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.

Ahmed Fernando Anzaldúa El Samkary is a Mexican conductor and pianist of Egyptian descent and the founder and artistic director of Border CrosSing. He is an active musician, performing in Mexico and the U.S. frequently as a soloist and conductor with choirs and orchestras, and also performs as a pianist in solo recitals and collaborative settings. He is a recognized authority in Latin American and Spanish music, particularly the compositions of Federico Mompou and Miguel Bernal Jiménez, and he collaborates regularly with composers to premiere new works, including music by Helmut Lachenmann, Paul Lansky and Arturo Márquez.

Twin Cities-based choral ensemble Border CrosSing was founded in 2017 by Ahmed Anzaldúa as a response to a lack of representation of Latin American culture in choral music in the United States. In its first five years it has grown into a vibrant organization with several programs and has expanded beyond Latin American repertoire, with a mission to integrating historically segregated audiences and musicians through the performance of choral music.