Friday, June 28 | 7:30 p.m. 519 Oak Grove St | Minneapolis, MN 55403
Aaron Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody (from Appalachian Spring) Alexander Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Danse Nègre Andrew Yee: Briefly Gorgeous (MPO commission) Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, fourth movement Diane Benjamin: Overture for the MPO (MPO commission)
Start Twin Cities Pride off on the right note with the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, in partnership with St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral! On Friday, June 28, take the rainbow staircase across from Loring Park up to the cathedral for an evening of music.
MPO’s Pride concert evokes the unbound freedom of wide open spaces — from the homesteaders’ clearing of Aaron Copland’s ballet to the vast deserts of Alexander Borodin’s symphonic poem, from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s jubilant dance to the flight of monarchs in Andrew Yee’s Briefly Gorgeous, and from the heartfelt melodies of Diane Benjamin’s overture to the romping celebration of Beethoven’s symphonic finale.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Dates Performed
#138: Throughlines
Concert first performed on May 11, 2024.
Saturday, May 11th, 2024
Musical ideas, like memories, evolve over time. In both Borodin’s symphonic poem and Mayer’s symphony, melodies and rhythms return over and over, transforming in subtle ways with each iteration until they have become something wholly new and triumphant. While Yaz Lancaster’s prismatic new work explores when, how, and why we return to childhood memories in our adult lives.
Alexander Borodin – In The Steppes Of Central Asia
Yaz Lancaster – Solace (world premiere)
Emilie Mayer – Symphony No. 7 in F minor
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Dates Performed
MPO Children’s Concert
Concert first performed on March 17, 2024.
Sunday, March 17th Activities at 2pm Music at 3pm
Justice Page Middle School 1 W 49th St Minneapolis, MN 55419
Join the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra for an unforgettable afternoon of music and creativity at our Children’s Concert, featuring a lively “Dance Party” theme.
Artistic Adventures: Let Creativity Soar!
Before the musical journey begins, let your little ones unleash their creativity with dance-inspired art activities. Our Art Corner promises a burst of imagination before the concert experience begins.
A Symphony of Dance: Unmissable Performances
Our orchestra presents a stellar lineup:
Beethoven Symphony #7: Feel the pulse of this timeless masterpiece.
Souvenirs by Samuel Barber: Dive into Barber’s vibrant compositions.
Danzon #2 by Arturo Marquez: Experience the sultry allure of a Latin dance party.
Let’s Dance Together: A Symphony for All Ages!
Whether you’re a seasoned concertgoer or a first-timer, our Dance Party Children’s Concert guarantees joy, laughter, and artistic expression. Bring the family for an enchanting experience.
Conducted by
Works Performed
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#137: Pulse
Concert first performed on March 16, 2024.
Saturday, March 16th, 2024
Dance party! The elegance and vigor of Arturo Márquez’s Danzon No. 2 invite us into a turn of the century Veracruzian ballroom, while Barber’s Souvenirs is a tour of six charming, provocative, playful, and rollicking dances. Finally, from the drama and storytelling of Beethoven’s “heroic” period springs the unfettered joy of his 7th symphony, the so-called “apotheosis of the dance.”
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2 Samuel Barber: Souvenirs (Ballet Suite) Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Dates Performed
#136: Homelands
Concert first performed on November 4, 2023.
Saturday, November 4th, 2023
Jean Sibelius, Manuel de Falla and Adolphus Hailstork all spoke through their music to the landscapes, peoples, and histories of their respective nations. Sibelius’s overture evokes the Karelian region of Finland with marching strings, horn fanfares, and soaring brass. Manuel de Falla’s fantasy paints vivid gardens with the myriad colors of the orchestra and piano. Finally, Adolphus Hailstork’s symphony bursts forth with a defiant rhythmic energy and pastoral sensibility that is both born of and unlimited by the traditions of 20th century American music.
Jean Sibelius: Karelia Overture Manuel de Falla: Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), with Jared Miller, piano Adolphus Hailstork: Symphony No. 1
The finale of our 30th anniversary season begins with the pulsating energy of Libby Laren’s Overture for the End of a Century. At the heart of the program is a world premier by extraordinary cellist and composer Andrew Yee, “Briefly Gorgeous.” Finally, our season comes full circle with the work of another singular voice in American music, Duke Ellington. Ellington’s The River follows the journey of water from spring to brook, lake to falls, river to sea, and earthly element to a symbol of transformation and rebirth.
