For Toronto's Queer Songbook Orchestra, the songs wouldn't exist without the stories behind them. The group performs everything from old standards to contemporary hits, but the narratives used by the singers to contextualize their ballads are what make a night with the QSO as much about catharsis as it is about music.

In this video directed by Alanna Stuart and filmed by Marco Libretti, meet QSO artistic director Shaun Brodie and some of the cast of characters that make the orchestra such a rich and diverse part of the Canadian music scene.