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.

Conductor Junping Qian, having just completed his second year as the Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, also serves as a Visiting Faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

His recent engagements, aside from his busy schedule with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, notably, include conducting the Covid-19 recovery rehearsal camp of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, a China Tour with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Teatro del Giglio Lucca, his South American debut with Orchestra SODRE in Montevideo, Uruguay, his North American professional debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, an open-air summer concert in “Summer Classics” Festival Sibiu and re-invitations from Toronto, Macau, Kunming, Xi’An, Bucharest, Iasi, and Tirgus Mures. He served as the Strategic Advisor and Residential Artist of the Shanghai & Royal College of Music London Joint Institute from 2018 to 2020.

Yiwen Lu is one of the most well-known Erhu players in China. She is the council member of the Bowed Stringed Instruments Committee under China Musicians Association as well as the Erhu Committee under the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. She is currently teaching Erhu in Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Her major awards include the Gold Medal of the 10th Golden Bell Award Erhu Competition in 2015 (the highest award in any Chinese instrument competition) and the 4th Wenhua Prize, the Erhu Youth Group's highest performance award in 2012.

South Korean baritone Joo Won Kang made his Metropolitan Opera debut last season as Marcello in La Bohème. He also appeared in the company’s new production of Don Carlos. He has appeared in leading roles such as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Germont in La Traviata, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, the title role in Eugene Onegin and Ping in Turandot with opera companies throughout the U.S. Among them are San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Utah Opera.

Dr. Benhong Rosaline Tsai is Vice President, Talent, Learning & Org Effectiveness at Thrivent, a Fortune 500 financial services firm based in Minneapolis. In this role, Roz leads talent acquisition, talent management, leadership development and organization effectiveness efforts in support of Thrivent’s bold transformation and growth objectives. Previously, Roz served as vice president of HR and chief learning officer at Ecolab, leading performance management, career development, leadership and enterprise learning initiatives for its 49,000 global workforce. Roz has also held transformative leadership roles in Honeywell, Lawson Software (now Infor) and Northern States Power Company (now Xcel Energy). With her extensive cross-functional experiences across multiple industry sectors, Roz has developed a unique and strategic approach to creating diverse, inclusive and high-performing teams that drive enduring business impact. Outside of work Roz is a long-time community volunteer for youth development and arts & culture organizations, most recently completing her term as Board Chair for Minnesota non-profit BestPrep. A native of Tianjin, China, Roz completed her undergraduate studies at Nankai University and obtained her Master of Science degree at St. Cloud State University. She holds a doctorate degree from University of Minnesota, where she currently serves as adjunct faculty for the Carlson School of Management, teaching Global Talent Management for global business executives.