Orchestra holds its second Common Chords residency May 21 to 26 in Willmar, Minnesota
Festival week includes more than 30 events reflecting the heritage and diversity of Willmar, including musician visits to schools, businesses, farmers market, hospital; exchanges with arts groups
Week culminates in three full-Orchestra concerts; Common Chords website complements events
Funding provided in part by Minnesota State Arts Board’s Arts Tour Minnesota, an Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant program
Click here for a schedule of public events
(April 17, 2012) The Minnesota Orchestra continues its Common Chords outreach initiative with a weeklong residency in Willmar, Minnesota, as the Orchestra and its musicians travel there from May 21 to 26 for a celebratory festival week of concerts and more than 30 events specially tailored to the Willmar community. The festival, the result of an extensive year-long planning process by a committee of Willmar community leaders and Orchestra staff, is part of the multi-year Common Chords project, which establishes partnerships between the Orchestra and Greater Minnesota cities, each culminating in its own unique festival week. Willmar is the second city to host a Common Chords festival week; the inaugural festival was held in Grand Rapids in October 2011.
Read the Grand Rapids Final Report (pdf)
Highlights of the Willmar Common Chords festival week include multiple visits by Orchestra musicians to area elementary and high schools; an “Art of Conducting” workshop at a luncheon of the Willmar professional service club; chamber group performances at such venues as the Rice Memorial Hospital, Becker Farmers Market, KWLM radio studio and Jazz n’ Java café; coaching sessions with the Willmar Area Symphony Orchestra and several student ensembles; two Kinder Konzerts for younger audiences, including one performed with narration in both English and Spanish; and three full-Orchestra concerts—two led by Principal Pops Conductor Sarah Hicks and one by Mark Russell Smith.
The Common Chords festival week will culminate in three concerts by the full Minnesota Orchestra, all held at Willmar’s WEAC Auditorium. On Friday, May 25, at 1 p.m., Mark Russell Smith will lead a Young People’s Concert for school students, featuring a selection by Liszt with 18-year-old pianist Austin Frohmader as soloist, as well as a production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf originally created and performed by Theatre de la Jeune Lune. The remaining two performances are open to the general public: an Inside the Classics concert that delves into Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe ballet suites through conversation and performance, with Sarah Hicks as conductor and violist Sam Bergman as host, presented on Friday, May 25, at 7:30 p.m.; and a concert led by Hicks, featuring Copland’s Old American Songs and Brahms’ Second Symphony, among other works, played on Saturday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m. Performing as soloist in the Copland work is baritone Andrew Wilkowske, a native of Willmar. Tickets for the two public concerts are priced at $5 and are available for purchase at Cashwise, Whitney Music, Willmardesigncenter.com, Willmar Community Education & Recreation, and the Willmar Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.
Members of the public from Willmar and beyond can follow the Common Chords festival week online at minnesotaorchestra.org/commonchords, which features a complete schedule of the week’s events as well as photos and blog entries by Orchestra staff, musicians and community members.
Common Chords is supported by major funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the Mardag Foundation. The Willmar Common Chords project is also funded by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Arts Tour Minnesota, an Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant program.
“At the highest level, Common Chords can be a real exchange of people and ideas that builds new and unexpected connections through music,” said Minnesota Orchestra President and CEO Michael Henson. “The initiative will allow us to foster deeper relationships with a community than a one-night performance typically offers. In fact, a fundamental component of the program is to jointly plan each festival week with area residents to make sure the experience is tailored specifically to the community.”
All Common Chords events were organized by a steering committee of Willmar residents who represent a broad cross-section of the community through schools, local government, businesses, civic and cultural organizations, and individual artists.
“The City of Willmar is delighted to be the second host community for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Common Chords program,” says Charlene Stevens, Willmar’s City Administrator. “We’re pleased that the Orchestra will be reaching out to a wide variety of audiences within our community. The Steering Team has worked very hard to showcase the Orchestra in many ways and in unique venues throughout the community. It is truly an honor for us to have the benefit of such an outstanding cultural experience.”
Building on a Legacy
Common Chords builds on the Minnesota Orchestra’s long legacy of performing across the state. The fledgling Minnesota Orchestra embarked on its first state-wide journey in 1907, taking the train to Moorhead, Grand Forks and Duluth. Since then, the ensemble has played 680 concerts in nearly 60 Minnesota cities—from International Falls to Worthington—performing in school gyms, churches, community auditoriums, theaters and the great outdoors. Music Director Osmo Vänskä has led state-wide tours in 2005, 2007 and 2008, as well as many one-concert visits to communities around the state.
About the Minnesota Orchestra
The Minnesota Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in November 1903, six weeks before the Wright brothers made their first airplane flight. Now recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras, the ensemble presents nearly 175 concerts annually, heard live by 350,000 people—including more than 50,000 students who attend Young People’s Concerts each year. The Orchestra tours regionally, nationally and internationally, earning rave reviews in music capitals around the world, and is heard on radio stations across the country on award-winning broadcasts produced by Minnesota Public Radio and distributed nationally and internationally. It has received many awards for adventurous programming and much acclaim for its vast collection of recordings, which date back to the 1920s. Vänskä and the Orchestra have completed a five-disc initiative to record the complete Beethoven symphonies, described by Gramophone as “one of the finest available Beethoven symphony cycles.” Now in progress are projects to record the complete Sibelius symphonies and, with soloist Yevgeny Sudbin, all five Beethoven piano concertos. In 2010, the organization launched Minnesota Orchestra Music on Demand, offering downloads of select major works recorded live in concert and available online. The Orchestra makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, a venue which will undergo a $50 million renovation that is set for completion in 2013. During the Hall’s temporary closure in 2012-13, the Orchestra will perform primarily in the Auditorium at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
For further information about Common Chords, visit minnesotaorchestra.org/commonchords.
Common Chords is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, McKnight Foundation and Mardag Foundation.
Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2011-12 season.
The Star Tribune and 830 WCCO-AM are the Minnesota Orchestra’s media partners for the 2011-12 season.
This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State’s arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Gwen Pappas, Director of Public Relations
(612) 371-5628 • gpappas@mnorch.org
Sandi Brown, Public Relations Coordinator
(612) 371-5641 • sbrown@mnorch.org
Thank you so much to the Minnesota Orchestra for coming to Grand Rapids! I have never experienced a professional orchestra in such an intimate setting before – it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and one of the best muscial experiences I’ve ever had. My husband and two children got to see a professional orchestra for the first time – thank you for making it possible!