“Popular maestro Osmo Vänskä will continue conducting the Minnesota Orchestra through 2022,” writes Jenna Ross in Monday’s (7/10) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “The orchestra announced Monday morning that the longtime music director has signed a new, three-year contract through its 2021-22 season. The extension came early—Vänskä’s current contract expires at the end of the 2018-19 season…. Under the new contract, he will conduct at least 12 weeks of concerts a season, as he does now. Vänskä started as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2003. The new contract would extend his total tenure to 19 years, matching the orchestra’s two longest-serving music directors, Emil Oberhoffer and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski…. Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairwoman of the orchestra’s board of directors, [said] ‘There is so much more that he and the orchestra can do together.’ … Under Vänskä’s leadership, the Minnesota Orchestra has toured Europe, Cuba and Minnesota; produced 15 recordings, including the complete symphonies by Beethoven and Sibelius; and rebuilt the organization after a bruising lockout that ended in January 2014…. In addition to his strong partnership with musicians, ‘Osmo enjoys a unique and dynamic chemistry with Minnesota audiences,’ Kevin Smith, the orchestra’s president and CEO said.”
Posted July 11, 2017
