The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a new artistic partner: violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja(ko-pot-chin-SKY-ah). Born in the former Soviet republic of Moldova to musical parents, now in her mid-30s, she has earned an international reputation for her wide repertoire, unpredictable and imaginative performances, curiosity and wit. Her numerous recordings include “Bartók, Eötvös & Ligeti,” a 2014 Grammy nominee and Gramophone’s 2013 Recording of the Year.

The SPCO will be the first American orchestra to present Kopatchinskaja in concert, a fact that tickles its president, Bruce Coppock, who said in a statement, “One of the great joys of our work at the SPCO is to introduce Twin Cities audiences to sparkling and effervescent artists … Kopatchinskaja is the most ravishingly intense and virtuosic musician I have heard in a very long time.” Kyu-Young Kim, the SPCO’s senior director of artistic planning and principal second violinist, calls her “one of the most electrifying artists to emerge in decades.” Kopatchinskaja will begin her tenure in the 2014-15 season. In a series of concerts spanning Nov. 20-30, 2014, she’ll make her SPCO debut with her parents, Emilia (violin) and Vikor (cimbalom, a concert hammered dulcimer). Here they are, together in a video, perilously close to setting their instruments on fire.

About that “artistic partners” thing: While most orchestras have music directors, the SPCO decided in 2004 to scrap that for a diverse and rotating group of conductors and other accomplished musicians. Its current artistic partners include Roberto Abbado, Edo de Waart, Christian Zacharias and Thomas Zehetmair. Among its past artistic partners are Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell and Nicholas McGegan.

Both the Guthrie and Pillsbury House Theatre have won prestigious and substantial 2014 Joyce Awards, the Joyce Foundation announced Thursday. The $50,000 awards will support new works from prominent African-American playwrights. In 2015, the Guthrie will stage a premiere production of “Reading Play” by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage. She started writing it after interviewing people in Reading, Pa., which in 2011 was named America’s poorest city. Tracey Scott Wilson will work with Pillsbury House to produce “Prep,” a play about a group of teachers changing their students’ test scores to receive yearly bonuses. Scott will weave Minneapolis’ own racial tensions into the performance, to premiere in the fall of 2015. With these two winners, arts organizations from Minneapolis-St. Paul have now received more Joyce Awards than any other city. Add this to Thursday’s $8 million announcement of new Knight Foundation funding for St. Paul and we can call this a very good week indeed.

Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Benedetto da Rovezzano, Saint John the Baptist, c.
1505, terracotta. The John R. Van Derlip Fund, 2013.
Purchased by the Nazis in the Netherlands in 1941.

“The Monuments Men” is a fascinating World War II story. Megalomaniac (and failed art student) Hitler wanted more than to rule the Western world; he also wanted to own all of its great art. He ordered his armies to find and bring back Europe’s art treasures, some for his planned “Führermuseum,” others to be destroyed as “degenerate.” As the Third Reich fell, his orders changed: Destroy everything. The Monuments Men – curators, archivists, artists and art historians from 13 nations – went behind enemy lines to save and preserve what they could, finding over 1,000 caches of looted art. Robert Edsel wrote the book; George Clooney directed the movie, which opens nationwide Feb. 7. And the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, in a giant-lightbulb-over-the-head moment of programming, has identified items in its own collection that were saved by the Monuments Men or have other ties to the story. You can take a self-guided tour starting Monday, Feb. 3. Turns out two Monuments Men worked at the MIA after the war: Richard S. Davis (senior curator 1946-56, director 1956-58) and Harry Grier (assistant director 1946-51). Also starting Monday, a series of  MIA Stories about the art by MIA writer (and former Minnesota Monthly editor) Tim Gihring. Go here then.

If you’re buying Minnesota Orchestra season tickets, you can save 15 percent on “Create Your Own” packages, or 20 percent on four-concert same-seat Classical packages. Or you can save 25 percent if you use a special code from the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (SUPPORT14), Save Our Symphony Minnesota (SOSMN14), or Orchestrate Excellence (EXCELLENCE14). Go here to start shopping. Or stop by the Minnesota Orchestra Administrative Office, International Centre, 5th floor, 920 Second Ave. S., Minneapolis, anytime between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.  The box office at Orchestra Hall is no longer open during regular business hours. Except for the weekends of the homecoming concerts (Feb. 7-8 and 14-15), when it opens at 4 p.m., the box office is staffed only on concert days, when it opens two hours before start times and stays open through intermission. Honestly, we’re perplexed by this box-office decision. You’d think the MOA would want to make it easy – really easy – to buy tickets. Pulling up in front of Orchestra Hall and running in for tickets is easy. Paying for parking and taking the elevator up to the fifth floor of an office building nearby is not easy.

We live in an age of lists. Some are semi-useful, some are fun reads, but most are click bait. And yet, we love the lists that praise us. Most recently, as you’ve probably heard and bragged about to friends in Florida or Arizona, USA Today named St. Paul “Best Romantic North American City.” As in No. 1 before Savannah (No. 2), Santa Fe (No. 4), Mendocino (No. 8), and Honolulu (No. 10, although we weren’t aware that Honolulu is in North America). On Wednesday at the Knight Foundation event, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman explained everything. “That doesn’t surprise me a whole lot,” he said, “because when it’s 28 below, you need to cuddle someone by the fire, right? So of course we’re romantic.” Or desperate.

Film festival fans: Gold and Silver passes to the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival 14 go on sale today at a 15% discount. Through Feb. 14. This year’s festival is April 3-19.

