. Festivals held at the Centre have included the New Wave Composers Festival and the Luminato arts festival. 43°38′51″N 79°22′31″W / 43.64737°N 79.37519°W / 43.64737; -79.37519 Orford String Quartet The Orford String Quartet was a Canadian string quartet active from 1965 through 1991. They came to be the leading string quartet in Canada, and were well-known internationally. In 1951, Gilles Lefebvre launched
209-701: The George Weston Recital Hall with 1,036 seats, and the multi-purpose, 200-seat Studio Theatre. When Livent declared bankruptcy in 1998, the City of Toronto government assumed control of the facility. The Main Stage was home to Dancap Productions ' Canadian production of Jersey Boys from August 2008 until August 2010. Prior to Jersey Boys , the facility was the home of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard in 1995 and
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#1732801000978228-552: The Lyric Theatre, seating 576 and featuring LED backlit acoustic panels that can change colour with the lighting design. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts is a performing arts theatre complex located in downtown Toronto , Ontario , Canada. Situated on Front Street one block east of Yonge Street , it was the City of Toronto 's official centennial project, commemorating
247-615: The Mendelssohn Quartets No. 1 and 2, and the council's Grand prix du disque in 1981 for a recording of quartets by Beckwith and Schafer then again in 1983 for a recording of the Beethoven string quartets. Recordings by the Orford String Quartet won three Juno awards in the category Best Classical Album: Solo or Chamber Ensemble : Both Andrew Dawes and Kenneth Perkins were honoured with Membership in
266-776: The St Lawrence Centre and various venues throughout the city. Among others who used the Centre's facilities, COMUS Music Theatre presented the staged premiere of John Beckwith 's The Shivaree in the Town Hall in April 1982, and the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble mounted Cosi fan tutte in the Bluma Appel Theatre in 1985. CentreStage Music ceased its operations on 1 July 1987, and the St. Lawrence Centre became, for musical events,
285-486: The St Lawrence Centre for the Arts included several annual series and a broad spectrum of chamber music performances, in addition to special series and events. Canadian Sound, a festival of music by Canadian composers and performers, was presented in 1976. The Orford String Quartet presented a Beethoven series during the 1982-3 season. In addition to its regular chamber series in 1984-5, CentreStage Music (the concert arm of CentreStage) presented its 17-day Bach 300 festival at
304-547: The Theatre Projects Consultants. During the CA$ 5.3 -million renovation, the thrust stage was removed, a balcony and boxes helped increase seating, and an optional orchestra pit was provided. It reopened on 19 March 1983 as the Bluma Appel Theatre, in honour of a major donor, Bluma Appel . Additional restorations to the Centre's theatres and exterior were completed in 2007 by 3rd Uncle Design Inc (Toronto);
323-710: The University of Toronto. They are credited with more than 1,500 concerts across the country, premiere performances of more than 50 Canadian works, and more than 50 recordings. They toured in the United States in 1984. The Orford Quartet shared first prize in a string quartet competition that the European Broadcasting Union held in 1974. They received the Canadian Music Council Award in 1978 for their recording of
342-479: The support of Lefebvre and Fenyves, the two violinists formed a string quartet with Terence Helmer and Marcel Saint-Cyr. Their first concert was on 11 August 1965. The four performers were pleased with the performance, and decided to continue performing together. That fall, when Fenyves became a visiting teacher at the University of Toronto 's Faculty of Music , the quartet followed him to Toronto. Fenyves took
361-405: Was the centre's first resident director. Louis Applebaum was music consultant 1968-71. Franz Kraemer was music director 1971-9, succeeded by a team: Costa Pilavachi, music administrator, and Paul Robinson, director of music programming. Robinson resigned in 1980 and Pilavachi continued in sole charge of music until Jane Forner replaced him in 1982. In the 1970s and 1980s, music presentations at
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