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. In September 2024, Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård began his second season as music director.

Teddy Abrams, Grammy Award-winner and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra (LO)’s artistic renewal since his appointment as music director in September 2014. In April 2023, Abrams premiered his own composition Mammoth with the LO and Yo-Yo Ma in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, and in 2024 his piano concerto for Yuja Wang won a Grammy Award.

Grammy-nominated pianist Aaron Diehl has quietly re-defined the lines between jazz and classical, and built a global career around his nuanced, understated approach to music-making. Praised for his “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint” (The New York Times), and his “traditional jazz sound with a sophisticated contemporary spin” (The Guardian), Diehl has performed with musical giants such as Wynton Marsalis, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Tyshawn Sorey and Philip Glass, and has been a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra