Minnesota Orchestra
Mark your calendars for the biggest event of the summer! The Minnesota Orchestra is back with the annual free pops concert at Lake Park.
The Minnesota Orchestra is recognized for distinguished performances in its home state and around the world, award-winning recordings and broadcasts, educational engagement programs, and commitment to building the orchestral repertoire of the future. In September 2023 the ensemble will welcome Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård as its eleventh music director. Founded in 1903, the ensemble has a long history of touring, including landmark tours to Cuba and South Africa in the past decade. Touring activities, which were paused due to the pandemic, resumed recently with a May 2023 residency week in Austin, Minnesota. The Orchestra’s recordings and broadcasts have drawn acclaim since the 1920s, including the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Its current ongoing recording project is a series of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies; all ten have been recorded and eight albums have been released, with the final two symphonies to come in subsequent seasons. Further extending its reach beyond the concert hall, the Orchestra offers This Is Minnesota Orchestra, a series of television and online broadcasts that has earned two Upper Midwest Emmy Award nominations. In July and August the Orchestra offers Summer at Orchestra Hall, a festival guided by pianist and Creative Partner Jon Kimura Parker that in 2023 is exploring the many aspects of motion in music.
Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor
Chia-Hsuan Lin, who was appointed associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in 2016, began her seventh season with the Richmond Symphony in 2022. She enjoys frequent guest appearances around the world and made her Minnesota Orchestra debut in February 2020, conducting a week of student and family concerts, and has subsequently returned to lead numerous family and summer engagements, including last summer’s performance at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival.
This month she is leading five Minnesota Orchestra outdoor concerts, including an International Day of Music concert as part of the opening weekend of Summer at Orchestra Hall. She has also led the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Williamsburg Symphony, Richmond Ballet, Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Virginia Commonwealth University Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings and Taipei Philharmonic Chorus.
A champion of the next generation of musicians and composers, she has led a growing list of premieres including new works by Chris Thile, Stephen Prutsman, Laura Schwendinger and Jennifer Jolley. Lin previously served as music director of the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and South Loop Symphony Orchestra of Chicago; assistant conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic; interim music director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland; and assistant conductor of opera at the CCM Spoleto Music Festival in Italy, among other positions.