Libby Larsen – Overture for the End of a Century
Augusta Holmès – La Nuit et l’Amour
Andrew Yee – World Premier
Duke Ellington – The River
About Andrew Yee
Andrew Yee
GRAMMY Award winning cellist and composer Andrew Yee has been praised by Michael Kennedy of the London Telegraph as “spellbindingly virtuosic”. Trained at the Juilliard School, they are a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet who have released several albums to Critical acclaim including Andrew’s arrangement of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words” which Thewholenote.com praised as “ . . .easily the most satisfying string version of the work that I’ve heard.” They were the quartet-in-residence at the Met Museum in 2014, and have won the Osaka and Coleman international string quartet competitions. They co-composed a score to Wu Tsang’s film adaptation for Moby Dick; or, The Whale that was premiered with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and then in New York at the Shed by the New York Philharmonic. Their recording of the string quartets of Caroline Shaw won a GRAMMY for best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble performance.
As a soloist last season Andrew performed John Taverner’s The Protecting Veil and Strauss Don Quixote. In 2019 they won the first prize at Oklahoma University’s National Arts Incubation Lab for their pitch of a wearable garment that translates sound into vibrations for the hard of hearing. They like to make stop-motion videos of food, draw apples, cook like an Italian Grandma and have developed coffee and cocktail programs for award-winning restaurants (Lilia, Risbobk, Atla) in New York City.
Their solo project “Halfie” draws on their experience as a bi-racial and non-binary person in having access to multiple communities at once, while not feeling at home in any of them. The works commissioned and on the concerts will feature a wide range of composers all for solo cello.
They play on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation.
Fanfares, chorals, Beethovenian heroism and a panoply of percussion instruments make Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony: Eroica an absolute romp. The MPO then joins forces with One Voice Mixed Chorus for the premier of a new work by Nathan Hall.
Finally, Tchaikovsky’s passionate Symphony No. 6, which the composer called “the most sincere of all my creations,” is an emotional epic, pouring forth with wonder, joy, fury, and lament – passionate in every sense of the word.
Tan Dun – Internet Symphony: Eroica
Nathan Hall – “Love, Death, What Else?!” – World Premiere, with One Voice Mixed Chorus
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathetique“
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Tan Dun, Internet Symphony: Eroica
Nathan Hall, “Love, Death, What Else?!” with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathetique“ with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Dates Performed
March 11, 2023
#133: Openings
Concert first performed on November 5, 2022.
Brian Hadley, Bassoon
Saturday, November 5, 2022 – 7:30pm
Fanfares, marches, and jubilant melodies open our 30th anniversary season in the Festive Overture of iconic American composer William Grant Still. Nino Rota, composer of film music for The Godfather parts I and II, brings his dramatic gifts to the concert stage with the playful and lyrical Concerto for Bassoon, featuring MPO’s own Brian Hadley. And the pastoral open spaces of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 are host to dances, storms and songs of gratitude.
William Grant Still – Festive Overture
Nino Rota – Bassoon Concerto, with Brian Hadley, bassoon
Nino Rota, Bassoon Concerto with soloist Brian Hadley
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” with soloist Brian Hadley
Dates Performed
November 5, 2022
#132 Prisms
Concert first performed on June 10, 2022.
A stunning panoply of musical traditions and compositional voices closes the 2021-22 season. Abels’ Global Warming paints a vast futuristic desert next to a joyful dance of interwoven musical traditions. Price’s fourth symphony sings echoes of spirituals, antebellum dances and organ hymns together with lush harmonies and orchestral colors that only she can achieve. And our world premier of a new bass clarinet concerto by Mary Kouyoumdjian, featuring soloist Jeff Anderle, brings one of the 21st century’s most distinctive compositional voices to Minnesota.
Michael Abels: Global Warming
Mary Kouyoumdjian: “Walking with Ghosts” – Bass Clarinet Concerto
Jeff Anderle, clarinet
Florence Price: Symphony No. 4 in D Minor
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Abels, Michael, Global Warming
Kouyoumdjian, Mary, “Walking with Ghosts” with soloist Jeff Anderle, Clarinet
Price, Florence, Symphony No. 4 in D Minor with soloist Jeff Anderle, Clarinet
Dates Performed
June 4, 2022
#131: Reflections
Concert first performed on April 30, 2022.
Saturday, March 19, 2022 – 7:30pm
Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to “Egmont”
Franz Liszt: “Orpheus”
William Grant Still: Symphony No. 5 “The Western Hemisphere”
Through the symphony, tone poem, and music for the theater, Beethoven, Liszt, and Still fully embrace the drama of music. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Overture to the 1787 play Egmont inspired the programmatic music of Franz Liszt, including his tone poem about the legendary Greek musician Orpheus who journeyed to the underworld. William Grant Still’s fifth symphony presents a kind of musical creation story, wherein “the lands of the Western Hemisphere are raised from the bosom of the Atlantic.”
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Ludwig van Beethoven, Overture to “Egmont”
Franz Liszt, “Orpheus”
William Grant Still, Symphony No. 5 “The Western Hemisphere”
Artistic Adventures: Let Creativity Soar!
A Symphony of Dance: Unmissable Performances
Let’s Dance Together: A Symphony for All Ages!
