Sommerfest, the Minnesota Orchestra’s summer concert series, launches with free outdoor concerts on July 1 and 2 in Hudson, Wisconsin and Plymouth, Minnesota. Associate Conductor Akiko Fujimoto will lead a program of classical favorites, film music, and Sousa marches, with a fireworks display following the Plymouth performance. Sommerfest continues through August 3, when Osvaldo Golijov’s oratorio La Pasión según San Marcos will be performed at Orchestra Hall, with vocal soloists and Twin Cities performers from Border CrosSing and the Minnesota Chorale. Venezuelan conductor María Guinand will lead the combined forces, and director Marcela Lorca will provide stage direction. Festival highlights include a July 13 noon-to-midnight International Day of Music with free daytime performances in and around Orchestra Hall, with a special focus on Latin America; music and art activities; and food, beverages, and handicrafts for sale. A program the same evening will feature Music Director Osmo Vänskä conducting works from the orchestra’s recent Common Chords North Minneapolis residency and South Africa tour, including Michael Abels’s Dance for Martin’s Dream and the traditional South African song “Shosholoza,” showcasing the Minnesota Chorale and community choirs, and South African soprano Goitsemang Lehoybe in Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.
Posted July 1, 2019
