Beloved maestro Sir Andrew Davis had a long-standing bond with the TSO

The British conductor Sir Andrew Davis was a proponent of Bach, Elgar and Tippett, yet one of his best remembered moments on stage with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra involved a light composition that while a classic, was hardly classical.On Feb. 2, 2019, he took the stage at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall to lead the orchestra in Wagner’s towering Ride of the Valkyries. A few bars in, however, the piece gracefully transitioned into Happy Birthday to You as the members of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, previously unnoticed in their street clothes, arose in the choir loft to serenade the maestro on his 75th birthday.