Ontario Place Forum

Ontario Place Forum. Outdoor amphitheatre, part of Ontario Place, a provincially-operated recreational park opened in 1971 on three man-made islands off the Toronto waterfront. The Forum is circular in design and set in a basin created by four hills. Bench seating for 2500 surrounds a performance area 22.5 m in diameter. The hills accomodate another 8000 comfortably on grass, although some pop concerts have drawn audiences of more than 20,000. A revolving stage 20.4 m in diameter was introduced in 1976 to ensure an equal view from all areas of the audience.

The Forum's season runs from late May to early September, offering more than 120 concerts, and has included from the outset series by the TS (which offers among its staples Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture assisted by the guns of the HMCS Haida docked nearby), the Hamilton Philharmonic, and the National Ballet of Canada. The Ontario Place Pops Orchestra, formed under the direction of Boris Brott with musicians from the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra London, began an annual concert series in 1983. In most instances, the orchestras have featured Canadian soloists - eg, Liona Boyd on several occasions with the Hamilton Philharmonic.

The balance of the season has been given over to rock, blues, variety, multicultural, and children's concerts, making the Forum Toronto's premiere summer venue for pop music (rivalled after 1983 by the Kingswood Music Theatre in Maple, north of the city). Programming has included Canadian, US and European artists; among the Canadians such groups and individuals as the Boss Brass, The Box, Bruce Cockburn, Ronnie Hawkins, Luba, Manteca, Murray McLauchlan, the Nylons, the Parachute Club, the Ivan Romanoff Orchestra and Chorus, the Spoons, Valdy, and David Wilcox have appeared at the Forum for several years in succession. Music is also heard on various other Ontario Place stages, including the bandshell and show boat that, with the Forum, were used 1979-85 for a three-day, international jazz festival.

0
0
Absolutely free, with over 40,000 articles in French and English, The Canadian Encyclopedia is the ultimate online resource for all things Canadian, from history, sports, arts, science, technology, and much, much more. Get started at www.TheCanadianEncyclopedia.com
Feature Articles
Shawnadithit: Last of the Beothuk

Shawnadithit grew anxious waiting for her uncle, Longnon, to return to camp at the junction of Badger Brook and the Exploits River, deep in the wilds of Newfoundland...

INSIDE TCE

Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.