The Symphony Orchestra of Canada (formerly the New World Symphony Orchestra of Toronto) is an eighty-member orchestra comprising some of Canada's finest musicians. As one of the newest orchestras to be formed in Canada, the first mandate was to assemble the best musicians Canada has to offer.
In 1980, founder and current Artistic Director, Stefanos Karabekos, began conducting an ensemble that consisted of members of the Toronto Symphony. This ensemble toured eight consecutive years and performed at many of Canada's renowed venues including, The Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, Jubliee Theatre in Calgary, Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall, Ontario Place, O'Keefe Centre and Convocation Hall.
In 1992, Stefanos Karabekos with members of the Toronto Symphony, the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company established what is now known as the Symphony Orchestra of Canada. Led by Conductor and Artistic Director, Mr. Karabekos, the orchestra has been committed to promoting and showcasing the Canadian musical identity at home and abroad.
STEFANOS KARABEKOS BIOGRAPHY
Stefanos Karabekos was born in the village of Kranea, near Karditsa, Thessalia, Greece in 1942. He was always interested in a career in the field of music, but his father insisted that he train for a different profession. "To be a musician in Greece was not such a high level profession at that time", explains Karabekos. "He wanted me to be a doctor or something".
While attending school in Greece he studied music at the Piraeus Conservatory of Music. After high school he earned a diploma in Political Economy and in 1973 he moved to Toronto to pursue his Masters Degree at York University. While attending York he continued to study music at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and in 1975 he switched his direction of studies at York pursuing a degree in music. In 1978 he graduated with an Honours B.A. in Music. At York University he studied composition for cinema, radio and television with Louis Applebaum.
In a 1982 profile story about Stefanos Karabekos in The Canadian Composer, writer Arthur Kaptainis observed that Karabekos’ music is often structured along ‘classical’ lines, and it is not impossible to find a melodic sequence faintly reminiscent of Beethoven, or a harmonic excursion into the virile turf of Brahms’ gypsy invocations. Stefanos has conducted concerts of his works throughout Canada under the banner "Stefanos Karabekos in Concert". Some of the performances have included Toronto at the O’Keefe Centre, Roy Thomson Hall, University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall, The Music Hall (sponsored by CBC); Vancouver, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre; Calgary at The Jubilee Theatre. In 1983 he conducted "Tribute to Alexander" at the Ontario Place Forum, and in 1985 he returned to his native Greece to perform concerts of his works at the Festival of Athens and the Festival of Karditsa in Greece. In 1995 he presented his music throughout Ontario in another tour that included the cities of Ottawa, London, Oshawa, Kitchener and St. Catharines. Mr. Karabekos has been interviewed many times on Canadian radio and television and is known for his lectures and musical demonstrations on the history of Greek music. He has been invited to deliver repeat lectures to university classes and community groups.
In 1981 he established the Karabekos Award at York University, a scholarship for talented graduate and undergraduate students in the fields of ethnomusicological research, composition and performance, in a variety of musical styles that include elements outside the Western art traditions.
In 1992 Stefanos Karabekos, with members of The Toronto Symphony, The National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company established what has now become The Symphony Orchestra of Canada. The orchestra is committed to promoting and showcasing Canada’s musical identity at home and abroad. In 1977 Mr. Karabekos was commissioned to compose "Rhapsody Thessaloniki 1977" which he and The Symphony Orchestra of Canada, then known as Toronto New World Symphony, performed at The Cultural Capital of Europe in Thessaloniki, Greece. Stefanos continues to compose and tour, promoting his own compositions and compositions of other great Canadian composers.
In 2004 - After many concert performances, Stefanos Karabekos has assembled some of the Symphony Orchestra of Canada’s best recordings on a beautiful CD entitled "Expressions Of The Canadian Heart". The Symphony Orchestra Of Canada’s debut CD is now available on Trilogy Records International.
