Founded in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra is one of America’s great ensembles — a Grammy-winning orchestra that Sibelius himself admired, performing in a hall as distinctive as its sound. Orchestra Hall’s auditorium is lined with 114 white cubes that scatter sound so evenly that every seat hears like the best seat.
The orchestra’s recent decades read like legend: Osmo Vänskä’s celebrated Sibelius and Beethoven cycles, a historic tour to Cuba in 2015 — the first by a major U.S. orchestra in the new era — and a triumphant South Africa tour. Sommerfest fills summer nights with music and food trucks on Peavey Plaza.
From young-listener concerts to film scores live, the Orchestra keeps Minneapolis’s classical heart beating at world level, right on Nicollet Mall.