Our picks for the weekend

Tonight at the Goldstein Museum of Design: Opening party for “Danish Modern: Design for Living.” Who doesn’t love Danish Modern? Those clean lines, that smooth, cool teak, those fabulous Dansk housewares! We’ve been dying to see this show, and we’re expecting it will draw crowds of Midcentury Modernists. Opening party tonight, 6 – 8 p.m., in Gallery 241, McNeal Hall on the U’s St. Paul Campus. Free. Through April 27. On March 6 at 6 p.m. there’s a panel discussion on Scandinavian modern design, “Designing the Beautifully Useful,” with Laureann Gilbertson (chief curator, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, Iowah), Curt Pederson (curator, American Swedish Institute), and Tova Brandt (curator of Danish-American culture, Museum of Danish America, Elk Horn, Iowa). FMI.

Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Jens Quistgaard, Covered bowl, 1955.

Tonight at the Weisman: Preview party for “Siberia: Imagined and Reimagined.” In another example of enlightened and relevant programming (see “Monument Men” above), the Weisman is hosting a Siberia exhibit in the midst of the worst-ever winter. Why not? It can only put our own lives in context. The show brings photographs of Siberia by Russian photographers to the American public for the first time, providing both a historical and a current view of a place most of us know little about, except that Russians were sent there for punishment. This will be both an indoor and outdoor preview party, with an ice bar and a real reindeer. 7 – 10 p.m. Free. FMI. Through May 18.

Tonight and tomorrow at Studio Z in Lowertown: Keys Please. Pianist-composers Carei Thomas, Todd Harper and Paul Cantrell gather for their annual midwinter program of joyous, adventurous, unpredictable music. Keys Please is always a special concert, filled with a sense of camaraderie, shared adventure, a generous spirit, and “weather permitting” compositions. This year’s guest is flutist Julie Johnson. Highly recommended. 8 p.m. both nights, $10 online or at the door. FMI and samples from past concerts.

Tonight through Sunday at the Cowles: Beyond Ballroom Dance Company. Think Fred and Ginger, beautiful gowns, and bendy dancers gliding across the floor. Foxtrot, salsa, and steamy Latin dance, all with BBDC’s contemporary twist. The company was founded by professional competitive ballroom dance champions. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. FMI and tickets ($31).

Saturday and Sunday on White Bear Lake: Art Shanty Projects Opening Weekend.It will be warmer this weekend. A little. During the days, at least. Anyway, especially if you’re suffering serious cabin fever, you can bundle up and head out to White Bear Lake. Do some “snowga” in the Meta Shanty, No. 16. Cover yourself in aluminum foil and glitter and march in the Sparkle Parade at the Pedal Bear Shanty, No. 08. Hear stories at the Noah’s Art Shanty. Or simply marvel at the existence of this Minnesota tradition. Haven’t a clue what we’re talking about? Here’s a bit from “Minnesota Original” about 2012’s shantytown on Medicine Lake. Download the opening weekend calendar here. Weekends through Feb. 23.

Sunday at the Chapel of Mary of the Angels in Winona: The Singers with the Saint Mary’s Chamber Singers. The Twin Cities-based choral ensemble and the Saint Mary’s group premiere a new work by Minnesota composer Patrick O’Shea, “Nocte fletuum angelis,” that commemorates the lives lost in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. The program also includes music by Morten Lauridsen and Benjamin Britten. 2 p.m., 1155 W. Wabasha St., Winona. Free (thanks in part to Legacy money) and open to the public. The chapel is on the campus of St. Mary's University.

After the longest labor dispute in the history of American orchestras (even Louisville’s was shorter, and Detroit’s less than half as long – here’s a helpful infographic from classical MPR), the Minnesota Orchestra has hit the ground running, with a new contract, new website, new logo (bye, single large cube; hi, two rings of little cubes that look like hexagons), a jam-packed new season that starts this weekend with a series of four homecoming concerts, and, as of last Friday, a new board chair.

Gordon Sprenger, former president and CEO of Allina Health System and an MOA board member since 2006, has succeeded Jon Campbell, who said in December that he would step down once an agreement was reached with the musicians. The board also ratified a slate of officers, including vice chairs Karen Himle, Nancy Lindahl and Marilyn Carlson Nelson. Those who were hoping that president and CEO Michael Henson would be leaving have been disappointed. Henson did, however, take a 15 percent reduction in compensation – the same cut the musicians agreed to, but from a much bigger pie.

In a statement issued Friday, Sprenger said,“Our collective work now is to restore trusting, respectful relationships within the organization among musicians, board and administration and to build broad bridges of support to our greater community.” There’s been no specific or decisive word yet about the search for a new music director, although Sprenger told MPR that “the board will now turn its attention with appropriate deliberation to examining this whole issue of artistic leadership.” Conductors have been announced for all of the concerts in the 2014 season. Meanwhile, former Music Director Osmo Vänskä has hinted on Facebook that he would return if asked.

Minneapolis attorney and classical music lover Lee Henderson has been a gadfly all along, writing a series of commentaries and letters with a shared theme and goal: maintaining a world-class orchestra in Minnesota. “It’s my mission in life,” he told MinnPost on Monday, only half joking. In May of last year, he proposed a new five-year plan for the orchestra. He co-founded the citizens’ group SOS: Save Osmo in September (the group hoped to prevent Vänskä’s resignation and raised over $850,000 in pledges, which have since been released), outlined a seven-point plan for the musicians to become self-sustaining in November, and asked the city of Minneapolis in January to terminate its lease with the MOA for noncompliance. Now that the musicians are back at work, Henderson has turned his attention to the question of the music director.

On Saturday, the Star Tribune published his latest commentary, bluntly titled “Bring back Osmo Vänskä.”Henderson wrote, in part: “For this orchestra, excellence and Vänskä are wrapped together … Vänskä was the orchestra’s best fundraiser and its greatest box-office draw … In short, Vänskä was and is the face of the franchise.” Henderson further noted, “If there was a lesson to be learned from this ordeal, it is that the audience has earned a say in how the orchestra is run.” Then he invited readers to comment online or email him directly about “why you want Vänskä to return and whether or not you will make donations if he does not.”

