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, December 8, at 3 p.m. at First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights, the Mississippi Valley Orchestra performs a concert that features Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, featuring two Minnesota Orchestra musicians as soloists: first violinist Sarah Grimes and violist Lydia Grimes. Ho-Yin Kwok conducts the performance, which also features works by Bao Yuankai, Leroy Anderson and Johannes Brahms. Learn more about the Mississippi Valley Orchestra’s season.
On Monday, January 13, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, and on Tuesday, January 14, 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—performs a program of chamber music by Amy Beach, Felix Mendelssohn and Antonín Dvořák. The performance features two Minnesota Orchestra musicians—Concertmaster Erin Keefe and Principal Cello Anthony Ross—as well as Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Copes and Principal Viola Maiya Papach. Learn more and purchase tickets. Keefe is also the soloist at Minnesota Orchestra concerts on May 13 and 14, 2025, at which she performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto under the direction of guest conductor Tabita Berglund.
On Sunday, February 2, 2025, at 2 p.m. at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, the Isles Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinist Emily Switzer and violist Sarah Switzer, as well as former Assistant Concertmaster Stephanie Arado and other local musicians, performs a program of chamber music by Joaquín Turina, Jennifer Higdon, Terry Riley and Joseph Haydn. Learn more and purchase tickets, and read a recent Meet a Musician Q&A with Emily Switzer.
On Sunday, February 2, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, the Uptown Brass—a quintet composed of Minnesota Orchestra brass musicians—performs a program inspired by Latin American music and dance rhythms in the wake of the quintet’s tour to Cuba the previous month. The concert is presented as part of the Westminster Performing Arts Series. Read about the 2022 Uptown Brass tour to South Africa.
On Sunday, February 9, 2025, at 2 p.m. at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center in Bloomington, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Minnesota Orchestra Principal Trumpet Manny Laureano, performs a program of music by Li Huanzhi and Felix Mendelssohn that also features the Grand Prize winner of the MNSOTA Mary West Solo Competition. Learn more and purchase tickets. Laureano, a Minnesota Orchestra musician since 1981 and the ensemble’s longest-tenured current principal musician, will retire from the Orchestra at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.
On Sunday, February 9, 2025, at 2 p.m. at the Ames Center in Burnsville, the Dakota Valley Symphony performs a concert that features Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto, featuring St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Principal Violin Kyu-Young Kim and Minnesota Orchestra cellist Pitnarry Shin. Stephen J. Ramsey conducts the performance, which also features works by Maurice Ravel and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Learn more about the Dakota Valley Symphony’s season. Shin is also featured at the Minnesota Orchestra’s chamber music concert in Orchestra Hall’s auditorium on January 12, 2025, at which she performs Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht with string section colleagues.
On Sunday, February 16, 2025, at 4 p.m. at MacPhail Center for Music's Antonello Hall in Minneapolis, the Bakken Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violist Marlea Simpson, Orchestra cellists Sonia Mantell and Pitnarry Shin and former Assistant Concertmaster Stephanie Arado, performs a program of chamber music by Jessie Montgomery, Terry Riley, Sergei Taneyev and Jacques Offenbach. Learn more and purchase tickets, and read a recent Meet a Musician Q&A with Sonia Mantell.
On Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Minneapolis, the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, conducted by Minnesota Orchestra violist Kenneth Freed, performs a free concert featuring Minnesota Orchestra Principal Bassoon Fei Xie as soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto. The program also includes works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Johannes Brahms. View more information about the Civic Orchestra’s 2024-25 season. Xie also serves as the artistic consultant for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Lunar New Year Celebration concert on February 8, 2025. Read an interview with Xie about the special family connections that tied together the 2022 Lunar New Year concert.
On Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Roseville Lutheran Church in Roseville, the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra performs a free concert that includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, featuring Minnesota Orchestra Principal Second Violin Yi Zhao, Associate Principal Cello Silver Ainomäe and pianist Timothy Lovelace as soloists. The program, conducted by Yuri Ivan, also includes Jean Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony. View more information about the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-25 season. Zhao, who joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s first violin section in June 2023, was appointed principal second violin in September 2024.
On Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 3 p.m. at MacPhail Center for Music’s Antonello Hall in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, including Minnesota Orchestra violinists Cecilia Belcher and Hanna Landrum, as well as one-year contracted violinist Kathryn Bennett, performs a program of chamber music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonia Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel and Giuseppe Valentini. Learn more and purchase tickets. More music by Bach is featured at the Minnesota Orchestra’s The Best of Bach concerts on December 5 and 6, 2024.
On Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 4 p.m. at the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota presents an afternoon of chamber music for clarinet and cello featuring Minnesota Orchestra Principal Clarinet Gabriel Campos Zamora and Principal Cello Anthony Ross. Learn more and purchase tickets. Gabriel is also the soloist in Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto at the Minnesota Orchestra's Nordic Landscapes and Portraits concerts on January 10 and 11, 2025, conducted by Thomas Søndergård.
On Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 2 p.m. at the Lakeville Area Arts Center in Lakeville, the Isles Ensemble, including several Minnesota Orchestra string musicians, performs a chamber music program featuring repertoire to be announced. Learn more and purchase tickets.
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. Lazarus is also featured at a Merry & Bright holiday concert at Orchestra Hall on Sunday, December 14, 2024.
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. More music by Bach is featured at the Minnesota Orchestra’s The Best of Bach concerts on December 5 and 6, 2024.
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. The Minnesota Orchestra will perform more of Brahms’ music—and offer the opportunity to meet meet Orchestra musicians onstage after the concert—at a one-hour Symphony in 60: Romantic Brahms performance at Orchestra Hall on Saturday, November 16, 2024.
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 Sunday, May 5, 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 will be available for purchase through the Minnesota Orchestra’s website at a later date.
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 Back to the Future, Elf, 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.
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