Meet the Orchestra
Music Director & Conductor, Oakville Symphony
Lorenzo Guggenheim, an emerging orchestra conductor, is renowned for his artistic integrity and innovative approach to music. He captivates audiences with dynamic and spontaneous performances, reshaping tradition and presenting underrepresented composers alongside familiar music.
His journey as a conductor began with breakthrough opportunities at a young age. At 23, Lorenzo was chosen to conduct at the world-renowned Teatro Colón and immediately afterward conducted the National Symphony of Chile. In 2023, he conducted the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as part of the Canadian Conductor Showcase and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in their renowned Mentorship Program. He has also led the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, and orchestras abroad including the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and several others in Argentina.
Mr. Guggenheim is currently in his second season as Music Director & Conductor of the Oakville Symphony and is the Music Director of the University of Toronto Campus Philharmonic Orchestra which he founded along with the Canadian Studio Symphony, with which he released the album Evocations in 2023.
Hailing from Buenos Aires, Lorenzo’s diverse musical influences, from Debussy to Pink Floyd through Thelonious Monk and traditional Argentine music, have shaped his unique approach to music. His insatiable curiosity led him to pursue bachelor’s, diploma, master’s, and doctoral degrees in conducting. For the latter, he is researching the music of Franz Schreker, a Nazi-banned and persecuted composer, at the University of Toronto.
His passion for conducting has taken him to international masterclasses, working with renowned mentors such as Bramwell Tovey, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alexander Shelley, Christian Mācelaru, Steven Sloane, Kenneth Kiesler and Mark Gibson. He has received support from The Canada Arts Council and the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Lorenzo thrives in collaborative environments and has served as an Assistant Conductor for the Berlin Academy of American Music at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Additionally, he has collaborated with the Seattle Symphony’s Prokofiev and Shostakovich Festivals and as a cover conductor for Music Director Ludovic Morlot in two seasons. As an emerging conductor, Lorenzo Guggenheim continues to inspire and innovate, pushing the boundaries of orchestral music in the 21st century.
Lap Hang Cheng began his music education at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he was a student of Dr. Felix Ungar. While in Hong Kong, Mr. Cheng was invited to play as the assistant viola principal in the “Orchestra of the Future”, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and performed at the Nobel Price Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
After completing his Masters of Music degree at New England Conservatory in May 2021, where he was a student of Nicholas Cords, Mr. Cheng then continued his studies at Cleveland Institute of Music, with Robert Vernon, Wesley Collins and Stanley Konopka. While in Cleveland, Mr. Cheng started playing as a substitute musician with The Cleveland Orchestra and played in Canton Symphony Orchestra. Lap Hang Cheng is now playing as the Principal Violist with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra, and substitute violist with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jose Shapero graduated from the University of Toronto with Bachelor and Masters degrees in cello and piano. He has been Principal Cellist and guest soloist with several professional and community orchestras before joining the Oakville Symphony in 1987. Jose has recorded for commercials and television shows. He was very active with school performances as part of the Meet a Musician program was music director at North Bramalea United Church in Brampton for the past 25 years.
Jose is still active as cello coach with the Oakville Symphony Youth Orchestra. He plays on a beautiful 18th century Italian cello made by Luigi Venturini.
Originally from Halifax, Tim studied at Dalhousie University with Brian Robinson and then privately with Detroit Symphony bassist and remarkable teacher Maxim Janowsky from 1981-85 while performing with Orchestra London and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra before moving northwest to join the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra where he played section bass for over 15 years.
Since moving to Toronto in 2001 Tim has balanced technical work with a busy musical schedule. He has served as principal bassist with Canadian Sinfonietta since 2003, performed with Masterworks of Oakville and Oakville Chamber Orchestra, and worked on a regular and occasional basis with many orchestras throughout the GTA and as far afield as Peterborough, Sudbury and even several return visits to Thunder Bay.
Work with young people has included the Oakville Symphony’s own Young Artist Mentor program, Canadian Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra, the Ontario Cross-Cultural Music Society Symphony Orchestra and the Chinese Artists Society of Toronto, for which Tim recently received an Ontario Volunteer Service Award for five years’ service.
Serving as interim principal bass for the 2021-22 Oakville season Tim moves from the back of the bass section and continues a 10 year relationship with the Oakville Symphony as extra bass and a young artist mentor. He is excited to work again with Roger, Lynn and Bob during this season of transition.
Mr. Allen completed his Bachelor of Music at Queen’s University and his Master of Music in performance at the University of Toronto under the direction of Eugene Rittich. He has performed frequently with orchestras throughout southern and eastern Ontario including the Kingston, Niagara, Windsor, London, Kitchener – Waterloo, Oshawa – Durham, Royal Opera Canada, Brampton Lyric Opera, Opera Kitchener and the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera orchestras. He is also the principal horn with the Kindred Spirits Orchestra and freelances in and around the GTA. Mr. Allen also works as a conductor and clinician for the Halton Mississauga Youth Orchestra and has conducted the Intermediate Honour Band for the Peel District School Board. He lives in Mississauga where he continues to have an active private studio and teaches instrumental and vocal music for the Peel District School Board. Mr. Allen is also an advocate for music education and is an active performer and organizer for International Horn Day in Toronto.
In 2018, Chieh-Ying Lu completed her Master’s degree in Oboe Performance from the University of Toronto under the guidance of Keith Atkinson (the former Associate Principal Oboe of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and received generous sponsorship from the Toronto Women’s Music Club to complete her study.
As an active orchestral musician, Chieh-Ying has performed as principal oboe with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, Ontario Philharmonic, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, and many professional and community orchestras and chamber groups. Chieh-Ying is thrilled to join the Oakville Symphony as Principal Oboe from the 24-25 season.
