The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård—who is serving as music director designate during the 2022-23 season—is recognized for distinguished performances around the world, award-winning recordings and broadcasts, educational engagement programs, and commitment to building the orchestral repertoire of the future. Founded in 1903, the Orchestra has an extensive history of touring throughout Minnesota, nationally and abroad, including high-profile visits in recent years to Cuba, Europe and South Africa. Recording projects undertaken in the past two decades include complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Sibelius and Mahler, all recorded under Osmo Vänskä, who is now the Orchestra’s conductor laureate.

Australian conductor Nathan Aspinall has led orchestras across the U.S., Europe and Australasia. He is currently the associate conductor of the Nashville Symphony. He was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and a recipient of the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival. This past summer, he traveled to Leipzig for a concert with the Mendelssohn-Orchesterakadamie of the Gewandhausorchester. He was formerly associate conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, which he led in subscription programs each season and multiple tours; he will return there this season to lead a subscription program.

Christina Baldwin is a director, writer, adapter, producer, performer and frequent collaborator with the Minnesota Orchestra as a soloist, actor and recording artist. She has developed new plays, musical theater and opera with the likes of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights’ Center, Nautilus Music-Theater and The Moving Company. A longtime collaborator with the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, including serving as artistic director, she co-adapted and performed the title role in their critically acclaimed touring production of Carmen. Recently, she was the librettist for In the Midst of Things with An Opera Theatre and directed the virtual work Everything Comes to a Head with Lyric Opera of the North and the Decameron Opera Coalition.

Australian-born Susie Park, the Minnesota Orchestra’s first associate concertmaster since 2015, will be featured as soloist with the ensemble in June 2023 in Brahms’ Double Concerto with Associate Principal Cello Silver Ainomäe. She has performed solos with numerous major orchestras in Europe, the U.S. and Australia, as well as Korea’s KBS Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington in New Zealand. She was the violinist of the Eroica Trio from 2006 to 2012, with which she recorded the ensemble’s Grammy-nominated CD of all-American repertoire, and toured internationally. Her interest in music of all genres has also led to collaborations with artists such as jazz trumpeter Chris Botti.

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) produces original plays, hosts puppet shows and workshops and leads residencies throughout the Midwest. For many years it produced the MayDay parade, which is now transitioning to a celebration throughout May. Its recent productions include Impact Theory in June 2022 at the Avalon Theater. HOBT has often collaborated with the Minnesota Orchestra for Young People’s Concerts and Hansel and Gretel productions. At the 2022 Summer at Orchestra Hall festival, it collaborated with the Orchestra in choreographed performances of Smetana’s The Moldau. Its puppets were also featured at 2011 performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Maria Dively has been an American Sign Language interpreter for eight years in Minnesota and California. A NIC/Trilingual Interpreter, she is a graduate of North Central University in Minneapolis. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico and has been involved personally and professionally in the Deaf community since college. From a young age, she has been involved with music as a woodwind player, percussionist and steel drums player, among other roles.