Off Centre Music Salon Opens 30th Anniversary Season with Glenn Gould School Collaboration

Off Centre Music Salon launches its landmark 30th Anniversary Season on October 19th, 2025, with “From Melancholy to Surrealism, with Laughter in Between,” a vibrant opening concert that sets the tone for a year of imagination, artistry, and collaboration.

For three decades, Off Centre Music Salon has created concerts that are not simply performances but living dialogues, weaving music with memory, identity, and community. Founded by Ukrainian-Canadian pianists Inna Perkis and Boris Zarankin, the salon celebrates its milestone season under the banner “Dream The Impossible Dream” — a year-long exploration of daring artistic visions and Canadian musical excellence.

Perkis comments:

“This season is deeply personal to us. When we began 3o years ago, our dream was to create a space where music could be more than sound — a place where it becomes conversation, memory, and belonging. To be able to open this anniversary season with a program that reflects both the depth and the playfulness of that vision is extraordinary.”

Boris Zarankin adds:

“Music has always been, for us, a language of connection. Schubert, Poulenc, and Ravel each speak to that in their own way, and to launch our 30th season with these voices feels like opening a door to the impossible dream itself. It is also profoundly meaningful to share this moment with the next generation of Canadian musicians through our new partnership with the Glenn Gould School.”

We open the season under the tutelage of the authority on all things melancholy, the master of unrequited love himself: Schubert, at his most pensive in the Fantasia for four hands and the “Arpeggione Sonata.” But there cannot be tears without laughter — and Schubert was certainly the life of the (musical) party! We join in the silliness with his enchanting vocal trios Die Advokaten and Der Hochzeitsbraten. The revelry doesn’t end there — we’re party hopping to Poulenc’s Bal masqué for Mezzo-Soprano and Chamber Orchestra, before being entranced by Ravel’s “Tsigane,” for violin and harp (masquerading as a luthéal).

This opening performance also marks Off Centre’s inaugural collaboration with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, a partnership that highlights Off Centre’s ongoing commitment to mentorship and the nurturing of Canada’s next generation of musical leaders. Cellist Mira Kardan, Off Centre’s Artist-in-Residence from the Glenn Gould School, will appear throughout the program.

Featuring:

Tom Allen, host | *Alyssa Bartholomew, soprano | *James Coole-Stevenson, baritone | Nico Dann, percussion | David Eliakis, piano | Lori Gemmell, harp | Sheila Jaffé, violin | *Mira Kardan, cello | *Nicholas Kluftinger, tenor | *Jeffrey Liu, tenor | Diego Matamoros, actor | Inna Perkis, piano | Mark Skazinetsky, conductor | Krisztina Szabo, mezzo soprano | Boris Zarankin, piano | Chamber Orchestra with additional instrumentalists from the Glenn Gould School

All concerts this season begin at 3:00 pm at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, Toronto. Audiences are invited to join Off Centre on October 19th for the beginning of this landmark anniversary season.

Tickets and full season details are available at http://offcentremusic.com.