Why are we here? And by here I mean Roy Thomson Hall on any given night that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is performing. Why are we preserving this music? Why, as taxpayers, are we contributing to the perpetuation of this organisation’s competitiveness on the world stage? These are of course questions that are taken for granted, and were perhaps settled at a much earlier point in the TSO’s 100-year history. Yet, it seems these are precisely the type of questions that concerts such as this Celebrate 100: A Gala Evening with Yo-Yo Ma examines within the context of a centennial celebration. The answers yielded are as multivarious as the number of tickets sold, but the overwhelming sentiment was singular: nothing else does what this music can do, and the way we do it here cannot be replicated anywhere else. And after a century as an ensemble - one that began with false starts and a grassroots effort - the TSO seems to be charting a path forward that is uniquely Canadian, and an increasingly prominent node in the circuit of concerts by some of the world’s most celebrated talents. This program - with Yo-Yo Ma and Jeremy Dutcher in tow - exuded the type of confidence that comes not only from turning 100, but also from striking an optimal balance between the horse-and-buggy that your audience is accustomed to—and the Ford Model T that’ll drive them into the future.