“Osmo Vänskä, whose baton led the Minnesota Orchestra back from a bitter lockout and on historic tours to Cuba and South Africa, announced Wednesday he will step down as music director when his contract is up in 2022,” reports Jenna Ross in Wednesday’s (12/5) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “At that point, Vänskä, who is 65, will have spent 19 years with the orchestra.… The news … will give the orchestra time to find its next conductor and artistic leader. ‘I feel at this moment, more than ever in my life, that the Minnesota Orchestra is my own orchestra,’ he said. ‘And that’s a great feeling.’ … They became the first professional U.S. orchestra to travel to Cuba after relations between the countries warmed and the first to tour South Africa. They have recorded symphonies by Sibelius and Beethoven, winning a Grammy for a 2013 Sibelius release. Next, they will wrap up recordings of all 10 Mahler symphonies that earned them another Grammy nomination…. ‘Knowing this news from Osmo now … allows us an opportunity to do a very thoughtful and thorough international search,’ said Michelle Miller Burns, the orchestra’s new CEO…. At Wednesday’s meeting, for the fourth consecutive year, it unveiled a balanced budget.”
Posted December 6, 2018