As an educator, Chieh-Ying teaches oboe at the University of Toronto Schools, Earl Haig Secondary School, and Havergal College. Continuing her passion for teaching, Chieh-Ying and her partner Dr. Chia-Yu Hsu (the Principal Bassoon at the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra), co-own a music studio where they advocate the importance of chamber music playing. They are on a mission to help young musicians gain performance skills and prepare them to have the ability to collaborate with others.
Christian was a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony for 20 years before leaving to pursue a career in administration and free-lance bassoon. He has performed regularly at the Festival of the Sound, the Elora Festival, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Westben Festival, and has appeared with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Toronto Symphony, and the Orchestra of the Kirov Theatre, working with conductors Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev among others, as well as all the leading orchestras in southern Ontario.
Christian was a featured soloist on a 2016 re-recording and release of The Mozart Effect (available on Spotify). Theatre experiences include the 2019 Mirvish production of The King and I, the Shaw Festival orchestra in the productions of Wonderful Town by Bernstein and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, the Theatre 20 production of Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare, and performances of Man of La Mancha, The Beaux’ Stratagem, and The Music Man at the Stratford Festival.
Lorne Grossman did his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. He was immediately offered work with the Stratford Festival, Royal Alexandria Theatre in Toronto and the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. Within a few years, Lorne was principal percussion with the Canadian Opera Company (1972-1985) and a semi regular percussionist with the National Ballet of Canada (1974-1991).
Lorne played on many TV commercials in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. He toured with Phantom of the Opera throughout Canada, Alaska and Hawaii twice from 1991-1994. Again he was on tour with Music of the Night 1995-1996.
Staying home, Lorne had been playing drum set with the National Arts Centre Orchestra until 2011 and presently performs with the Oakville Symphony, Peterborough Symphony, Rose Orchestra, Ontario Philharmonic and occasionally with the Hamilton Philharmonic, London Symphonia, North Bay Symphony and Georgian Bay Symphony.
Sharlene Wallace is a lever and pedal harp player, composer, educator and visual explorer, all through which she expresses her relationship to space, the natural world and intuition. Winner of two international lever harp competitions, Sharlene has given concerts and workshops across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Sharlene is an influential figure in the lever harp world for her performances, recordings, compositions, teaching and for her use of this instrument in contemporary and original music. Commissions have been written for Sharlene including Rodney Sharman’s Music for Lever Harp, Strings and Percussion and Alfredo Rolando Ortiz’s Niagara Moon. Sharlene’s own compositions are featured throughout her nine independent albums. In 2024 Sharlene released two new albums – Lilac Embers, an album of Shar-compositions for acoustic and electric lever harps with electronics by Jean Martin, and Trees.Listen, a co-composition recording-performance-environmental project with composer Frank Horvat for Celtic harp and fixed electronics The live performance of Trees.Listen includes video projections of Sharlene’s photographs which include the oaks of her hometown Oakville.
Violinist Linda Choi was born in Toronto and started learning the violin at age 5. She was a scholarship student from the studio of Victor Danchenko, Jascha Milkis and Atis Bankas as part of the Young Artist Program Academy at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She furthered her studies in violin performance at the University of Toronto, McGill University and The Cleveland Institute of Music. Linda performs with many orchestras and ensembles around Ontario including the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the National Academy Orchestra and the Arcady Ensemble.
Linda has been performing and mentoring young artists with the Oakville Symphony since 2005. Along with her love of performing, Linda has a passion for teaching and advocating for accessible music education for all. In her free time, Linda enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, travelling and feasting on delicious food.
ALEX TOSKOV, winner of The Glenn Gould Chamber Music Competition 2011, is a multi-instrumentalist based in Toronto. His main instrument is the violin, but he also plays viola, guitar, piano, and bass guitar.
In early 2015, Alex established The Odin Quartet, which has performed at Music Toronto, Music Niagara and Luminato festivals. The Quartet is maintaining a busy career premiering new music, as well as in recording studios.
In September 2012, Alex became a member of Sinfonia Toronto. Notable performances include gala at Roy Thomson Hall in June 2016, and tours in South America (2018) and China (2019). He’s been serving as the concertmaster of Scarborough Philharmonic since 2024.
Recently, Mr. Toskov has appeared as the concertmaster of Toronto Mozart Players, Niagara Symphony, Toronto Artist Symphony, Toronto Philharmonic, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Casa Loma Symphony, Toronto Concert Orchestra, and has recorded various soundtracks for CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries. He also performed with Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Air Canada Centre), Diana Krall (Massey Hall), Josh Groban (Sony Centre), Il Divo (Queen Elisabeth Theatre), Evanescence (Budweiser Stage), and Owen Pallett (Massey Hall), Charlotte Cardin (Massey Hall).
He was a concertmaster of Bayreuth Festival Orchestra in 2006, German-Scandinavian Youth Philharmonic 2009 and was a member of Santiago de Chile Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007/2008. During his studies in Norway 2008-2010, Alex was regularly playing with Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.
Musical theatre performances include Broadway musical “Kinky Boots” at The Royal Alexandra Theatre, “Fiddler on the Roof” at Stage West, “Sousatzka” at Elgin Theatre Toronto, “The Man with the Golden Heart”, “Rosamund”, & “Almost Ever After” at Toronto Fringe.
Alex was one of the adjudicators at Unionville Music competition in December 2022.
Mr. Toskov studied at Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia, University of Music in Vienna, Austria, Agder University in Norway, and The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto.
Mr. Toskov speaks English, Spanish, Russian, German, Norwegian and Serbian.
* Member of the Professional Core | (YA) Young Artist | (M) Young Artist Mentor