レッドブルとシャーロット・デイ・ウィルソンの交響デビューで何が起こったのか

As one of the most renowned forms of musical expression, opera, as a practice, lays its roots through enclaves of artists in Florence, dubbing themselves the Florentine Camerata en masse. Expanding across the latter half of the 16th century, exploring mediums such as formal, rigid musical display, known as opera seria, alongside a more comedic leaning opera buffa, opera at large, entertained royals, sponsors, and other spectators across Italy, and wider Europe, it’s discipline changing across the Enlightenment and Romantic historical eras also.

Today, opera continues to usher in and entertain audiences, however, its proximity to contemporary music still feels staggered, the artform bespoke in its own right and serving predominantly upper class communities. However, live music as an art-from continues to grow, the likes of NPR music, for example platforming artists like Usher, Bilal, and Sabrina Carpenter. In a similar vein there are bridges being built between the likes of pop, RnB and opera, with artists such as Ellie Goulding, Metallica, and Maxwell gracing various symphonies for one-off performances of their catalogue. Similarly, Red Bull launched its Symphonic programme a few years ago, marrying contemporary artists of multiple genres and discipline and orchestral symphonies from around the world adding an edge to pre-existing catalogues.

Grammy-award nominated, Torontonian R&B songstress Charlotte Day Wilson, is no stranger to live instruments, her family’s love of music spanning from an ancestral lineage of women musicians behind her. “My aunt is a piano player and she’s a music teacher and my grandmother was also a piano player and a contralto singer in the church choir that my grandfather was a minister at.” Raised on her aunt’s love of Carol King songs – a bulk of her discography beaming out of the piano – Wilson learned to play the piano herself, her father ushering her to learn formally, as well as classically train, to which she did across her childhood.

Charlotte Day Wilson served as Red Bull’s inaugural artist this year to take on the Symphonic mantle – one that’s been graced by Metro Boomin and Rick Ross in recent years. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this, if it weren’t for Red Bull,” she shares wistfully. For many artists, touring alone eats greatly into artistic budgets, often leaving them with negative balances. It’s the reason, the UK’s Rachel Chinouriri, initially cancelled her first US offering, calling the venture a “strain”.  Similarly, Wilson notes the heightened cost for orchestras, ultimately accepting the Red Bull offer last September instantly. “I’m genuinely so grateful for so many things that they’ve contributed to in my career.” 

Performing at the renowned Roy Thomson Hall on February 28, Charlotte opened her airing by thanking her hometown fans and alerting attendees of the shows significance, importance and the centering of songs that defined her. “It’s all I really long for as a performer,” Wilson impassionately begins. “To connect deeply with the people who I’m in a space with.” Utilising the hauntingly pensive croons that have come to define both Charlotte Day Wilson’s debut album Alpha, and its follow up Cyan Blue, she powers through an array of songs that illuminate her upbringing, her entry point to music and fundamentally where her motivation for the artform continues to locate itself from. Narrowed down using her Songs of My Life private playlist on Spotify, and the help of the show’s music director Aaron Paris, the pair narrowed down the arrangements to songs that best represented Wilson, but also resonated live in an orchestral capacity.

Gracing the likes of jazz, RnB, Motown and more Wilson pacifies audiences, commanding attention across the nights first and second acts, her passion and enchantment by music at large wedding itself to her prowess, alongside Toronto’s Symphony Orchestra, it’s hard to believe she’d only had a weeks worth of rehearsals with the Orchestra – first in segments, then at large the day of the performance. “We did a week of rehearsals with the band beforehand and then the choir came and did three days with us,” she explains. “Then the conductor came in the night before the performance and he kind of helped us to understand how this is going to go once we meet the orchestra the next day, he was amazing.” Continuing to praise him for his charisma, Wilson grew to understand the role of conducting and how much trust they bring between artists, orchestras and one another.

“A good conductor has to be quite likable because you have to all want to look at him and follow him or her,” she tells Dazed. “For me I feel like we all enjoyed looking at this person and finding each other throughout the performance and making sure we’re in tune.”

Culturally, London, England and Toronto share multiple connections with one another. Migration across both cities over time means that each region’s slang shares commonalities with one another – a Drake, for example, appealing to both regions due to the intrinsic connection in this terrain. Sampha, serving as one of the night’s special guests, extended this relationship – his own bespoke live offerings at venues such as Hackney Church sharing adjacencies with Charlotte Day Wilson’s Symphonic festivities. “‘No One Knows Me’ is one of my favorite songs of all time,” she rationalises. “He was always on my dream list of people that I would love to bring out.”

