On Tuesday night we popped into Airship 37’s Hangar Space in the Distillery District to take in an intimate and exclusive performance by four members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Hosted by chichi social club The Society and The People Wine’s, a New Zealand winery launching its products in Canada, plenty of Toronto creative types showed up in their urban-chic finery to hear TSO musicians Peter Seminovs (violin), Sergei Nikonov (violin), Eric Nowlin (viola) and Igor Gefter (cello). The quartet performed a pair of pieces, Mozart’s “Divertimento No. 1” and Tchaikovsky’s “String Quartet No. 1,” for a mostly rapt audience (though the majority sat spellbound, a few attendees had apparently showed up for the abundant vino, and had to be shushed, rather aggressively, on a number of occasions). Admittedly, a high-concept notion of pairing melodic notes with tasting notes fell a bit flat, as the People Wine’s Anna Hine’s mid-performance comparisons between the music and the drink felt awkward and contrived. Overall, however, the night was a success: the wine proved aromatic, the music transcendent and the TSO members charming—Nowlin, who served as the de facto emcee, worked the crowd with surprising aplomb.

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