Minnesota Orchestra Is BACK!!! Happy! Happy! Happy!

My goodness, this has been a long and troublesome time.  I hated, hated, hated losing Osmo Vanska to this horrible dispute, and the loss is not just ours...“It’s really insane, this intransigence,” said New York-based critic and composer Greg Sandow, who said Vänskä’s resignation in the midst of labor strife is unprecedented."

Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra were booked to play all seven Sibelius symphonies over the course of four concerts at Carnegie Hall in November and April. of last year. 

"The Carnegie Hall project represents for me one of the most significant goals of my entire Minnesota Orchestra tenure," Vanska said in the letter to management who made a significant investment in the renovation of Orchestra Hall but not in the talent to fill it.  "I wish to do everything possible to ensure those concerts go ahead. But at this time I must make it clear, that in the case Carnegie Hall chooses to cancel the Minnesota Orchestra's concerts this November, i.e., if they lose confidence in our ability to perform these concerts as a result of the extended lockout, then I will be forced to resign my position as music director."

We lost so much as a state: Osmo Vanska, Aaron Jay Kernis, who was our music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and the Director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Composers' Institute. He is widely regarded as one of the leading composers of his generation.

It is interesting to note that while the negotiations were going on, now that it is settled, the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra’s website is silent, and there is no list now, as there once was. of those who have “retired” or been recruited to other more prominent orchestras.

Those of us who have loved and will continue to love the excellence of having not only one, but two, extraordinary orchestras/symphonies in our area will be exultant that we now have the St. Paul Symphony back as well as the Minnesota Orchestra, and we will all be the richer for it. 

Thank you to both organizations for sharing so much of your talent while being in strife. 

We owe you.