Saturday, October 11, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
The O’Shaughnessy at the College of St. Catherine
2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul

The Metropolitan Symphony and Music Director William Schrickel open the 2008-2009 season by joining forces with the Minnesota Chorale, the Minneapolis Youth Chorus, two choirs from Japan and the Mu Daiko Japanese drumming ensemble to present the world premiere of composer Robert Kyr’s Ah, Nagasaki: Ashes into Light. The sister-city of St. Paul, Nagasaki was devastated by an atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, and Kyr’s powerfully dramatic work explores the bombing’s physical, psychological and spiritual impact on the victims, survivors and present-day residents of Nagasaki.

The concert opens with Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä’s The Bridge, a piece commissioned by the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra that garnered national attention when it was premiered in May 2008. Vänskä wrote that “the bridge behind my work is, of course, the Interstate 35W bridge—its collapse and all the thoughts that I and so many others have had after that terrible accident of August, 2007.”

This special ticketed concert is part of the 2008-2009 planet Ordway® TARGET® series. To purchase tickets, phone the O’Shaughnessy ticket office at 651-690-6700

Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Saint Olaf Catholic Church,
215 South 8th Street, Minneapolis

A series of dark, disturbing paintings by Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin inspired Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov to create The Isle of the Dead, the haunting curtain-raiser on this concert of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director William Schrickel. Organ soloist Lynn Trapp is featured in the first local performance of Samuel Adler’s stirring Lux Perpetua, and the University of Minnesota Trumpet Ensemble presents the Twin Cities premiere of selections from David Marlatt’s Shadows of the Pyramids and joins with the MSO to perform majestic brass music by Richard Strauss as well as the program’s brilliant finale, Leoš Janáček life-affirming Sinfonietta.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church
115 4th Street North, Stillwater

The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of British composer Edward Elgar with a performance of his transcription for full orchestra of J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor as the opening work on this concert led by Music Director William Schrickel. The Concerto for Oboe by Elgar’s fellow English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, spotlights the MSO’s principal oboist, Joseph Peters. Mezzo soprano KrisAnne Weiss sings the poetry of Bill Holm in the world premiere of Minneapolis composer John Tartaglia’s Dark Night—Glad Day, and Hungarian master Bela Bartok’s spectacular Dance Suite closes out the program in breathtaking fashion.

Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Normandale Lutheran Church
6100 Normandale Road, Edina

Beethoven’s stirring Egmont Overture opens this concert by the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Music Director William Schrickel in tribute to Leonard Bernstein on the 90th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Christopher Rouse’s compelling Trombone Concerto, dedicated to the memory of Bernstein and featuring Minnesota Orchestra principal trombonist R. Douglas Wright, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1994. Two little-known fanfares by Bernstein precede the MSO’s season-closing performance of his most popular and acclaimed piece of music, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.