Toronto

Toronto was formed in 2003 in Moscow by a group of young ambitious musicians, and became a “source of manpower” for the Moscow club scene.

The band became a striking phenomenon that quickly reached the headlines of the legendary club “News Pub” on Petrovka. The first band members were Elina Tumayeva - vocals, Dan Yakushevich - guitar, vocals, Ilya Sokolov - keyboards, Alexander Matytsyn - bass, Oleg Grigoryev - drums.

Yakushevich, Matytsyn and Grigoryev were previously the backbone of another band – P.S., and played cover versions of blues hits with Chuck Redgister, an American who had settled down in Russia. After the group’s breakup, Dan Yakushevich performed with the "EROPLAN" band passionately tearing strings while playing world rock hits, but was reunited with old friends to create a new band. The bands slogan, as proclaimed by Yakushevich was “We play pop as rock, and rock as pop!”.

Oleg Grigoryev soon received an invitation to play in the band Flowers, and in exchange the drumer’s post was taken by Vyacheslav Emetc. Emetc performed with the band for almost a year. After, his place was taken by Andrey Krotov, a person who had worked with many stars, from Alena Apina to Alsou.

Staff turnover continued when Krotov and Sokolov (now the Arizona band) left the band, and Oleg Grigoryev returned as drummer, while Oleg Pavlushin joined Toronto on keyboard after performing with the band Kvartal. Grigoriev, who went to work for Vlad Topalov, vacated the seat for Alexander Penkin as drummer (who managed for a time to work with Trofim and Long Play).
Thus, in 2005, the backbone of the instrumental group was formed.

A new stage for Toronto began when the band, after a long period of auditions, found young singer Anna Shteh. In 2007, Shteh Anna and Alexander Matytsyn left the band, and created a successful club project Beverly Hills, which exists to this day.

The new Singer - Lena "Wasp" Osaulenko - and bassist Anton Kaz'min coming from a jazz ensemble «Pikaboo», brought fresh notes to the band's sound.
The autumn of 2008 brought a happy pregnancy to the “Wasp” and a new band prima - Katya Lapshina, a beauty and a great singer who won many awards at Russian and international competitions with her beautiful and strong voice, and a unique style and charm.

This is how the “golden” composition of the Toronto band was formed: