Music Director and Conductor Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi leads Minnesota’s Mankato Symphony Orchestra.
In the August 12 Bring Me the News (Minnesota), Dustin Nelson writes, “From ‘Ode to Joy’ to intimate chamber music performances, the Mankato Symphony Orchestra’s new season will be lively. The MSO will be celebrating a milestone during its just-announced 2025-26 season. Titled ‘Cheers to 75!,’ the MSO is marking 75 years since its first downbeat in 1950 with familiar orchestral staples in its Symphonic Series and intimate performances throughout its Music on the Hill chamber music series…. The MSO kicks off the season with a free outdoor performance on Sept. 6. The show, dubbed ‘Symphony on the Prairie,’ features music from ‘West Side Story,’ a tribute to John Williams, and arrangements of music by Queen, ABBA, and Journey, among other works. Later in the season, the MSO’s Symphonic Series will feature a celebration of Latin American composers, a program centered around Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy,’ and a season finale that includes George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’ Its Music on the Hill series, curated by Artistic Director Richard Belcher, will feature four cozy chamber music performances in the Trinity Chapel at Bethany Lutheran Church, with works by Shostakovich, Florence Price, and Amy Beach, among others.”
