Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra has a long history of performances in our home state, across the country and around the world, a century’s worth of recordings and radio broadcasts, a strong commitment to educational engagement activities and a tradition of performing new music. We perform about 175 concerts in a typical year, mostly at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. When the Orchestra performed its first concert as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra on November 5, 1903, baseball’s first World Series had just been played and the Wright brothers were preparing for their first flight. Known since 1968 as the Minnesota Orchestra, we have been led by ten music directors, and Music Director Thomas Søndergård began his new role as music director at the start of the 2023-24 season. High points of recent years have included our first Grammy Award and tours to Cuba, South Africa and Europe. In addition to our core Classical concerts, each year we present Live at Orchestra Hall concerts conducted by Sarah Hicks as well as Summer at Orchestra Hall curated by Creative Partner Jon Kimura Parker.