Osmo Vänskä Will Return to Lead the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra in Historic Concert Next May

The University of Minnesota announces that Osmo Vänskä will return to lead the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra once again, on May 2, 2014, at the University of Minnesota's newly remodeled Northrup Memorial Auditorium.

Since he resigned from his post as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra on October 1, Vänskä has continued his busy schedule as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Wiener Symphoniker and the Singapore Symphony.

Vänskä's Minnesota program will re-create the first concert ever played at Northrup Auditorium, a Minneapolis musical and educational landmark. The first performance was given by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, a forerunner of the Minnesota Orchestra, on October 22, 1929.

The concert promises to be a celebration of Minnesota history and culture. The musicians will re-create the original 1929 concert program: Wagner's "Overture" to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the "Largo" from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) and Liszt's Les Préludes and Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, with William Wolfram as soloist.

The University of Minnesota Marching Band and Chorus will join the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra for a stirring finale: Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

For tickets and more information about this event, please visit northrop.umn.edu.

Since Vänskä's resignation, the contract dispute between Minnesota Orchestra musicians and management has dragged on. Aaron Jay Kernis, director of the Composer's Forum, resigned on the same day as Vänskä, and Lilly Schwartz, the orchestra's director of pops and special projects, recently announced she is leaving for a position with SFJAZZ in San Francisco.

It has now been more than a year since the Minnesota Orchestra musicians were locked out. Musicians have begun organizing alternative concerts, and some outside commentators have even suggested that the time is right for the musicians to turn their backs on the Minnesota Orchestral Association once and for all--to form a new symphony orchestra.