The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, now in its second century, ranks among America’s top symphonic ensembles, with a distinguished history of acclaimed performances in its home state and around the world; award-winning recordings, broadcasts and educational engagement programs; and a commitment to intentionally build concert programs to feature more works by composers of color, exploring music both contemporary and historic. This past fall, Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård began his tenure as music director.

Minnesota Orchestra Conductor Laureate Osmo Vänskä, whose 19-year tenure as the Orchestra’s music director concluded in 2022, is renowned internationally for his compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires. His multi-year project with the Orchestra to perform and record all ten Mahler symphonies concluded in November 2022 with the Third Symphony. Signature initiatives of his music director tenure included a Sibelius symphonies cycle that earned the Orchestra its first Grammy Award and major tours to Cuba, Europe and South Africa. As a guest conductor, he has received extraordinary praise for his work with many of the world’s leading orchestras.

Kevin Puts, who is now directing his seventh Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for the opera Silent Night, which was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera, as was his 2015 opera The Manchurian Candidate. His work has been commissioned and performed by leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. His newest opera is an operatic adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera with libretto by Greg Pierce. It is scheduled for its fully staged premiere by the Metropolitan Opera in November 2022, starring Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara. In March 2022 the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the premiere performance of a concert version of the opera under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Brian Newhouse serves as a guest host and writer of the This Is Minnesota Orchestra television broadcast and online livestream series and is the Orchestra’s associate vice president of individual giving. He is also the onstage host of the Minnesota Orchestra’s May 2022 MusicMakers concert. He joined the Orchestra’s staff after serving as managing director of Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media’s classical programming, and the host for the Orchestra’s Friday night live radio broadcasts. The creator of MPR’s 24-hour online Choral Stream, he’s also board chair of Chorus America. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University, won a Peabody Award for the documentary The Mississippi: River of Song, and authored the memoir, A Crossing. A resident of St. Paul, he also serves as a lyricist for many composers.