Minnesota Orchestra's 2024 Summer Festival Celebrates Orchestra Hall's 50th Anniversary

The Minnesota Orchestra's Summer at Orchestra Hall festival will return from July 8 to August 10, 2024, encompassing five weeks of programming at Orchestra Hall and various venues across the region. Guided by the theme of the Roaring Twenties, the festival features musical selections from the 1920s, a decade of significant artistic innovation.

Internationally renowned pianist and Creative Partner Jon Kimura Parker again serves as the festival's curator, as well as a frequent host and soloist. “I can't wait to be back in Minneapolis for Summer at Orchestra Hall!” says Parker. “The festival will dive into one of music's most transformative decades—the Roaring Twenties. I'm thrilled to perform works by Ravel and Gershwin, two prolific composers inspired by jazz. Plus, you'll hear works written for ballets and operas that illustrate the enduring influence of jazz on orchestral music.”

The summer festival will kick off with a week of free outdoor concerts as part of the Orchestra's long-standing Symphony for the Cities initiative. Performances will take place on Monday, July 8, at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis; Wednesday, July 10, at the Hilde Center for the Performing Arts in Plymouth; Thursday, July 11, at the Lakefront Park Bandshell in Hudson, Wisconsin; and at the Winona Lake Park Bandshell in Winona on Saturday, July 13. Led by guest conductor Norman Huynh, repertoire will include patriotic songs, film music, and pieces by Carlos Simon, Edvard Grieg and Ludwig van Beethoven, among others.

Beethoven's influence carries to concerts the following week at Orchestra Hall on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20, centered around the composer's Symphony No. 4; the program will be reprised on Sunday, July 21, in Winona as the concluding event of the Minnesota Beethoven Festival. With conductor Delyana Lazarova, the concerts will open with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni. First violin section member Natsuki Kumagai will appear as soloist with the Orchestra to perform Chevalier de Saint-Georges' dynamic Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2.

The festival's Roaring Twenties theme begins in earnest with a program on Friday, July 26, led by conductor Stephanie Childress that includes several orchestral works written for period ballets and operas, and inspired by jazz. At the center of the program, Parker will play Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. And on Friday, August 2, conductor Lina González-Granados makes her Orchestra Hall debut, bringing repertoire to the ensemble that spotlights the music of George Gershwin, one of the most prolific composers of the era, including his jazz-influenced Concerto in F, again featuring Parker.

Conductor and trumpeter Byron Stripling and Grammy-nominated vocalist Carmen Bradford—both former members of the world-renowned big band Count Basie Orchestra—as well as tap dancer Leo Manzari will headline a one-night concert event inspired by the music of Harlem's nightclubs; Uptown Nights will take place on Saturday, August 3. And in a final nod to the period—and to the music of Gershwin—the Orchestra, under the baton of Principal Conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall Sarah Hicks, will present the musical comedy An American in Paris live in concert on Friday, August 9, and Saturday, August 10; the Academy Award-winning 1951 film is interspersed with dance numbers set to Gershwin's melodies and will be played simultaneously on a screen above the stage.

Other programmatic highlights returning to Summer at Orchestra Hall include the Day of Music, to be held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 27. The 2024 Day of Music will feature celebrations around the 50th anniversary of the opening of Orchestra Hall—an anniversary that will be commemorated throughout the Orchestra's fall 2024 programming, with specific plans to be announced. The day-long festivities will include free appearances by Twin Cities-based musicians, dancers and visual artists. A Relaxed Family Concert with the full Orchestra will take place in the Hall's auditorium at 1 p.m., with a culminating performance by the ensemble at 8p.m. And Parker will again reprise the Grand Piano Spectacular on Thursday, August 1, bringing together four virtuoso pianists on a single stage, with guest artists this year to include Gabriela Martinez, Osip Nikiforov and Szuyu Su.

Tickets

Tickets for Summer at Orchestra Hall programs will be made available to the general public on April 22, and can be purchased at minnesotaorchestra.org or by calling 612-371-5656. For groups of 10 or more, call 612-371-5662.

The Hall Pass program makes free tickets available for young listeners ages 6 to 18 for select Classical and Symphony in 60 concerts, and all kids under 18 for Family concerts. This program is sponsored by Cynthia and Jay Ihlenfeld. For more information, visit minnesotaorchestra.org/hallpass. All programs, artists, dates, times and prices subject to change.

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