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Minnesota Orchestra announces plans for 2012-13 classical season, to be held at the Auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center

Music Director Osmo Vänskä leads his tenth season with the Orchestra, held primarily at the Auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center while Orchestra Hall undergoes renovation

Season highlights include Orchestra’s first-ever Clarinet Festival; concerto performances by Concertmaster Erin Keefe and former Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis; a program including all six of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos; season finale concerts of Sibelius and Dvořák symphonies

Guests include violinists Leila Josefowicz and Karen Gomyo; violist Roberto Díaz; cellist Alban Gerhardt; clarinetists Martin Fröst, Anat Cohen and Evan Christopher; pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Michael McHale, Simon Trpčeski, Jonathan Biss and Yevgeny Sudbin; organist Mark Sedio and soprano Susan Bullock; Orchestra member Anthony Ross also appears as soloist

Orchestra continues Common Chords project with week-long festival in Bemidji

Select concerts performed at Central Lutheran Church and Ted Mann Concert Hall; renovated Orchestra Hall to re-open in summer 2013

Click here for a complete 2012-13 classical and pops calendar

Click here for information on 2012-13 season subscriptions

(February 3, 3012) Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra today unveiled plans for their tenth season together, running from October 2012 to June 2013 and held primarily at the Auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center, while the Orchestra’s home venue, Orchestra Hall, closes temporarily for a major renovation due for completion in summer 2013.  Highlights of the season include a two-week Clarinet Festival—the Orchestra’s first ever—featuring an array of classical and jazz clarinetists that includes Vänskä himself, who trades his conductor’s baton for a clarinet in a Mozart serenade; concerto solos by current Concertmaster Erin Keefe and her predecessor Jorja Fleezanis, the latter in her first solo appearance with the Orchestra since retiring from the ensemble in 2009; a rare complete performance of one of Bach’s crowning achievements, all six Brandenburg Concertos; and season finale concerts featuring three powerful symphonies—Sibelius’ Third and Sixth, and Dvořák’s New World Symphony.

The season will feature solo turns by acclaimed guest soloists including Grammy-winning pianist Garrick Ohlsson, Grammy-nominated violinist Leila Josefowicz, Swedish clarinet virtuoso Martin Fröst, English soprano Susan Bullock and Russian-born Yevgeny Sudbin, who makes his sixth annual piano concerto appearance; a concerto solo by the Orchestra’s Principal Cello Anthony Ross; visits by guest conductors including Gilbert Varga, Mark Wigglesworth, Hannu Lintu  and Matthew Halls, who leads two weeks of concerts; and programs led by members of the Orchestra’s artistic conducting roster including Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, Associate Conductor Courtney Lewis and Principal Conductor of Pops and Presentations Sarah Hicks.

Vänskä and the Orchestra will launch the ensemble’s 110th season on Thursday, October 18, 2012, with a program that includes Elgar’s Enigma Variations as well as Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic Third Piano Concerto, the latter performed by Garrick Ohlsson, a regular collaborator with the Orchestra since 1971.  Vänskä will lead nine subscription programs, concluding with May and June 2013 performances of Sibelius and Dvořák symphonies.

The Orchestra will continue its innovative Common Chords outreach project with a week-long festival in Bemidji, Minnesota, in April 2013.  Common Chords creates partnerships between the Orchestra and participating Minnesota cities, with each relationship culminating in a celebratory festival week that features performances and dozens of activities that reflect the interests, diversity and heritage of each community.  Common Chords launched in Grand Rapids in October 2011 and will continue in Willmar in May 2012.

Continuing a longtime partnership with Minnesota Public Radio, the Orchestra’s Friday evening classical concerts will be broadcast regionally on MPR stations.  The Orchestra’s concerts are also featured in American Public Media’s national programs, Performance Today and SymphonyCast.

The Orchestra will again offer its popular Young People’s Concert series during 2012-13 with many concerts held at the Convention Center Auditorium.

Although the Orchestra will not hold recording sessions at the Convention Center Auditorium, it will continue recording the complete Sibelius symphonies and Beethoven piano concertos, with recording sessions slated for Orchestra Hall in June 2012 and September 2013.

Besides concerts at the Convention Center—located at 1301 Second Avenue South in downtown Minneapolis, a few blocks from Orchestra Hall and connected to the skyway system—the Orchestra will offer select performances at Minneapolis’ Central Lutheran Church and Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota.  The Auditorium of the Convention Center is comparable in size to the Orchestra Hall auditorium, holding about 2,150 in its main seating area.  The grand re-opening of the renovated Orchestra Hall is scheduled for summer 2013.

Click here to view more information about the Auditorium at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Click here to view information about the Orchestra's other performance venues.

2012-13 SEASON AT A GLANCE

  • Osmo Vänskä and Sarah Hicks lead two-week Clarinet Festival

From November 9 to 17, the Orchestra will present a Clarinet Festival that spans its classical and pops series.  Osmo Vänskä will conduct concerts featuring soloist Martin Fröst in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales, a work for which Fröst will serve both as clarinetist and dancer.  On the same program, Vänskä will pick up his clarinet and join Orchestra members in performing Mozart’s Serenade No. 11.  Earlier in the Festival, Sarah Hicks will lead the Orchestra in concerts that feature soloists Anat Cohen and Evan Christopher and the Grammy-winning klezmer band The Klezmatics.  The Duke Ellington Orchestra will also perform a concert—without the Minnesota Orchestra—as part of the Festival.