As of Monday, more than 80 comments had been posted at the Strib’s website, most in favor of Vänskä’s return. The link to his commentary had been shared on Facebook more than 1,600 times. He had received more than 400 emails and other written comments, including “some very thoughtful letters and emails from people who have been season ticket subscribers for 20, 30, or 40 years.” He also heard from many people who had donated money to the Minnesota Orchestra in the past and said their future giving was contingent on Vänskä’s return. Henderson plans to tabulate everything and send it to Sprenger by the end of the week.

Then what? “You hope the chair will read them and heed them,” Henderson said. What does he think the chances might be of Vänskä’s return? “I’ve never bought a lottery ticket. I don’t know how you can put odds on it. But I think the circumstances are there for it to happen, if it happens soon. Anybody who’s gone to the concerts knows that Vänskä and the orchestra work together in amazing ways. The opportunity to do that again is something they all want. The question is whether the pieces can come together fast enough.”

What about those “broad bridges of support to our great community” that Sprenger wants to build? Those bridges already exist. Save Our Symphony Minnesota has 10,634 Facebook followers (more than the Minnesota Orchestra), and Orchestrate Excellence drew a large crowd to a community forum it held at Westminster Presbyterian last August. Both are run by smart, serious, committed and concerned people. These are not crackpot organizations. Sprenger and his board would do well to reach out to them, and to Henderson.

***

Only a limited number of tickets remain to Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s performance at the Ordway on Sunday. We love Ladysmith and wish everyone could see them live. It’s one of those satisfying, exhilarating, and deeply spiritual experiences – not in a preachy way, but in an uplifting, hope-inspiring way. After hearing Ladysmith, you’re likely to believe that human beings are a lot better than you thought going in. The group just won another Grammy (their fourth) for “Live: Singing for Peace Around the World” (Best World Music Album) and are touring behind their latest, “Always With Us,” a tribute to Nellie Shabalala, wife of founder Joseph Shabalala; Nellie passed away in 2002. Sunday at 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets. If all the seats are gone, check for standing room.

Photo by Lulis Leal

After hearing Ladysmith, you’re likely to believe that human beings are a lot better than you thought going in.

We’ve never watched the Fox series “New Girl,” but Prince was on Sunday when the show aired after the Super Bowl, and Hulu has gathered the relevant excerpts. We like this one. This one is kind of weird. Prince lessons learned: “Anything beautiful is worth getting hurt for.” (Guess who said that? He did!) Also, pancakes should always be finished. And if you want to play ping-pong with Prince, wear a sexy dress.

Back in January, the Bryant Lake Bowl presented an evening of 10-minute plays. Some of us were reminded of “Short Attention Span Theater,” the show that ran on the Comedy Channel and later Comedy Central. On Feb. 15-16, Walking Shadow Theatre Company and Mixed Blood are joining forces for the One Minute Play Festival, the perfect night out for those with the attention span of a flea. Fifty local playwrights have written 90 new plays about all sorts of things: relationships, work, the Twin Cities, cats, the Polar Vortex. The purpose: to give a snapshot of our community right now. For argument’s sake, let’s say you’ve promised your mom, who’s worried that you’re not getting enough culture, that you’ll see at least one play a month. You can wipe out 7½ years in a single evening. 8 p.m. both nights at Mixed Blood. FMI and tickets ($15).

Our picks for the week

Tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 4): Antonio Zambujo at the Dakota. Zambujo sings fado, the soul music of Portugal. Music of melancholy, mourning, longing and loss. Unless you speak Portuguese, you won’t understand a word, but you’ll know exatamente what Zambujo is singing about. We’ve heard female fado singers before – Ana Moura, “barefoot diva” Cesária Évora – but never a male fado singer. Here’s a taste. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($35).

Tomorrow at the Black Dog: Joel Shapira “Inherence” CD Release. In 2012, Twin Cities guitarist Shapira and New York guitarist Jack DeSalvo met in a New Jersey recording studio to play and record music by Wayne Shorter, DeSalvo, and their own imaginations. The result is one of those rare albums you lean in to hear so you don’t miss a single note or nuance. DeSalvo can’t be here, so joining Shapira for the CD release will be Dean Granros, another master of the instrument. Expect to be transported. 7:30 p.m. No cover. FMI.

Wednesday at Common Good Books: Sarah Churchwell discusses “Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of the Great Gatsby.” Literary history meets murder mystery in American literature scholar Sarah Churchwell’s book. As the Fitzgeralds return to New York for the publication of his fourth book, “Tales of the Jazz Age,” a double murder takes place in nearby New Jersey. Churchwell sifts through newspaper accounts, letters, and archival material to reveal how the crime helped to shape “The Great Gatsby.”

Thursday at Intermedia Arts: “These Birds Walk.” Filmed on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, this acclaimed film documents the struggles of street children and the Samaritans who look out for them. This profoundly sad yet beautiful film has been compared to Truffaut’s “400 Blows.” Here’s the trailer. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets here ($7/$9). Through Sunday.

Photo by Rik Sferra

Susan B. Goldberg, Kaleidoscope (1959), paint on rayon, Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art, Endowment Fund Purchase, 1960

Thursday at the Minnesota Museum of American Art: “OBJECTS: MMAA” opens. Art vs. craft: what’s the difference? The lines blur when fine artists borrow from craft traditions and craft artists move away from functional objects. Featuring 50 pieces by 50 artists from the MMAA’s collection, including some that have never been shown before, this exhibition features items from the postwar period, when craft was a reaction against consumer culture, and today, when craft is a response to the digitization of culture. Artists represented include potter Peter Voulkos; jewelry artist Stanley Lechtzin; painters and printmakers Frank Bigbear, Adolph Gottlieb, and Miriam Schapiro; and artists like Monica Rudquist and Ruben Nusz, who are redefining the art and craft object. 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Through April 13, 2014.

