In Friday’s (9/25) Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), Graydon Royce reports, “Osmo Vänskä has signed a contract extension to remain music director at the Minnesota Orchestra through the 2014-15 season. … Vänskä was music director of the Lahti Symphony in his native Finland when he joined the orchestra in 2003-04 as its tenth music director. He signed a second four-year contract in 2007. Under terms of the extension, Vänskä will conduct the orchestra an average of 13 weeks across each of the four seasons. During his six years, Vänskä has restored much of the orchestra’s luster throughout the music world. The group’s three European tours—which in 2006 included a debut at the BBC Proms in London—have been praised critically. … He also has taken the orchestra on an ambitious recording program, including a five-CD cycle on the BIS label of all the Beethoven symphonies. The recording of the Ninth Symphony was nominated for a Grammy Award, while the disc including the Second and Seventh received a 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Award nomination.”
Photo credit: Eric Moore
Posted September 25, 2009
