Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) played a relaxed performance at the Roy Thomson Hall last Saturday where Gustavo Gimeno, TSO’s music director, told his audience “you are welcome to do what you need to in order to enjoy the performance.”
That included singing or playing Happy Birthday, a piece that would be heard at least twice, although the program included only Schuman’s Cello Concerto and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
According to the orchestra’s website, these events are “intended to be sensitive to and welcoming of neurodiverse audiences.”
“You’re welcome to move, you’re welcome to vocalize, you’re welcome to exit the auditorium at the performance,” said Gimeno, who was also the performance’s conductor.
Meanwhile, TSO Education Manager Pierre Rivard was supervising the event from the back of the main floor where the last three rows were empty.
“If it’s too loud for them, people can move back to these rows,” he said. “If it’s still too loud they can go to the tunnels or to a silent room.”
Rivard, who is also a writer, visual artist, and bilingual Ontario Certified Teacher, said one of the considerations for these performances included having fewer people than usual.
Roy Thomson Hall’s total seating capacity is 2,630 seats. However, the only theatre space that was open that day was the main floor, which seats 879 guests.
Rivard said out of the total number of seats available, about 750 of them were filled.
Although there were fewer people than what the space could’ve held, ushers were still in full effect.
Rachel Marks, an external consultant on relaxed performances, provided ushers with a special training workshop to prepare for the performances.
Marks said she discovered these performances through her love for theatre.
She said she had been working on theatre, as well as events specifically designed for families with children that have been diagnosed with autism.
Marks said she realized the two things could go together and discovered the relaxed performances.
After attending in-person training at the Big Umbrella Festival in New York and the Oily Cart Theatre at London, she said she began advocating for them around the world.
According to a 2020 study done by the French association Ciné-ma Difference, relaxed performances started in France in 2005 with the screening of films.
United Kingdom followed in 2006, and they began in Toronto in 2016 with Canadian Stage.
Montréal soon followed in 2018 as Représentation Décontractée.
Marks said they were designed specifically for people on the autism spectrum, but many other people had attended, too.
She said these performances include venue guides and fact sheets prepared specifically for people with disabilities, which are also very useful for newcomers.
“This universal design is welcoming many more people than just the autism community,” she said.
Marks’ training for ushers included targeted examples so they could respond to the attendants’ needs, like sound-dampening headphones, earplugs or going to the silent room.
Marks said musicians had also taken part in the training.
“Some of the members of the orchestra told me it’s very exciting to perform for these audiences because they want to share their love of music with other people,” she said.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra Violin Clare Semes was one of them.
She said they’re used to playing in very silent spaces, but she really appreciated the connection with different types of listeners.
After Gimeno finished reading the stand-out features of the performance, the show had began.
Canadian cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, stepped on to the stage and the orchestra began playing the first of Schumann’s Cello Concerto under Gimeno’s baton.
On the main floor, a teenager with sound-dampening headphones mimicked Gimeno’s gestures conducting the orchestra.
On the aisle, a three year-old girl took the hand of her mother to go up and down the stairs singing ‘Happy Birthday’ softly.
People proceeded to exit and return to the theatre.
Meanwhile at the last three rows of the theatre, Rivard said he wasn’t feeling too easy during the performances.
“Whenever I’m working, I can’t help but feel nervous,” he said. “I just want things to go well and everybody to have a good time so I can’t totally forget that I’m working and just enjoy it.”
Four years earlier, on April 27, 2019, Marks was the one occupying the last rows.
“I never thought that an institution that had such prestige as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra would be opening their arms before many other companies,” she said as she reminisced of when she was overwhelmed with emotion during her time in the back rows.
Marks is also working with other institutions as the National Ballet of Canada or the Hot Docs Documentary Festival.
When the last note of Beethoven’s Fifth sounded, the audience clapped emotionally.
Clare Semes took her violin but waited on stage for somebody in the audience she knew.
“They came to talk and then everyone just kind of felt welcome to come and talk with musicians and ask questions,” she said. “It was great.
“A boy named Joseph approached me and told me that his favourite composer was Beethoven,” Semes said.
“He said he had to hear Beethoven’s Five on his birthday,” she said.
She responded to Joseph’s remarks by playing ‘Happy Birthday’ on her violin.
“It’s been definitely one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had,” Semes said.