Asked last week how he feels some four months after his 90th birthday, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski wasted no words. “My health is poor,” he said, “but my spirit is very high.”

Indeed, the Minnesota Orchestra’s conductor laureate can legitimately register a few health complaints. He suffered heart damage and atrial fibrillation in 2008, prompting the use of a pacemaker, and he has been plagued with eye trouble since the 1960s. His spirit, however, has been energized in recent years, he said,  by his growing acclaim abroad. Critics in Germany and England use terms like “living legend” (Manchester Evening News) in reviews of Skrowaczewski’s concerts, and in Japan, according to the conductor’s biographer, Frederick Edward Harris Jr., Skrowaczewski is treated like a rock star and is besieged by fans for his autograph after his concerts. (They also bring him gifts, so many that one of the Tokyo halls put up a sign backstage: ”No Hand-Shaking, No Gifts.”)

“Suddenly, it’s like a new era for me,” the conductor said. “The reviews I’ve gotten the past five to six years are incredible. This keeps me going.” Skrowaczewski was speaking by phone from his home in the west suburbs of Minneapolis, where he has lived since 1964 while maintaining an international conducting career. Born in Lwow, Poland, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1960 to 1979. (His wife of 55 years, Krystyna, died in 2011 of progressive supranuclear palsy.)

On the eve of his 90th birthday, Oct. 3, during a series of concerts and birthday parties in Tokyo, where Skrowaczewski is honorary conductor laureate of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the conductor was given a surprise gift, a 28-CD deluxe set of all the widely admired recordings he has made since the early 1990s for the German Oehms Classics label with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, the orchestra in Saarbrucken of which he is principal guest conductor. The musicians there, it has been said, have coined a term, “Stanislove,” to describe their attitude toward their conductor.

Skrowaczewski’s birthday – and the fact that he is not only the oldest working major conductor in the world but a composer who has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize – was ignored in the United States, and, except for his dates in the Twin Cities, he has no bookings in this country this season. There are various theories about why this is so. Violinist Young-Nam Kim thinks it’s because Skrowaczewski has resisted self-promotion. “Stan’s as great a conductor as any of them, Bernstein included,” he said, “but he’s under-recognized.”

Birthday concert Feb. 23

To alleviate the situation, at least on the local front, Kim and Harris, whose generous, deftly researched biography of the conductor, “Seeking the Infinite,” was published in 2011, have put together a birthday concert that will be given at Orchestra Hall Feb. 23 as part of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota series, of which Kim is artistic director. Several major composers – Gunther Schuller, John Harbison, Steven Stucky and Paul Schoenfield — have composed pieces in honor of Skrowaczewski. He, in turn, will conduct three of his own works, including the Symphony for Strings and the premiere of a brief work for cello — a “musical joke,” the composer calls it – to be played by Lynn Harrell, a longtime friend and colleague. Karel Husa, the 93-year-old Czech composer, has sent an elaborate arrangement of “Happy Birthday” that he composed some years ago but that has never been played. Joe Dowling and the Minnesota Orchestra’s former concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis will also perform.

Hardly less weighty will be the concerts this weekend at Orchestra Hall: the official opening of the remodeled facility and, with Skrowaczewski conducting, the return of the Minnesota Orchestra after its bitter and controversial 16-month lockout.

These are events of some considerable historical resonance. In a sense, Orchestra Hall, completed in 1974, is Skrowaczewski’s building. He lobbied for it relentlessly starting in the late '60s, and by all accounts, it never would have been built, nor would it have been such a success, acoustically, had it not been for Skrowaczewski. More recently, during the lockout, he conducted the musicians’ concerts several times, ignoring the tradition that says conductors should remain neutral during contract disputes. Presumably, when you’re 90, you can go your own way. Skrowaczewski has a lot to say on the subject – and hasn’t said it publicly until now.

'I'm optimistic'

“This invitation to conduct the opening was unexpected,” he said. “It came at the last minute. (Contract agreement was announced Jan. 15. Word of Skrowaczewski’s participation came just four days later.) “This means a lot of work,” he said. "The program has to be very well prepared because we face not really a full orchestra but an orchestra that has been decimated by the tragedy of the lockout. Some of the best players have left. There will be new players here, too, some from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. It will be almost, you could say, a new orchestra with, I don’t know, some 20 new musicians. But I’m very happy that they came together finally, and I’m optimistic. I’m hoping that (Osmo) Vänskä will agree to come back. We don’t know yet how much damage this lockout did to the orchestra. It happened at the peak of the orchestra’s excellence. It was tragic and completely unnecessary. It could have been avoided. You know, I’m not in a position to blame people for this, but there were great mistakes and insensitivities.”

Recalling Dayton, Pillsbury

He recalled influential board members of the past: Kenneth Dayton, John Pillsbury, Jr., Charles Bellows, all gone. The lockout wouldn’t have happened were they still in charge, he said.

“I remember saying to one of the gentlemen from the newspaper three years ago when there was news of the renovation of the hall, ‘This can be dangerous. They should have money for musicians, not for renovation.’ You see, for people like Ken Dayton and me and others, the hall was supposed to be a temple of music, a temple of meditation, of spiritual experience. The outer parts, like the lobby, were unimportant. I remember Ken saying, ‘From the outside it looks like a factory or a school. It’s gray. But when you open the inner door, there suddenly is this wonderful, brilliant hall. Everything changes – spirit and everything.’ This was the idea and I carried it with me. Every time I entered the building, through the lobby or backstage, it seemed bleak and not nice. But that was unimportant, because then I would open the door and walk into the temple. That’s why I said this renovation could be dangerous.”

