Goodbye, Sommerfest. Hello, Summer at Orchestra Hall.
On Thursday, the Minnesota Orchestra debuted a new name for its annual summertime festival — which this year will feature a free outdoor concert on Peavey Plaza, new works and bunches of Beethoven.
The name Summer at Orchestra Hall "wholeheartedly embraces this venue," said President and CEO Michelle Miller Burns, and the adjacent, newly reopened plaza. During the performance on Peavey Plaza, the first there by the orchestra in more than a decade, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" will conclude with church bells across Minneapolis pealing in coordination.
"All the bells in the city are going to ring," said Jon "Jackie" Kimura Parker, the orchestra's new creative partner. "That is going to be epic."
Peavey Plaza will also play host to pop-up night markets and food trucks during the summer program, which runs from July 17 to Aug. 9.
This year's theme is "the Beethoven Influence." Because it's the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth, orchestras across the country are performing even more works by the rule-breaking, now ubiquitous composer. During the fest, the Minnesota Orchestra will play plenty of Beethoven, including his Seventh Symphony. But Summer at Orchestra Hall also features old and new works he shaped or inspired, with local theater artists, dancers and musicians riffing on his legacy.
"We actually were daring to believe … that [the] influence of Beethoven could extend to present day," Parker said.
Free Black Dirt, founded by Minneapolis artists Junauda Petrus and Erin Sharkey, is creating a nature-filled film that will be set to the first movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. The Moving Company, a theater company, will premiere a play with music whose characters speak to Beethoven about his influence. The BRKFST Dance Company, an ensemble rooted in break dancing, will form a new work set to Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge."
