Minnesota Orchestra to continue livestreaming concerts through March

The Minnesota Orchestra has revised another round of concerts — playing for TV, radio and streaming audiences through March.

Along with the cancellation of in-person performances, the orchestra announced Friday morning four Friday-night concerts that will be broadcast live on Twin Cities Public Television and Classical Minnesota Public Radio, and at minnesotaorchestra.org.

Music Director Osmo Vänskä will conduct three of those concerts, while Slovakian conductor Juraj Valčuha will lead the orchestra on March 5.

The Minnesota Orchestra has been playing to an empty Orchestra Hall for months with a range of safety protocols to protect musicians and staff, including light quarantines, COVID-19 tests and spacing onstage and off. Those concerts, hosted by Sarah Hicks, principal conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall, started with quartets and small ensembles. But a mid-November show mixed strings, winds, brass and percussion.

These 2021 concerts will include the first concerto performances at Orchestra Hall since March, when Kirill Gerstein played Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto for an empty hall and a radio audience.

Each program will feature music written by composers of color, including Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and George Walker.

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168