MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

TO PERFORM IN MANKATO, APRIL 27

Held at the Verizon Center and presented in cooperation with the Mankato Symphony,

The concert will feature Minnesota Orchestra violinist and Mankato-native Peter McGuire

performing Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto

Assistant Conductor Akiko Fujimoto will also lead the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Sixth Symphony and Ravel’s exquisite Le Tombeau de Couperin

Performance is part of a multi-day Common Chords residency that will feature musician visits and performances around Mankato, including at the Children’s Museum, Mankato Brewery, Mankato West High School, Mayo Specialty Clinic, Prairie Winds Middle School and Old Main Village senior care center,

among others

Orchestra will additionally perform a Symphonic Adventures concert for students at

St. Peter High School, April 26

Mankato-native Peter McGuire will be the featured violinist when the Minnesota Orchestra performs at Mankato’s Verizon Center in a special concert in the Grand Hall featuring the music of Ravel, Mozart and Tchaikovsky on Friday, April 27, 7:30 pm. Presented in cooperation with the Mankato Symphony, the performance will be led by Minnesota Orchestra Assistant Conductor Akiko Fujimoto. Tickets are priced at $10 for adults,$5 for students, and are available online at orby calling (507) 625-8880, beginning March 26.

The performance is part of the Orchestra’s Common Chords project, a multi-year endeavor that establishes partnerships between the Orchestra and Greater Minnesota cities, each culminating in its own unique residency. The Mankato residency will feature Minnesota Orchestra musicians performing at more than a dozen events in and around Mankato from April 25 through April 27.

Some highlight events include visits by Orchestra musicians to music students at both Prairie Winds Middle School and Mankato West High School; performances by a Minnesota Orchestra string quartet at the Mayo Specialty Clinic and Old Main Village Senior Center; performances by a Minnesota Orchestra brass quintet at the Children’s Museum and Mankato Brewery, as well as an appearance on KTOE’s “Talk of the Town”; and a performance by the full Minnesota Orchestra at St. Peter High School on Thursday, April 26.

Mankato is the sixth city to host a Minnesota Orchestra Common Chords residency. Grand Rapids hosted the first in October 2011, followed by Willmar, Hibbing, Bemidji and Detroit Lakes.

Minnesota Orchestra in Mankato

The Minnesota Orchestra first performed in Mankato in 1912, just nine years after the ensemble was founded. It has subsequently returned for more than 25 visits through the years but the most recent of these was more than 30 years ago.

“We are really looking forward to returning to Mankato,” said Minnesota Orchestra President and CEO Kevin Smith, “It is a city that values music bysupporting its own symphony orchestra, and it has been a pleasure to collaborate with the Mankato Symphony and others in the community to make this Minnesota Orchestra Common Chords residency come to fruition.”

“Quote from Kim?”

In this return concert, Assistant Conductor Akiko Fujimoto opens the performance with Maurice Ravel’s beautifully orchestrated Le Tombeau de Couperin, a delicate homage to friends lost in World War I. Violinist Peter McGuire then takes to his hometown stage to perform Mozart’s captivating Violin Concert, a work brimming with beautiful melodies and imaginative power, and the concert concludes with Tchaikovsky masterpiece, his powerful Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique.

Born and raised in Mankato (verify), violinist Peter McGuireis one of only four native Minnesotans who are members of the Minnesota Orchestra. McGuire originally joined the Orchestra in 2003 and departed in 2012 to serve as Second Concertmaster of Switzerland’s prestigious Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich before returning to the Minnesota Orchestra in 2016. He and his family live in St. Peter.

About the Minnesota Orchestra

The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä, is recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras, presenting nearly 175 concerts in a typical season. It isheard live by 350,000 people each year, including more than 50,000 students who attend Young People’s Concerts each year. The Orchestra has toured 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. In 2014, the Orchestra earned its first Grammy Award for a recording of two Sibelius symphonies made under Vänskä. It was most recently nominated for a 2018 Grammy for its recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. The Orchestra, which wasfounded in 1903, now makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

Common Chords: the Minnesota Orchestra in Mankato

MOZART AND TCHAIKOVSKY

Friday, April 27, 2018, 7:30 p.m. /Grand Hall, Verizon Center, Mankato

Minnesota Orchestra

Akiko Fujimoto, conductor

Peter McGuire, violin

RAVELLe Tombeau de Couperin

MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, Turkish

TCHAIKOVSKYSymphony No. 6, Pathétique

Akiko Fujimoto leads the Minnesota Orchestra in orchestral showpieces ranging from Ravel’s exquisite Le Tombeau de Couperin to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique. Mankato-native Peter McGuire solos in the brilliant Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5.

Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for students; available online at or by calling (507) 625-8880.

Common Chords is generously supported by xx .

The Star Tribune is the Minnesota Orchestra’s media partner for the 2017-18 season.

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