The Expect the World Gala Concert took place Saturday, (International Olympic Day) at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. The concert saluted Olympics past, present and future.
Hosted by four-time world figure skating champion and Olympian Kurt Browning and Sonia Rodriguez, principal dancer with the National Ballet of Toronto, the concert featured performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, world-renowned tenor Richard Margison, Canadian and Russian rhythmic gymnasts Emilie Livingston and Alina Kabayeva, and a 340-person Artist and Athlete Choir.
Mary Lou Fallis, co-chair of the TO-2008 Arts and Culture Committee said, “this concert on International Olympic Day is our way of demonstrating that Toronto is ready to host the world in 2008. Toronto is blessed to have a world of artists and athletes working together and placing the ideals of the Olympic Movement front and centre”.
The concert was the culmination of a month-long arts festival celebrating the excellence and cultural diversity of Toronto’s arts community.
The concert featured a salute to athletes, including the 50 Team 2008 athletes in attendance, a parade of flags representing both the nations in the Olympic Games and Toronto’s diverse cultural groups, a variety of musical works performed at past Olympic Games, and a performance of Expect the World, the song composed by Donald Quan and Ron Korb, specially commissioned for TO-2008.