Performing the now renowned song for the audience, Sampha’s ethereal appeal not only compliments Charlotte Day Wilson’s offering, but added a worldly, cross continental dynamic to the show that demonstrates how interrelated music is in 2025; artists are complexly interdependent – from UK drill acts informing the trajectory of NY drill at points in the genres growth, to a Tyla leaning on Sean Paul and Skillibeng to paint a globally informed offering across her ascension as a pop star. But Wilson hasn’t forgotten her roots, and also spearheads her local Torontonian pastures, platforming peer Saya Gray’s intuitive brand of alternative pop. Recalling the pair recording in booths directly next to each other five or so years ago, the duo have always been fans of one another’s music and talent. “She was making masterpieces every single day. she’s very very quick and super prolific and she’s a true artist.” First coming onto Wilson’s radar during her role as Daniel Caesar’s bassist – “there’s not many kickass bassists like that,” she articulates – she had to include Gray as part of platforming the next generation. Curious of what’s to come behind her in Toronto, Charlotte Day Wilson is rooting for her city, grateful to be what she calls a ‘guest’ in RnB as a non-Black artist. 

Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of Charlotte Day Wilson’s Symphonic came in her riveting cover of Jimmy Ruffin’s 1966, “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted”. The Motown classic eclipses time, instantly warming the ear, across generational groups. The room was silent, undisturbed and engulfed in Charlotte’s charming cover, alongside the meticulously disciplined Toronto Symphonic Choir. “It’s just one of those songs of someone’s family, this is one of our whole family’s favorite songs,” Charlotte beams, recalling multiple family memories with the song. 

The singer’s first introduction came from the seminal Motown documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Released in 2002, Wilson’s father sat with her to watch it, her love of the song and the documentary instant. “I was probably in grade four or five and it really opened my eyes to how music gets made, my favourite music gets made.” She presumes the documentary’s title stems from the song’s lyric “I walk in shadows searching for light”. Ultimately, her performance of the record served as a watershed moment across the night, Wilson feeling her most connected with the room at this juncture. 

At large, Red Bull’s Charlotte Day Wilson-led symphonic wasn’t a night that glorified a brand – beyond the Red Bull branding and bespoke drinks menu, the company was rarely mentioned across the night – it was a night that instead used a brand’s prowess to spearhead important cultural moments and artist collaboration. All music deserves to be championed by an orchestra, it uncovers another way to consume an artists discography and allows them to shine in a multifaceted, expertly crafted way. Charlotte Day Wilson not only rose to the occasion, but canvassed her studious approach to musical curation, managing to display a quiet confidence that made audiences feel at ease from the show’s very first note. Red Bull Symphonic is an initiative that must continue platforming an emerging global class of new titans, and the legends like Metro Boomin that continue to articulate their legacies. 

As one of the most renowned forms of musical expression, opera, as a practice, lays its roots through enclaves of artists in Florence, dubbing themselves the Florentine Camerata en masse. Expanding across the latter half of the 16th century, exploring mediums such as formal, rigid musical display, known as opera seria, alongside a more comedic leaning opera buffa, opera at large, entertained royals, sponsors, and other spectators across Italy, and wider Europe, it’s discipline changing across the Enlightenment and Romantic historical eras also.

Today, opera continues to usher in and entertain audiences, however, its proximity to contemporary music still feels staggered, the artform bespoke in its own right and serving predominantly upper class communities. However, live music as an art-from continues to grow, the likes of NPR music, for example platforming artists like Usher, Bilal, and Sabrina Carpenter. In a similar vein there are bridges being built between the likes of pop, RnB and opera, with artists such as Ellie Goulding, Metallica, and Maxwell gracing various symphonies for one-off performances of their catalogue. Similarly, Red Bull launched its Symphonic programme a few years ago, marrying contemporary artists of multiple genres and discipline and orchestral symphonies from around the world adding an edge to pre-existing catalogues.

Grammy-award nominated, Torontonian R&B songstress Charlotte Day Wilson, is no stranger to live instruments, her family’s love of music spanning from an ancestral lineage of women musicians behind her. “My aunt is a piano player and she’s a music teacher and my grandmother was also a piano player and a contralto singer in the church choir that my grandfather was a minister at.” Raised on her aunt’s love of Carol King songs – a bulk of her discography beaming out of the piano – Wilson learned to play the piano herself, her father ushering her to learn formally, as well as classically train, to which she did across her childhood.

Charlotte Day Wilson served as Red Bull’s inaugural artist this year to take on the Symphonic mantle – one that’s been graced by Metro Boomin and Rick Ross in recent years. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this, if it weren’t for Red Bull,” she shares wistfully. For many artists, touring alone eats greatly into artistic budgets, often leaving them with negative balances. It’s the reason, the UK’s Rachel Chinouriri, initially cancelled her first US offering, calling the venture a “strain”.  Similarly, Wilson notes the heightened cost for orchestras, ultimately accepting the Red Bull offer last September instantly. “I’m genuinely so grateful for so many things that they’ve contributed to in my career.” 