He pointed, as many have, to the proposed Vikings stadium. “Almost a billion will be spent on the stadium,” he said. “In comparison, all they needed at the orchestra was $6 million. Art goes by the wayside.”

As a child: a pianist, composer, conductor

Skrowczewski’s first musical goal in life wasn’t, in fact, to be a conductor but, following in his mother’s footsteps, a concert pianist. (His father was a medical doctor.) He composed his first orchestral work, an eight-minute overture, at the age of seven and made his conducting debut at 13, playing and conducting Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In 1941, during a German bombing of Lwow, the entire wall of a house fell on him, destroying nerves and bones in his hands. A friend standing nearby was killed. Six months later, after extensive surgery, he tried to play again and got a painful cramp after just 30 seconds. His career as a pianist was over.

He spent much of the war years in hiding, attending what he called an  “underground university,” where small groups of students and professors met in private homes to discuss art and philosophy. He continued composing, but the manuscripts of his first two symphonies had to be abandoned when he left Lwow at the end of the war, when Poland was partitioned. He and his family were allowed to travel with only one suitcase per person. His fortunes rose to the highest ranks, however, when he became music director of the Krakow Philharmonic and the Warsaw National Orchestra.

U.S. debut with Cleveland Orchestra

He made his U.S. debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1958, and two years later succeeded Antal Dorati at the helm of the Minnesota Orchestra (then named the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra). Some of the musicians during those early years found Skrowaczewski to be stiff and overly formal. On the plus side, his programs during the 1960s and '70s suggest that he presided over a period of advanced, vital programming that hasn’t really been equaled by any of the music directors here since then. It’s doubtful that leading lights of the Polish avant-garde – chiefly Penderecki and Lutoslavski – would have become as admired in the West without the continued support and exposure that Skrowaczewski gave them.

Skrowaczewski’s difficult early years during the war – living constantly on the run and never being able to take art for granted – may have informed his view that the arts offer transcendent experiences, that they are almost a religion. Harris quotes him: “To me, art is a dialogue with the unknown. This dialogue encompasses all fundamental human concerns – such as the meaning of life and death, love and cruelty, sacrifice and redemption – in the constant hope of knowing that which cannot be known.”

Music, in this view, is a profoundly serious business. “I think the older maestros with the kind of values and the approach to music-making that Stan embodies aren’t as valued in the U.S. as they are in Europe and Japan,” said Harris, who is director of wind and jazz ensembles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “A conductor like Stan is a breath of fresh air especially to the musicians and audiences of Japan because they don’t have these monumental figures.”

He quotes Youko Fuji, co-principal clarinet of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony: “Part of the Japanese character is that we are introverted, so it is important for us to express more in our music to really communicate it. Maestro Skrowaczewski’s requests are sometimes very deep and difficult, but later I realize that they are necessary to develop a wide range of musical expression.”

A man to count on in a crisis

An avid mountain climber in earlier years, Skrowaczewski has curtailed some of his more strenuous activities, and since his heart trouble six years ago, he has learned to conserve his energy at the podium by making smaller gestures. He remains, nonetheless, a man to count on in a crisis. Harris recalls the story that in the spring of 2010, Skrowaczewski was scheduled to fly from Poznan, Poland, to Manchester, England, where he was to conduct the Halle Orchestra. But all flights from Poznan were grounded because of volcanic ash from Iceland. Skrowaczewski, however, was determined to make his appointment in Manchester. So he hired a car and two drivers to take him across the continent. Reaching the ferry docks at Vallee Calle, France, he crossed the English Channel and got to Manchester in time for one short rehearsal before the concert. Although he was exhausted from the 800-mile, 24-hour journey, he conducted with aplomb.

Critics have said that Skrowaczewski’s interpretations are freer than they were in earlier days. He agrees.

“Things come more naturally,” he said. “When you are a young conductor, you search and you compare other people’s – or even your own – performances. It’s always search and trial, which gives you tension. But when that searching and comparing disappears, I don’t have the tension. The music just flows organically. I used to come to rehearsal wondering: How will it go? It was a dilemma, a trial. Whereas now it is just a pleasure that I look forward to.”

Off the podium, Skrowaczewski looks frail. On the other hand, standing in front of an orchestra, he seems to gain energy, as if drawing on currents of electricity from the musicians around him. The years drop from him like pebbles and, though it is surely an illusion, he looks taller. We can only wonder about this unusual, gifted man who has outlived all his peers: What will be his legacy? Consider that by the end of the 2009-10 season, he had conducted 4,441 concerts and made over 200 recordings, most of them still in print.

Harris offered a thought. “There are tangibles and intangibles. The tangible is that he is a conductor-composer in the truest sense. His compositions are really fine, and I want to believe that there will be advocates for his music in the future. His recordings are another part of the tangibles. Among the intangibles is his uncompromising artistic integrity. He is a pure artist, an idealistic model. There aren’t a lot of those in classical music today. Music is always in the forefront of whatever he does. Think of it: He’s been true to himself for 70 years in his career.”

Minnesota Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor. Friday and Saturday,  8 p.m. Orchestra Hall,  11^th St. and Nicollet, Minneapolis. Tickets: $20-$100. Web is easiest — or try 612-371-5656.

“Happy 90th Maestro Stan!” Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and guest performers. Feb. 23, 4 p.m. Orchestra Hall. Tickets: $15-$25. 651-450-0527 or www.chambermusicmn.org.

