The Minnesota Orchestra’s Common Chords week in Grand Rapids, Minnesota culminated with a spine-tingling musical exchange that captured the spirit of the project:  when Sarah Hicks led the Orchestra in an unannounced encore of Sibelius’ Finlandia in a Saturday night concert at the Reif Center, singers from the Grand Rapids High School Choir stood up, two by two and then 74 singers strong, to sing along:  “This is my song , oh, God of all the nations.  A song of peace for lands afar and wide.”
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Orchestra trombonist Kari Sundström signs an autograph for a child following the Orchestra's Family Concert on Saturday afternoon.

As the Common Chords week nears its conclusion, the Minnesota Orchestra played an afternoon Family concert for audiences of all ages. Students who had met musicians in the schools earlier in the week had a chance to greet “their” musicians after the performance. Continue reading →

Soloists from the Minnesota Orchestra play a rendition of Simple Gifts from Copland's Appalachian Spring.

Members of the Grand Rapids community filled the Reif Center to capacity Friday evening for the second full-ensemble performance by the Minnesota Orchestra. Part conversation and part performance, co-hosts Sarah Hicks and Sam Bergman took audience members Inside the Classics with Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Continue reading →

The Minnesota Orchestra performed its first full-ensemble performance in Grand Rapids to a capacity audience of Middle and High School students at the Reif Center on Friday morning.  Associate Conductor Courtney Lewis, silhouetted in the wings, led the American-themed program which began with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and closed with Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. Continue reading →

In studio for a live interview at KAXE Radio, conductors Courtney Lewis and Sarah Hicks previewed the weekend concerts and shared their personal music favorites in the midst of the station’s fall member drive.  Lewis jumped into the action to ring the gong – announcing a new member’s pledge—as KAXE’s John Bauer cheered him on. Continue reading →

Courtney Lewis arrived in Grand Rapids Thursday afternoon to lead the 38-member Itasca Youth Chamber Orchestra in a side-by-side rehearsal with Minnesota Orchestra musicians focusing on Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite. Continue reading →

This small future trumpeter watches Minnesota Orchestra trumpeter Charles Lazarus play a little jazz.

Two Kinder Konzerts—lively narrated programs for pre-schoolers—reached upwards of 300 youngsters at the Grand Rapids Public Library and Reif Center on Thursday.  “I‘m sure it made more of an impression than we know,” said Mary Kosak, program officer at the Blandin Foundation. “Maybe twenty years from now one of them will be up on that same stage.” Continue reading →

Students at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church watch the Orchestra's brass quintet perform.

Day three of the Orchestra’s Common Chords residency featured events spanning the city from one end to the other: from performances for patients at the spacious Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital to chamber music at the library and brass tunes at the MacRostie Art Center.

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Daniel Curry and fellow dancers demonstrate the grass dance.

Minnesota Orchestra players shared a warm cultural exchange with members of the Ojibwe community last night in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, as part of the Orchestra’s Common Chords project.

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