Minnesota Orchestra’s free concerts in response to police violence, and remembering George Floyd

The Minnesota Orchestra and Music Director Osmo Vänskä will perform concerts on May 14 and 28 in response to the turbulence in Minneapolis and around the world, particularly with regard to issues of racial equity and police violence against Black Americans. Both concerts will be broadcast live on Twin Cities PBS and Minnesota Public Radio, and streamed live for free at minnesotaorchestra.org. The May 14 concert will feature Yaz Lancaster’s dis[armed], which reflects on gun violence and is scored for percussion duo with fixed track and interludes; the concert also will include Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Penderecki’s Chaconne in Memory of John Paul II, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”). The May 28 program—performed three days after the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer—will feature Carlos Simon’s string quartet “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave,” and will be performed in memory of Floyd and other victims of racial violence. The program also will include Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, Joseph Bologne’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 3, No. 1, with soloist Karen Gomyo, and the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Following the live-stream and broadcast, the May concerts will be available free on demand at minnesotaorchestra.org.