Photo by Tim Trumble

Michael Christie

Starting Thursday morning and continuing through Saturday night, Michael Christie, music director of the Minnesota Opera, will open the Minnesota Orchestra’s classical subscription series at Orchestra Hall. He’ll lead the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra in three gorgeous warhorses of the classical repertoire: Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, Stravinsky’s “Firebird” Suite and Ravel’s “Boléro.” Twenty-two-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov will make his Minnesota Orchestra debut with the Rachmaninoff.

Christie was named the Opera’s first-ever music director in 2012, so we in the Twin Cities know him mainly as the man who most recently led Verdi’s “Macbeth,” and before then the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “Silent Night,” among others – nine operas to date. He’s already on board for the new commissions “The Shining,” which will have its world premiere in May 2016, and “The Manchurian Candidate,” opening in March 2015. Christie likes conducting new operas. “I enjoy working with the composers,” he told MinnPost yesterday. “It’s an enchanting experience. It reminds me over and over how malleable music is, how hard composers work to express themselves on paper. Working with new composers reconnects us to the human part of music-making. It’s not just dots on a page.”

At 39, Christie also has an impressive 16-years-and-counting symphonic career, serving as music director of the Phoenix Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, as chief conductor for the Queensland Orchestra in Australia, and making guest appearances leading orchestras throughout Europe and around the world. The Rachmaninoff, the Stravinsky and the Ravel are all works he knows well and has conducted many times. “This is a fun program for me. Recently, I did two complete cycles of Rachmaninoff, with the Phoenix Symphony and the Colorado Music Festival. I’ve conducted ‘Boléro’ half a dozen times, and the ‘Firebird’ suite many times. I’ve also played the ‘Firebird’ as a trumpet player, and it’s a piece I really enjoy. I had an amazing opportunity at the Zurich Opera to conduct all of Stravinsky’s ballets as ballets. So every time I open the ‘Firebird’ score, I see someone dancing.”

This won’t be Christie’s first time conducting the Minnesota Orchestra. “Fifteen years ago, when I was just getting started, I did a Young People’s concert for them. They bused in legions of children and it was really fun.” This will, however, be his first appearance as conductor in the main season.

When did he get the call? “Very shortly before the musicians and management settled. It came together very quickly.” Was he surprised? “I was very excited and humbled that they would have me on as part of this series, at the opening. I never asked ‘Why me?’ I would like to think, having done nine operas with the Minnesota Opera, that people know what I can do.” 

Leading the Minnesota Orchestra’s subscription openers is a big deal, especially this year, when it looked for a time as if there wouldn’t be a season and the newly renovated Hall would stay dark. The subscription series is the Orchestra’s bread-and-butter. It’s what keeps audiences coming back week after week.

Christie sees this as more than a one-time thing. To him, it’s an opportunity to build bridges between organizations like the Minnesota Opera and the Minnesota Orchestra. “There’s a growing sense of collaboration around the country,” he says. “I’ve seen it in so many other cities. Especially where there are organizations that have expertise others don’t necessarily have. [For example,] I wouldn’t expect the orchestra to be experts in costume-making.” And yet, the orchestra presents a semi-staged opera each year as part of Sommerfest. This year, it’s Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus.” Hmmm.

“I would like to think we can look confidently at each other across the table and say, ‘We can amplify the experience for our community by harnessing each other’s expertise,’” Christie says. “There’s great power to that. Coming out of the recession forces us to be aware that communities are looking for a holistic resurgence. It’s no longer one group or another getting all of the attention, or all of the energy it takes to regain the sense of stability we had pre-recession. People here are just as interested in attending Theatre Latté Da or the Children’s Theatre or going to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as they are in coming to an orchestra performance. They need it all to be there for their quality of life. I’m very hopeful that this is the start of our two organizations naturally looking at each other as collaborators.”

This week, as Christie prepares to lead the subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, “I’ll have time to talk with orchestra management about projects we’re going to be doing, singers we’re bringing to town. I don’t feel we have absolutely proprietary ownership of people we bring in.” That’s a different tune than the one we heard in 2005, when the Schubert Club announced an upcoming recital by soprano Deborah Voigt and the Minnesota Orchestra forced a cancellation, citing a previously booked May 2006 appearance with an exclusivity clause. “I would like to be able to look at each other and see opportunities, rather than competing,” Christie says. “That’s much more healthy, and it’s how I operate.” Christie has already spoken with Bob Neu, the Minnesota Orchestra’s general manager. “He’s very anxious and eager to know more about what we’re doing and look at our resources.

“I think we’re all interested to see what the orchestra wants to do going ahead, moving into the future. If they’re as open with us as we are with them, we can see opportunities. Minnesota Opera is going into the experience of this week of concerts, and the excitement of that, with open arms. We’re saying, ‘We’re thrilled you’re back. Now let’s see what we can do together.’

“Having me conduct these concerts represents a clear desire among arts organizations to be seen working together, trying to formulate a good working relationship. It’s something that probably wouldn’t have been possible until quite recently. I can say from 20 years of conducting professionally that it is much better to collaborate than to be in a silo.”

Subscription concerts are 11 a.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Orchestra Hall. FMI and tickets.

Our picks for the week

Tonight at the Dakota: Jana Nyberg Group with the Benje Daneman Quartet. On her latest full-length album, “Winter Song,” powerhouse jazz and pop singer Jana Nyberg sings about snow in a way that almost makes us like it. Nyberg and her band with trumpeter (and Nyberg’s husband) Adam Meckler will bring heat and high energy to the Dakota’s stage for tonight’s Foodie Night (meaning no cover for music, and select $10 bottles of wine). Opening: visiting trumpeter Benje Daneman, who has toured with Doc Severinsen, recorded a Grammy-nominated album with the HMI Big Band, and been a finalist in the National Trumpet Competition. Daneman’s band will play the first set, Nyberg’s the next, and the evening will end with Meckler and Daneman together. Two trumpets are twice the fun of one. 7 p.m., 1010 Nicollet Mall. P.S. Daneman’s drummer is Chicagoan Christian Euman, who filled in for Kendrick Scott in Kurt Elling’s quintet last week when Scott couldn’t get out of New York City. Euman was terrific in the hot seat then and we’re expecting no less from him tonight.