  • Baroque music, piano concertos of Rachmaninoff, Mozart among season’s highlights

In December 2012, English conductor Matthew Halls makes his Minnesota Orchestra debut, leading two weeks of concerts that feature some of the Baroque era’s greatest masterpieces.  In the first week, for only the fourth time in its history, the Orchestra will perform all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos on one program.  The following week, the Orchestra presents Handel’s beloved oratorio Messiah, with four vocal soloists: soprano Lucy Crowe, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Thomas Cooley and baritone Philip Cutlip.

Additional season highlights include performances of three Mozart concertos—the Fifth Violin Concerto (Turkish) and Piano Concertos No. 13 and 20—and two of Rachmaninoff’s four piano concertos, the Second and Third.  The season’s offerings in the symphony genre include two each by Prokofiev (Nos. 5 and 7), Dvořák (Nos. 7 and 9, New World) and Sibelius (Nos. 3 and 6); Beethoven’s Third (Eroica), one of the first great works of his middle period; two symphonies composed in the wake of World War II, Shostakovich’s Tenth and Vaughan Williams’ Sixth; and a rarely performed gem, Mozart’s First Symphony, written when the composer was just 8 years old.

  • Skrowaczewski and Litton return to the conductor’s podium

Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski will return to Orchestra Hall in April 2013 for his 53rd consecutive season of conducting Minnesota Orchestra subscription concerts.  Renowned internationally as a composer as well as a conductor, Skrowaczewski—the Orchestra’s music director from 1960 to 1979—will conduct Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Concertmaster Erin Keefe and a symphonic compilation of selections from Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, arranged by Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger.

Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, marking his 11th season on the Orchestra’s artistic roster, will return for his annual appearance on the Orchestra’s subscription series in November and December 2012.  His concerts will include Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, played by Macedonia’s Simon Trpčeski, as well as Prokofiev’s Seventh Symphony and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

  • Orchestra musicians Erin Keefe and Anthony Ross in the spotlight

During the 2012-13 season, Concertmaster Erin Keefe and Principal Cello Anthony Ross will be featured as concerto soloists.  Keefe, making her concerto solo debut on the subscription series, performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in April, while Principal Cello Anthony Ross offers Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in October.  In addition, multiple soloists from the Orchestra will be featured in December performances of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos.

  • Minnesota Orchestra debuts

Several guest artists will make their first solo appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra during the 2012-13 season, including Northern Irish pianist Michael McHale, who plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 (November); Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski, who performs Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto (November/December); English conductor Matthew Halls, who will conduct the Bach Brandenburg Concertos and Handel’s Messiah (December); British soprano Lucy Crowe and Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor, both soloists in Handel’s Messiah; Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu and German cellist Alban Gerhardt, who collaborate in performances of the Elgar Cello Concerto (February); British soprano and Wagner specialist Susan Bullock, performing Strauss’ Four Last Songs and selections from Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung (March); and organist Mark Sedio, a nationally renowned musician who is director of music at Minneapolis’ Central Lutheran Church, where he will perform in Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, Organ Symphony (May).

  • Returning guest artists and conductors

During the 2012-13 season, the Orchestra will welcome back nine guest soloists, including violinists Jorja Fleezanis, Karen Gomyo and Leila Josefowicz; violist Roberto Díaz; pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Yevgeny Sudbin and Jonathan Biss; clarinetist Martin Fröst; tenor Thomas Cooley; and baritone Philip Cutlip.

Guest conductors returning to Minnesota during 2012-13 are Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gilbert Varga and Mark Wigglesworth, who will lead two weeks of concerts.  In addition, the Orchestra’s Associate Conductor Courtney Lewis leads a week of concerts.

The Minnesota Chorale, the Orchestra’s principal chorus, will collaborate twice with the Orchestra in 2012-13: in performances of Adams’ Harmonium (October) and Handel’s Messiah (December).

  • Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute

The Minnesota Orchestra and American Composers Forum, in cooperation with New Music USA, will present the 12th annual Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute from January 7 to 12, 2013.  Directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, the Institute offers emerging composers an intensive week-long immersion in the world of the American symphony orchestra.  At the week’s end, the participating composers’ works will be performed in a public “Future Classics” concert on January 11, 2013, held at Ted Mann Concert Hall and conducted by Osmo Vänskä.

  • About the Auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center

The Minneapolis Convention Center is notable for much more than boat and home-and-garden shows: it is also home to a beautiful performance space, the Auditorium, which is about the same size as Orchestra Hall and has excellent amenities.  For the Orchestra’s classical concerts, a shell will be used to modify acoustics as appropriate for a symphonic experience.  The Convention Center is located in downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from Orchestra Hall, so it is accessible to all the same parking options and skyway connections already familiar to Orchestra Hall visitors.

Click here to view more information about the Auditorium at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Click here to view information about the Orchestra's other performance venues.

Subscription packages for the 2012-13 classical season are available beginning February 7, 2012, to renewing and new subscribers. Individual tickets are available starting on July 27, 2012 (fall/holiday concerts), and on September 7, 2012 (winter/spring concerts). Tickets can be purchased online, by phone or in person at the Minnesota Orchestra Box Office at 11th and Marquette in Minneapolis. For more information, call (612) 371-5656 or (800) 292-4141, or visit minnesotaorchestra.org/subscribe.

All programs, artists, dates, times and prices subject to change.

Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2012-13 season.

The Star Tribune and 830 WCCO-AM are the Minnesota Orchestra’s media partners for the 2012-13 season.

This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State’s general fund and its arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Gwen Pappas, Director of Public Relations
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Sandi Brown, Public Relations Coordinator
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