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 musical performances such as solo recitals and concerts with chamber music groups, concerto appearances with other orchestras, forays into rock music, stage productions and more. Some of the Orchestra’s musicians are skilled composers, arrangers, conductors and recording artists, to name just a few of their talents. Taking on outside projects gives them chances to flex musical muscles that aren’t engaged as often in a typical Orchestra setting—while expanding musicians’ tool kits in ways that often come in handy at Orchestra performances.

On this continually updating page you’ll find details about Minnesota Orchestra musicians’ local performances beyond the confines of Orchestra Hall. Meanwhile, another opportunity to get to know the musicians in new ways right here at Orchestra Hall is at our Symphony in 60 concerts—hour-long performances with a 6 p.m. start time and other enhancements including a post-concert onstage gathering. The Orchestra's 2023-24 season includes three Symphony in 60 concerts, including Werewolf by Night on October 4, Beethoven Symphony No. 8 on April 20, 2024, and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 2 on May 11, 2024. 

Musicians Around Town

On Sunday, October 8, at 3 p.m. at Kracum Performance Hall at Carleton College in Northfield, violinist Helen Chang Haertzen and pianist Nikki Melville will perform a recital open to the general public. Haertzen, who this fall celebrates her 20th anniversary of joining the Minnesota Orchestra, appears frequently on the Orchestra’s chamber music series, and will perform Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round for double string quartet and string bass with Orchestra colleagues in a chamber music concert in Orchestra Hall's Target Atrium on January 14, 2024.

On Sunday, October 15, at 2 p.m. at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, violinist Natsuki Kumagai, violist Kenneth Freed and Principal Clarinet Gabriel Campos Zamora will be featured in a performance by the Isles Ensemble that takes listeners on a personal journey of faith and hope that spans centuries of prayer, memory, and the eternal. Newly uncovered arrangements of music from Auschwitz will serve as the counterpoint to the music of Bruch, Mendelssohn, Bloch, Ravel and Golijov. Additional performers include violinist and former Minnesota Orchestra Assistant Concertmaster Stephanie Arado; cellists Tom Rosenberg and Laura Sewell; and pianist Miryana Moteva.

On Sunday, October 15, at 3 p.m. at Gideon Ives Auditorium at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center in Bloomington, Principal Trumpet Manny Laureano and guest conductor Steven Amundson will conduct the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in a performance of music by Amundson, Brahms and Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute alumnus Michael Gilbertson. Laureano, who has been the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal trumpet since 1981, will serve in a second role in the concert: as the soloist in Gilbertson’s Trumpet Concerto. Laureano has been the Bloomington Symphony’s music director since 2013.

On Thursday, October 19, at 7 p.m. at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina, Principal Cello Anthony Ross and Beth Rapier will be joined by fellow Orchestra musicians Natsuki Kumagai and David Pharris—as well as pianists Timothy Lovelace and Bryon Wilson—in a program that features three trio pieces. Together with Wilson, Ross and Rapier will perform George Frideric Handel's Sonata for Two Cellos; other works on the program include Beethoven's Piano Trio and Cafe Music by Paul Schoenfield.

On Monday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, and on Tuesday, October 24, at 7:30 p.m. at Green Room in Minneapolis, the Accordo chamber music ensemble, comprising present and former principal string players of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, will perform a program of music by Bach, Shostakovich and Dvořák. Accordo will be joined at these performance by guest pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute.