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Garden

Toronto Music Garden

479 Queens Quay W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M8

Lakeside garden whose six sections translate a Bach cello suite into trees, paths and stone.

This guide to the Toronto Music Garden tells how a project meant for Boston ended up on this stretch of Queens Quay instead: cellist Yo-Yo Ma wanted a garden that moved like music for a film about Bach's cello suites, and worked with landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy on a plan for their home city before the funding fell through. Toronto donors offered them this forgotten shoreline, and what they built here in nineteen ninety-nine translates Bach's First Cello Suite into granite, boulders, birch, and a wildflower meadow. Near the water stands an ornate wrought iron pavilion still used for free summer concerts.

Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.