Minnesota Orchestra

Early in the 1920s, the orchestra was one of the first to be heard on recordings and on the radio, playing a nationally broadcast concert with guest conductor Bruno Walter in 1923.

The orchestra's previous hall, starting in 1929, was Northrop Memorial Auditorium on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus.

At the time, it was trying to secure $16 million in state bonding for renovations of Orchestra Hall and Peavey Plaza.

The MOA stated that spending on musician salaries and benefits was depleting the organization's endowment, and that labor costs needed to be reduced by $5 million per year.

The musicians and their union took the position that the proposed cuts were so deep and draconian as to represent an existential threat to the future of the orchestra.

As an encore, Vänskä conducted Sibelius's Valse Triste, where he requested that the audience withhold its applause afterward.

[16] In December 2018, the orchestra announced that Vänskä would conclude his tenure as music director at the close of the 2021-2022 season.

[20] In January 2022, the orchestra, Vänskä, and Elina Vähälä gave the North American premiere of the original 1904 version of Jean Sibelius's Violin Concerto.

Beginning in 1954 and continuing on through 1955, the group made the first complete recordings of Tchaikovsky's three ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker under the baton of Antal Doráti.

[24] On January 26, 2014, the Minnesota Orchestra and Vänskä won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for their recording of Sibelius's 1st and 4th symphonies.

The orchestra also offers free live music on the plaza before and after each show, in genres varying from folk to jazz to polka.