Minnesota Orchestra Musicians Around Town
When Minnesota Orchestra musicians aren’t at Orchestra Hall, you can find many of them around the Twin Cities and beyond in other types of performances such as solo recitals and chamber music concerts, concerto appearances with other orchestras and more. Some of our musicians are skilled composers, arrangers, conductors and recording artists, to name just a few talents. Taking on outside projects gives them chances to flex musical muscles that aren’t engaged as often in typical Orchestra settings—while expanding musicians’ tool kits in ways that often come in handy at Orchestra performances.
Here you’ll find details about Orchestra musicians’ local performances beyond the confines of Orchestra Hall. Meanwhile, another opportunity to get to know the musicians takes place at the Hall in our Symphony in 60 concerts—hour-long performances with a 7 p.m. start time and other enhancements including a post-concert onstage gathering. The next Symphony in 60 concert is Beloved Beethoven on May 15, 2025.
Musicians Around Town
On Sunday, March 16, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church in Anoka, Minnesota Orchestra trumpet player Charles Lazarus and his band perform a concert of music from their most recent albums as part of the Joya Chamber Music series.
On Saturday, March 29, 2025, at 3 p.m. at MacPhail Center for Music’s Antonello Hall in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinist Cecilia Belcher and Principal Flute Adam Kuenzel, performs a program of chamber music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. Learn more and purchase tickets.
On Sunday, March 30, 2025, at 2 p.m. at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, the Isles Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinist Emily Switzer and violists Kenneth Freed and Sarah Switzer, as well as former Assistant Concertmaster Stephanie Arado, other local musicians and pianist Ora Itkin, performs a program of chamber music by Heinrich Biber, Alfred Schnittke, Dmitri Shostakovich, Arvo Pårt and Johannes Brahms. Learn more and purchase tickets.
On Sunday, April 6, 2025, at 2 p.m. at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Minnesota Orchestra Principal Trumpet Manny Laureano, performs Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the Resurrection Symphony. Learn more and purchase tickets. The Minnesota Orchestra recorded the same symphony in June 2017 as part of its acclaimed cycle of Mahler symphonies.
On Sunday, April 6, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Minneapolis, the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, conducted by Minnesota Orchestra Assistant Principal Bass William Schrickel, performs a free concert of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Polina Nazaykinskaya and Béla Bartók. View more information about the Civic Orchestra’s 2024-25 season, and read a recent story by Schrickel about the two instruments he plays: a 300-year-old Venetian string bass and a modern replica.
On Sunday, April 13, 2025, at 4 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, the Bakken Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinist Sarah Grimes, violist Lydia Grimes and cellist Pitnarry Shin, as well as former Assistant Concertmaster Stephanie Arado and pianist Lydia Artymiw, a frequent Minnesota Orchestra soloist and distinguished emerita professor of piano at the University of Minnesota, performs a program of chamber music by Karol Szymanowski, Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute alumnus Texu Kim and Ernő Dohnányi. Learn more and purchase tickets, and read a recent Composer Chat Q&A with Texu Kim.
On Friday, May 2, 2025, at 12 p.m. at William Abbott Concert Hall in the Kleinpell Fine Arts Building at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in River Falls, Wisconsin, Minnesota Orchestra violinist Helen Chang Haertzen, one-year contracted violinist Natalia Moiseeva, one-year contracted cellist Abraham Feder and pianist Ivan Konev, will perform a recital of music by Johannes Brahms, Pablo Sarasate and Antonín Dvořák. Learn more about the performance, which is part of the Frances Cohler Coffee Concert series.
On Sunday, May 4, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, the Michael Steinberg and Jorja Fleezanis Fund presents the sixth concert in its ongoing series of commissioning works for chamber ensemble and narrator in celebration of the legacy of the two late members of the Minnesota Orchestra family: former Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis and her husband, the eminent musicologist and writer Michael Steinberg. The concert features the world premiere of An Old Story, a sextet with music by composer Stefan L. Smith and text by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith. Three current Minnesota Orchestra musicians—First Associate Concertmaster Susie Park, Principal Cello Anthony Ross and Associate Principal Bass Kathryn Nettleman—will be joined by former Principal Clarinet Burt Hara, former Associate Principal Viola Sabina Thatcher, pianist Timothy Lovelace and narrator Stephen Yoakam. The program will conclude with Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, known as The Trout Quintet. Tickets are available for purchase through the Minnesota Orchestra’s website.
On Tuesday, May 13, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ordway in St. Paul, Accordo—a string ensemble composed of present and former principal string players of the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra—presents an evening of silent movies with original live chamber music. The performance features two Minnesota Orchestra musicians—Concertmaster Erin Keefe and Principal Cello Anthony Ross—along with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Copes and Principal Viola Maiya Papach, as well as pianist and composer Stephen Prutsman. Learn more and purchase tickets. The Minnesota Orchestra presents its own series at Orchestra Hall of popular films with live performances of scores—U.S. Bank Movies & Music—including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ Part 2 and National Geographic Live’s Secrets of the Whales during the 2024-25 season.
On Sunday, May 18, 2025, at 2 p.m. at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, the Isles Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinist Emily Switzer and violists Kenneth Freed and Sarah Switzer, performs a program of chamber music by George Enescu, Christopher Theofanidis, Antonín Dvořák, Joseph Haydn and Ernest Bloch. Learn more and purchase tickets. The Minnesota Orchestra will perform another work by Dvořák—the Violin Concerto—as the centerpiece of a program on May 15 and 16, 2025, with James Ehnes as soloist and Edward Gardner conducting.
On Monday, June 2, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, and on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at Icehouse MPLS in Minneapolis, Accordo—a string ensemble composed of present and former principal string players of the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and—performs a program of chamber music by Bruce Adolphe, John Novacek and Felix Mendelssohn. The performance features five Minnesota Orchestra musicians—Concertmaster Erin Keefe, First Associate Concertmaster Susie Park, violinist Natsuki Kumagai, Principal Viola Rebecca Albers and Principal Cello Anthony Ross—along with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians Steven Copes, Maiya Papach and Julie Albers. Learn more and purchase tickets. Park is also the soloist at Minnesota Orchestra concerts on February 14 and 15, 2025, at which she will perform Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de Cuerda under the direction of guest conductor Paolo Bortolameolli.
