Concert first performed on August 10, 2025.
A prince’s love breaks a sorcerer’s curse. A Vietnamese son writes letters to his mother, who cannot read, exploring their fraught family history and unfolding the relationship with his first love. A Finnish composer protests censorship of the press through what would become a second national anthem for his liberated nation. The MPO’s Pride concert shares stories about courageous love for person and country.
- Tchaikovsky: Valse from Swan Lake
- Holmes: “La nuit et l’amour” from Ludus pro patria
- Bologne/St. Georges: Symphony No. 2 “L’amant anonyme”
- Coleridge-Taylor: “Un sonnet d’amour” from Petite Suite de Concert
- Yee: Briefly Gorgeous
- Sibelius: Finlandia
Conducted by
Works Performed
Dates Performed
Concert first performed on May 16, 2020.
Sibelius’ Karelia Overture celebrates the composer’s homeland, and MPO celebrates Minnesota’s Mina Kaiser in her Tombeaux & Rainbow. Persichetti’s Pastoral for Wind Quintet and Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia journey through landscapes real and imagined, and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 5 “The Western Hemisphere”.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
- Jean Sibelius, Karelia Overture
- Vincent Persichetti, Pastoral, Op. 21 for Woodwind Quintet
- Mina Kaiser, Tombeaux & Rainbow with soloists Shelly Gruskin, recorder and Johanna Gruskin, flute
- Alexander Borodin, In the Steppes of Central Asia
- William Grant Still, Symphony No. 5 “The Western Hemisphere”
Dates Performed
Concert first performed on November 9, 2019.
Symphonic hymns and airs resound with nature imagery in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Dvořák’s In Nature’s Realm, and Sibelius’ Finlandia. MPO and One Voice Mixed Chorus celebrate contemporary composers with local history in works by Dessa and Jocelyn Hagen, Mari Ésabel Valverde, and Lee Hoiby.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
- Antonin Dvořák, Nature’s Realm
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op. 63
- Jean Sibelius, Finlandia
- Mari Esabel Valverde, Cloths of Heaven with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
- Dessa/Jocelyn Hagen, Controlled Burn with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
- Lee Hoiby, Hymn to the New Age with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Dates Performed
Concert first performed on November 3, 2018.
To begin the next 25 years of MPO history, we join forces with One Voice Mixed Chorus in a transcontinental program featuring Libby Larsen’s Fanfare for Humanity, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, and opera choruses by Verdi and Copland.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
- Libby Larsen, Fanfare for Humanity
- Florence Price, Symphony No. 1 in e minor
- Giuseppe Verdi, Overture to Nabucco
- Giuseppe Verdi, “Va Pensiero” from Nabucco
- Giuseppe Verdi, “Vedi! Le fosche” (Anvil Chorus) from Il trovatore
- Aaron Copland, “The promise of living” from The Tender Land
Dates Performed
