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.

Nicholas Buc is a composer, conductor, arranger, violinist and pianist. He studied composition at the University of Melbourne, where he received the inaugural Fellowship of Australian Composers Award. As the recipient of the Brian May Scholarship for Australian film composers, he completed a master’s degree in scoring for film and multimedia at New York University, receiving the Elmer Bernstein Award for Film Scoring. Continuing his passion for music and film, he has conducted the live-in-concert world premieres of John Williams’ Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Alan Menken’s Beauty and the Beast; Hans Zimmer’s The Lion King; Thomas Newman’s Skyfall; Nicholas Hooper’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; and Alexandre Desplat’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.