YELLOWKNIFE - Sometimes, you just have to close your eyes and listen.

As the crowd poured into what was once the St. Patrick high school gym for a performance by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM), the story was in the sounds as much as it was in the visuals.

As nearly 100 musicians tuned their instruments and ran through exercises, disbelief and amazement drifted among the patrons - a sold-out crowd of 850 - as they found their seats.

"I can't believe this is a gym," one remarked.

"Is this where we play tennis?" a couple shared, with a laugh.

"I think I hear Road Runner music," one poorly-educated arts editor remarked.When you opened your eyes, the sentiment was easy to share; the gym was transformed.

As much as $60,000 in temporary renovations saw lush red carpet where there was once a gym floor, and black velvet curtains where there were once plain, sound-reflecting walls.

Bright lights illuminated the massive, elevated stage, where the orchestra prepared for the first show on their national tour, and the first-ever performance of the OSM North of 60.

Northern Arts and Cultural Centre executive director Ben Nind, who helmed the event, said the show concluded "without a hitch."

"I thought it was magical," he said of the performance.

That smooth sailing doesn't include the lead-up to the event, however, as two vital truckloads of curtains and lighting arrived just 12 hours before the ice road was closed for the season.

"If the ice road had gone out, we would have been sitting in the actual gym on folding chairs," Nind said.

RTL Robinson president Tim Zehr (whose company transported the equipment) said he wasn't worried.

"In the big scope of things that was lots of time," he said with a laugh.

"We were happy to make it all come together."

Before the show, NACC president Ray Bethke thanked various sponsors, as well as Nind himself.

"Without his passion, dedication and sheer determination, I don't think this event would have happened," he said.

Even Kent Nagano, OSM's world-renowned conductor, had kind words to say earlier in the day, calling the organizing a "meeting of souls" between Nind and himself.

He said he was happy to bring symphonic music to Yellowknife, as it echoed his own introduction to the form, growing up in the small town of Morro Bay (population 10,000), and proved the OSM to be a truly national orchestra.

"Every performance is a chance to be an ambassador," he said.

The concert itself was... well, either you saw it or you didn't. The sound was incredible, and the musical choices (including a repertoire of Gioachino Rossini works, a never-before-heard piece by OSM resident composer Ana Sokolovic and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony) were engaging and enlightening.

The performance was outstanding, and Nagano brought a ferocity and charisma to conducting that evoked classic descriptions of Beethoven himself.

The "Road Runner music" turned out to be Rossini's William Tell Overture, by the way.