This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
You won't see Anthony Tobias "Toby" Tolokan's face on banners lining Salt Lake City's South Temple Street, but like new Utah Symphony music director Thierry Fischer, he'll have a significant influence on what you hear in Abravanel Hall in coming seasons.
Tolokan is the new vice president of symphony artistic planning at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. His duties include collaborating with Fischer on season schedules and hiring soloists. Planning an orchestra season is like putting together a 3-D puzzle, he said. "I hate puzzles — I could never do them on the table — but I can do the mental version." He thrives on working behind the scenes, tending to details and "making sure nothing falls through the cracks."
Planning for 2011-12 is well under way, but Tolokan offered no hints. Instead, he lit up with enthusiasm when listing highlights of the soon-to-open 2010-11 season — three Stravinsky ballets, John Adams' "Harmonielehre," Berlioz's "Roméo et Juliette" and appearances by violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Pieter Wispelwey, organist Richard Elliott, conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Utah Symphony's own Louise Vickerman and Tad Calcara, just for starters.
The compressed time frame in which Fischer and US | UO CEO Melia Tourangeau assembled the schedule makes it all the more impressive, he added.
Tolokan, 59, grew up in Connecticut at a time when the major East Coast orchestras came through town regularly, and seeing legendary conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein and George Szell in action helped ignite his interest in music. (He's delighted that the Utah Symphony still makes performing all over the state a high priority.)
He earned a music degree from the University of Connecticut, with an emphasis in violin and orchestra conducting, and worked in administration at the university's school of fine arts for 10 years; his résumé also includes 10 years as orchestra manager for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and seven as artistic administrator for the Seattle Symphony.
"Toby brings to the table an incredible breadth of experience and connections," Tourangeau said. "Because of those relationships, he has a lot of influence in the industry that will help us attract some of the great artists we're looking for."
Tolokan wasn't looking to leave his job as director of artistic planning for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, but the chance to work with Fischer was too enticing to pass up. "He has a great artistic vision — and there's more than one element to it," he said of the Swiss conductor, who earlier this year outlined a mission statement focusing on classical building blocks, tonal color and contemporary music.
Perhaps even more than the new season, Tolokan looks forward to being reunited with his family pending the sale of their Indianapolis home. Mary, his wife of 23 years, is a special-education teacher; son John, 18, hopes to transfer to the University of Utah in January, and Alek, 14, recently started high school. A favorite pastime is watching classic movies, but live music is even better, he said: "You're hearing geniuses in real time, and there are no commercial previews."