Upcoming Minnesota Orchestra season to celebrate Nordic composers, 50 years of Orchestra Hall

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
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The newly announced Minnesota Orchestra 2024-25 season includes a two-week festival spotlighting Nordic composers and culture, the return of the Composer Institute and a series of events commemorating 50 years at Orchestra Hall.

Ticket packages of three or more concerts are on sale now at minnesotaorchestra.org or by calling 612-371-5642. Single tickets will be available on July 29.

Highlights of the upcoming season include:

Now in his second season as music director, Thomas Sondergard will begin the season in September with two weeks of concerts that include three new-to-the-orchestra works by Andrea Tarrodi and Thomas Ades. The season wraps in June 2025 with a dance-inspired program with music from Carlos Simon, Sergei Prokofiev and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Sondergard, who is Danish, will bring the inaugural Nordic Soundscapes festival to Orchestra Hall in January. It includes two weeks of programming showcasing the contributions of historic and contemporary composers from Nordic nations.

The season will spotlight a diverse collection of contemporary composers, older works that have been historically obscured and pieces that have not been performed by the ensemble in decades.

Alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, Sondergard will relaunch the Composer Institute, a residency program for emerging composers that culminates in a public concert on April 25, 2025.

The Live at Orchestra Hall series includes concerts dedicated to the music of John Williams, John Denver, the Beatles and a fusion of Brahms and Radiohead. The orchestra will also provide live accompaniment to the films “Star Wars,” “Hocus Pocus,” “Elf,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” and “Back to the Future.”

Season guests include violinists James Ehnes and Isabelle Faust, pianists Ingrid Fliter and Alice Sara Ott and newcomers Yunchan Lim, Bruce Liu and Randall Goosby. Seven Minnesota Orchestra musicians will perform as soloists.

In concerts on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, Sondergard will lead performances of Mozart’s Requiem with the orchestra, the Minnesota Chorale and a collection of vocalists, including three-time Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton and two Minnesota natives: mezzo-soprano Alma Neuhaus and tenor Jack Swanson. On May 1 and May 3, the orchestra will offer its first complete performance of Puccini’s Turandot since 1985 with vocalists Christine Goerke, Adolfo Corrado and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha.

The first concert at Orchestra Hall took place in October 1974 and the fall programming will have several events to celebrate, with specific activities to be announced at a later date. The season will also feature selections that were performed during the 1974-75 season, including Maurice Ravel’s Valse Nobles et Sentimentales and a version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

For more information, see minnesotaorchestra.org.

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