Performing at the renowned Roy Thomson Hall on February 28, Charlotte opened her airing by thanking her hometown fans and alerting attendees of the shows significance, importance and the centering of songs that defined her. “It’s all I really long for as a performer,” Wilson impassionately begins. “To connect deeply with the people who I’m in a space with.” Utilising the hauntingly pensive croons that have come to define both Charlotte Day Wilson’s debut album Alpha, and its follow up Cyan Blue, she powers through an array of songs that illuminate her upbringing, her entry point to music and fundamentally where her motivation for the artform continues to locate itself from. Narrowed down using her Songs of My Life private playlist on Spotify, and the help of the show’s music director Aaron Paris, the pair narrowed down the arrangements to songs that best represented Wilson, but also resonated live in an orchestral capacity.

Gracing the likes of jazz, RnB, Motown and more Wilson pacifies audiences, commanding attention across the nights first and second acts, her passion and enchantment by music at large wedding itself to her prowess, alongside Toronto’s Symphony Orchestra, it’s hard to believe she’d only had a weeks worth of rehearsals with the Orchestra – first in segments, then at large the day of the performance. “We did a week of rehearsals with the band beforehand and then the choir came and did three days with us,” she explains. “Then the conductor came in the night before the performance and he kind of helped us to understand how this is going to go once we meet the orchestra the next day, he was amazing.” Continuing to praise him for his charisma, Wilson grew to understand the role of conducting and how much trust they bring between artists, orchestras and one another.

“A good conductor has to be quite likable because you have to all want to look at him and follow him or her,” she tells Dazed. “For me I feel like we all enjoyed looking at this person and finding each other throughout the performance and making sure we’re in tune.”

Culturally, London, England and Toronto share multiple connections with one another. Migration across both cities over time means that each region’s slang shares commonalities with one another – a Drake, for example, appealing to both regions due to the intrinsic connection in this terrain. Sampha, serving as one of the night’s special guests, extended this relationship – his own bespoke live offerings at venues such as Hackney Church sharing adjacencies with Charlotte Day Wilson’s Symphonic festivities. “‘No One Knows Me’ is one of my favorite songs of all time,” she rationalises. “He was always on my dream list of people that I would love to bring out.”

Performing the now renowned song for the audience, Sampha’s ethereal appeal not only compliments Charlotte Day Wilson’s offering, but added a worldly, cross continental dynamic to the show that demonstrates how interrelated music is in 2025; artists are complexly interdependent – from UK drill acts informing the trajectory of NY drill at points in the genres growth, to a Tyla leaning on Sean Paul and Skillibeng to paint a globally informed offering across her ascension as a pop star. But Wilson hasn’t forgotten her roots, and also spearheads her local Torontonian pastures, platforming peer Saya Gray’s intuitive brand of alternative pop. Recalling the pair recording in booths directly next to each other five or so years ago, the duo have always been fans of one another’s music and talent. “She was making masterpieces every single day. she’s very very quick and super prolific and she’s a true artist.” First coming onto Wilson’s radar during her role as Daniel Caesar’s bassist – “there’s not many kickass bassists like that,” she articulates – she had to include Gray as part of platforming the next generation. Curious of what’s to come behind her in Toronto, Charlotte Day Wilson is rooting for her city, grateful to be what she calls a ‘guest’ in RnB as a non-Black artist. 

Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of Charlotte Day Wilson’s Symphonic came in her riveting cover of Jimmy Ruffin’s 1966, “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted”. The Motown classic eclipses time, instantly warming the ear, across generational groups. The room was silent, undisturbed and engulfed in Charlotte’s charming cover, alongside the meticulously disciplined Toronto Symphonic Choir. “It’s just one of those songs of someone’s family, this is one of our whole family’s favorite songs,” Charlotte beams, recalling multiple family memories with the song. 

The singer’s first introduction came from the seminal Motown documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Released in 2002, Wilson’s father sat with her to watch it, her love of the song and the documentary instant. “I was probably in grade four or five and it really opened my eyes to how music gets made, my favourite music gets made.” She presumes the documentary’s title stems from the song’s lyric “I walk in shadows searching for light”. Ultimately, her performance of the record served as a watershed moment across the night, Wilson feeling her most connected with the room at this juncture. 

At large, Red Bull’s Charlotte Day Wilson-led symphonic wasn’t a night that glorified a brand – beyond the Red Bull branding and bespoke drinks menu, the company was rarely mentioned across the night – it was a night that instead used a brand’s prowess to spearhead important cultural moments and artist collaboration. All music deserves to be championed by an orchestra, it uncovers another way to consume an artists discography and allows them to shine in a multifaceted, expertly crafted way. Charlotte Day Wilson not only rose to the occasion, but canvassed her studious approach to musical curation, managing to display a quiet confidence that made audiences feel at ease from the show’s very first note. Red Bull Symphonic is an initiative that must continue platforming an emerging global class of new titans, and the legends like Metro Boomin that continue to articulate their legacies.