A tennis venue on the outskirts of Toronto might not have seemed the logical choice for a series of blockbuster summer concerts.
But over the past year, the organizers of the BlackCreek Summer Music Festival have worked to prepare the Rexall Centre -- a venue at the city's York University previously used for the annual Rogers Cup tennis tournament -- into a musical mecca.
The inaugural season kicks off June 4 with a performance from renowned tenor Placido Domingo, and organizers are confident that BlackCreek will pass its first test.
"This is an amazing venue to listen to music," said BlackCreek CEO Kevin Albrecht in a recent telephone interview. "I think that's the experience that people will walk away with. They'll walk away going: 'That was an incredible evening, with a world-class performer.'
"And that's what we want. We want them to walk away thinking they've had one of the great concert experiences of their life."
Of course, BlackCreek will first have to persuade listeners to give the festival a chance. It's trying something relatively new in Canada -- a summer series of outdoor concerts -- in a venue that many local music fans might not know.
The team's work began in earnest a year ago, with a sound test designed to assess the suitability of the Rexall Centre. Organizers were pleased -- even surprised -- with the result, finding that the sound was clear virtually anywhere inside the venue, and that sightlines were excellent as well.
"At first blush, anyone looking at it would say: 'It's a sports venue, how could you possible use it for music and have music sound good?"' said John Swallow, the founder of Swallow Acoustic Consultants Ltd., which worked with BlackCreek to improve the acoustic conditions inside the venue.
"But the difference is, the tennis court is really a small amphitheatre. It's really of the same size and shape as classic Greek and Roman amphitheatres."
The acoustics had to be impeccable, Albrecht points out, to meet the demands of some of the performers booked for BlackCreek.
That's a roster that includes James Taylor, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Brad Paisley, John Fogerty, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Lionel Richie performing with Michael McDonald, with more performers still to be announced. Actors Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons will also be in town to contribute spoken performances during a program of music inspired by Shakespeare.
Albrecht says the festival employed four outside consultants to help co-ordinate that lineup: celebrated composer Marvin Hamlisch, noted American conductor Lorin Maazel, well-connected music agent Sam Feldman and embattled Canadian theatre producer Garth Drabinsky.
Their aim was fairly simple.
"Diversity," said Albrecht, a longtime sports agent who steered the careers of Wayne Gretzky, Mike Weir and Kurt Browning before helping to launch the CBC-TV reality hit "Battle of the Blades."
"When you're expanding over what could be 12 to 16 weeks of music, you can't rely on just the same audience all the time, the rock audience, the pop audience, etc.
"So we had to really diversify it from the classical to the jazz to the pop to the country to the gospel."
Organizers used several successful Stateside festivals as models in planning BlackCreek, including Los Angeles's Hollywood Bowl and Boston's Tanglewood, but they feel as though they're bringing something new to Canada.
Yet there's a risk to that as well.
Albrecht acknowledges that BlackCreek is an unknown brand. And the Rexall Centre is too, tucked away on the York University campus, outside the range of Toronto's subway system and in an area that is hardly a hotbed for entertainment.
But Albrecht says that early ticket sales have been good.
BlackCreek might appeal to a slightly older audience than most splashy summer fare, and organizers are counting on the fact that a combination of relatively reasonable prices (seats for Domingo's opening show range from $78 to roughly $295) and recognizable names should reel in casual fans.
"People that are 35 and older have time, have disposable income, so it's a good demographic to go after," Albrecht said. "But we also wanted to make the music accessible for people who are probably on the fringes of the core of that genre of music."
"We want the audience to show up in golf shorts and shirts and relax on a nice summer night, to listen to music, so we're not going to have really heavy programs."
"(We want) people to go, 'I do like classical music and I might not buy tickets and put on a suit and tie in January and go down to Roy Thomson Hall or the Four Seasons, but you know what? It's a nice night, it looks like Saturday's going to be fun, the London Symphony Orchestra is in town, they're supposed to be the best in the world, why don't we go and have a look at that, that sounds pretty cool."'
BlackCreek will also aim for a festival atmosphere around the periphery of the stadium, with casual performances from York University music students and some leafy areas for families to explore and relax.
"We want people to come up well ahead of time of the performances and stay afterwards, and really make it a festival," Albrecht said.
And BlackCreek plans on sticking around, too.
Albrecht says the festival has a 15-year agreement with Tennis Canada to use the stadium, and he already has one name atop his wishlist for 2012: Michael Buble, the newlywed Vancouver crooner whose busy summer precluded a performance at this year's fest.
Albrecht says he doesn't think BlackCreek will have much trouble becoming a summer institution for music fans in the area.
"I think people are going to be really excited once they step into the stadium and see how close the stage is, and how intimate it is," he said.
"We're trying to achieve something different, so people go: You know what? I'm going to go support that. It's good for the city. It's good for the province. I'm not going to get the opportunity to see these world-class people much longer. Let's get out and see them."
