Vanska and the musicians will re-unite again next May
Who will forget Osmo Vanska's emotionally charged final concerts conducting the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra at the University of Minnesota's Ted Mann Concert Hall in October? Well, it turns out they weren't a farewell after all.
Vanska and the musicians will return to the stage on May 2, 2014 at the U's newly renovated Northrop Auditorium. They're going to recreate the Minneapolis Symphony's very first concert at Northrop, which was held Oct. 22, 1929.
Plans for Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra to perform at the refurbished Northrop preceded the musician lockout, but hadn't been finalized. They were discontinued once the lockout began. Since then, the musicians have formed their own performance group, "The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra," and are organizing their own concerts. When a musician representative called Northrop director Christine Tschida to rent the space, she gladly said yes.
"I want to populate Northrop with good music," Tschida said. "And it's a client that has come with a rental and also a wonderful partnership with two departments at the 'U,' offering me the opportunity to get students involved with a conductor like Osmo Vanska, and so it's a great opportunity for us."
The program will include works by Wagner, Dvorzak, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," which will incorporate the University of Minnesota Chorus and marching band.
Tschida says the musicians, in anticipation of the demand for tickets, wanted a larger venue then Ted Mann, which seats 1,126 people. The new Northrop, which opens April 4, 2014, will seat 2,700.
Tschida says the university asked the musicians if they were certain they could commit to a concert as far out as May 2, given the lockout and the status of the contract negotiations, and they said they could. Tickets go on sale on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 10 a.m.
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