“The Minnesota Orchestra will travel this month to Cuba,” writes Eric Ringham on Friday (5/1) at Minnesota Public Radio. “The orchestra is back, Osmo Vänskä is back, and the Cuba visit promises to make a bit of history…. Vänskä said the orchestra has managed to benefit from its recent turmoil and emerge stronger than ever…. ‘We are ready to take any challenge in the world…. I know the concerts are going to be something really exceptional…. The news about the new trip to Cuba with the Minnesota Orchestra might be the best possible chance for us to show to the music business that we are back, and we are playing really well. And we are going to be the ambassadors, going to Havana and playing as the first North American orchestra since President Obama changed the rules.’ ” At the orchestra, Vänskä says, “There is a fresh new sense of how to do things in the future, and we are all going in the same direction. Players are much more involved [in planning], and it’s giving us a great result…. It’s extremely important that the players are taking care of their own future.… A lot of new ideas are on the table, and I think that’s making the orchestra much stronger.”
Posted May 4, 2015