Used with permission of the artist

"Meadow Road" by Stuart T. Loughridge

Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club: Artist’s reception for New and Recent Work by Stuart T. Loughridge. We first met the soft-spoken Loughridge at the Artists’ Quarter, where he sketched and painted jazz musicians who performed there and the people who came to hear them. His subjects also include landscapes and still lifes, his media oils, ink, intaglio and watercolor. 5-8 p.m., free and open to the public. Loughridge’s works remain on display through Feb. 28.

Wednesday at the American Swedish Institute: Ed Bok Lee. The award-winning poet spent January in residence at the ASI’s Wallenberg Library and Archives, researching diary entries, poems and letters written by Swedish immigrants. He’ll recap his residency and share new work – poems based on the typographic appearance, form, and sounds of the materials, since the texts have never been translated into English and Bok Lee doesn’t speak Swedish. He calls them “meta-translations.” The evening will include a conversation beween Bok Lee, ASI’s librarian and archivist Cassie Warholm-Wohlenhaus, and Coffee House Press publisher Chris Fischbach. Bok Lee is one of several writers Coffee House Press has placed in some of the Twin Cities’ most interesting libraries. 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Courtesy of Mixed Precipitation

“Tonya & Nancy: The Opera”

Thursday at the Amsterdam: “Tonya & Nancy: The Opera.” Hard to believe it’s the 20th anniversary of America’s most colorful ice-skating scandal. Created by composer Abigail Al-Doory Cross and writer Elizabeth Searle, this opera premiered in 2006 at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, where it was hailed as “a real knee slapper.” The evening includes a viewing of the Ladies’ Long Program in Sochi, with trivia and prizes. Presented by Mixed Precipitation, directed by Scotty Reynolds. Doors at 6 p.m., show at 7. FMI and tickets ($8/$10).

Thursday at the Edina Cinema: “La Bohème.” A new look at a beloved opera, filmed live at the famed Royal Opera House, London, in 2014. Maija Kovalevska is Mimi, Dmytro Popov is Rodolfo; John Copley directs. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets. Also Sunday, Feb. 23 at 11 a.m.

Thursday at Magers & Quinn: Grant Hart Presents 100 Years of William S. Burroughs. Twin Cities artist Hart had a ten-year friendship with Burroughs, the godfather of the Beats and one of the 20th century’s most notorious free thinkers. At what’s being called a “special salon,” Hart will talk about Burroughs and read from some of his favorite writings. Hart’s collection of Burroughs memorabilia is on display at the bookstore through the end of February. Burroughs would have turned 100 on Feb. 5. 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Thursday at the St. Anthony Main Theatre: The Fifth Annual Minnesota Cuban Film Festival begins with “Ciudad en Rojo” (City in Red). It’s the late 1950s and the city of Santiago de Cuba is afire with resistance to dictator Fulgencio Batista. This year’s festival focuses on women and Afro-Cubans in Cuban cinema; “Ciudad en Rojo” was directed by Rebeca Chávez. 7 p.m., $8.50. FMI and tickets. The festival continues on Thursdays through March 27.

Courtesy of the MIA

Henri Matisse, Striped Robe, Fruit, and Anemones (1940), Oil on canvas, The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ blockbuster show of the year opened Sunday, and it’s worth going soon – this minute, if you can– to bask in the warmth of Henri Matisse’s palette, the sheer sensuous pleasure of so much color and light, to enter a world where women loll around wearing brightly striped robes or harem pants or nothing at all. Today Matisse's art seems normal, almost commonplace because we’ve seen it on posters and coasters, mouse pads and mugs. But in the first part of the 20th century, when it was snapped up, fresh from his brushes, by two wealthy, art-loving Baltimore sisters named Claribel and Etta Cone, it was considered shocking and wild. The Cone Sisters amassed a huge private collection of works by Matisse, then bequeathed it to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which overnight became the world’s major Matisse destination. While the BMA undergoes a $28 million renovation, the core of its Matisse holdings is out on tour.

“Matisse: Masterworks from The Baltimore Museum of Art” is a once-in-a-lifetime, career-spanning show of paintings, lithographs, prints and a surprising number of sculptures. It begins with student work and ends with “Jazz,” the cut-paper artist’s book from 1947 that, like the music, is about rhythm and improvisation. The MIA has its own impressive Matisse collection, and some of the works in this show (including “Jazz”) are drawn from that. If you go (when you go), be sure to spend time with “Large Reclining Nude” and the 22 fascinating photos Matisse took (and later sent to the Cone sisters), documenting his creative process over several months in 1935. You can almost hear him thinking out loud: “Long torso or shorter torso? Big breasts or small? This face or that one? Crossed legs or not? And what to do with that vase of flowers?” Through May 18. FMI and tickets ($16 weekdays, $20 weekends, free for MIA members).

After seeing the Matisse show, you’ll wish you lived in the south of France. After seeing the new play at the Pillsbury House Theatre, you may wish you lived on a different planet, someplace where things are simpler. “Gidion’s Knot,” the twisted, disturbing play by Johanna Adams that opened Friday, asks us to unravel a tragedy and make sense of the senseless. The scene is a fifth-grade public school classroom in a Chicago suburb; the time is the present; the characters – just two – are a teacher and a grieving parent. Over 90 minutes of a parent-teacher conference that wasn’t supposed to happen because (spoiler here, but you learn this early in the play) the student is dead, they wrestle with unanswerable questions about responsibility, culpability, creativity and the consequences of fear. We’re left wondering – have schools gone too far? Can we reasonably expect kids to self-censor and always exercise good judgment? What if Edgar Allan Poe or Lemony Snicket, Neal Gaiman or Stephen King had been a student in Ms. Clark’s class? These are not issues that will go away anytime soon; in the news now is an Elk River student whose two-word tweet about “making out” with a teacher came close to derailing his life. Laura Esping and Aditi Kapil are two strong actors in difficult roles; Kapil is also a playwright whose “Displaced Hindu Gods Trilogy” was presented at Mixed Blood last fall. Noël Raymond directs. Through March 23. FMI and tickets (all pick-your-price). 

Sharkey Photography

Nathan Gunn

The Schubert Club announced its 2014-15 season on Sunday, and as we’ve come to expect from the venerable St. Paul presenter, it’s top-notch. The International Artist Series, the crown jewel of recital series in the Twin Cities, begins Sept. 30 with husband-and-wife duo Nathan Gunn, baritone, and Julie Jordan Gunn, piano. On Nov. 11, revered pianist Richard Goode returns after an 11-year absence from the Ordway’s stage. On Feb. 24, 2015, young British pianist Benjamin Grosvener makes his International Artist Series debut. On April 15, the enchanting violinist Hilary Hahn– most recently seen at Aria in Minneapolis for the Club’s new concert series, Schubert Club Mix – comes back to the Ordway. On May 19, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, a 2012 Grammy winner, makes her International Artist Series debut with pianist David Zobel. For the new Music in the Park series at Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ, the Schubert Club has booked the Danish String Quarter (Oct. 12), the Miami String Quartet with pianist Lydia Artymiw (Oct. 26), Ensemble Caprice (Nov. 23), the Schubert Ensemble of London (Feb. 15), the St. Lawrence String Quartet (April 19) and the Assad Brothers guitar duo (May 10). Subscriptions are on sale now for both series, with single tickets available Aug. 4.

We’re hearing hairy tales about Orchestra Hall ticketing snafus — problems when trying to buy on the website, long waits on the phone, people going to the box office and finding locked doors. We asked David Sailer-Haugland, the MOA’s director of marketing for subscription sales, and orchestra spokesperson Gwen Pappas to explain why buyers are having problems and what’s being done to make things run more smoothly.

The website didn’t crash; it was timing out during the communication between the ticketing company and the company that handles the credit-card security. “That was discouraging,” Sailer-Haugland said, “but it has been fixed for a couple of weeks now. We were on it right away.” Phone waits were averaging 20-30 minutes — too long. But these are unusual times. The 15-month lockout ended Jan. 14, and the 2014 season was announced Jan. 24, a scant 10 days later. Subscription packages went on sale for renewing subscribers on Jan. 27, for new subscribers Feb. 3. Individual tickets became available Feb. 9. “Our typical subscription renewal period in a normal year would span three months,” Pappas explained. “This year, the renewal period was 23 days. Typically, we’re through subscription season before single tickets go on sale. Right now, that’s happening simultaneously, resulting in tremendous volume.” In three weeks, Orchestra Hall sold 70,000 tickets, or $2 million. Phone wait times were improving and subscription concerts were about to start when last week’s storm rolled in.

The box office at Orchestra Hall is no longer open during regular business hours. Is that a factor? Not really, Sailer-Haugland said. “The vast majority of people – 90 percent – buy tickets online or on the phone.” And the other 10 percent? “Eight percent of those buy tickets the day of the show.” Still, “there are plans to open an on-site box office at the hall this spring, when we’re fully staffed and operational.” Drive-ups and walk-ups will be able to buy tickets at the stage door “by May at the latest.”

Meanwhile, if you want to buy subscription or single tickets, start with the website (click BUY in the menu bar near the top) or call 612-371-5656 during business hours (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and on concert days from two hours prior to concert start time through intermission). If you call and get tired of hanging on the phone, fill out the online contact form and someone will call you, usually within 24 hours. To purchase tickets in person, visit the Orchestra Hall box office on concert days from two hours prior to concert start time through intermission. Or stop by the orchestra’s administrative office at the International Centre, 5th floor, 920 2nd Ave. S. (two blocks away from the Hall) during business hours (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.). The International Centre is across from the Hilton on S. 10th St., in the same building as Ruth’s Chris.

“We’re on the tail end of getting the next wave of phone reps into the mix,” Sailer-Haugland said. “The combination of more work force coming in, and the conclusion of the subscription campaign during the next week, means that everything will be back to normal in March at a level people were used to.”

Our two favorite arts-related stories from the past several days: (1) President Obama has appointed Dr. Jane Chu, president and CEO of Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, to head the NEA. Music blogger Norman Lebrecht describes the Kauffman as “outstandingly bold and successful.” Now if only Congress will confirm her. It’s been 14 months since former NEA head Rocco Landesman announced he would step down early. We still miss Dana Gioia, a poet and jazz fan who ran the NEA from 2002-2009. Landesman was the guy who once declared during a theater conference that the U.S. had too many arts organizations. (2) Heads up and all aboard, writers: Amtrak has begun offering writers’ residencies on trains. Seriously. Earlier this year, New York-based writer Jessica Gross did a test run, taking a tiny sleeper cabin (even smaller than a garret) from New York to Chicago and back again. Now the company is in the planning stages of making it official and keeping it free or low-cost. You can’t apply yet, but as soon as we hear more, we’ll let you know.

Our picks for the week and the coming weekend

Artscape is taking a break this Friday, so here’s what we like for the weekend, too. We’ll be back next Tuesday.

Tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 25) at the Dakota: Terence Blanchard Quintet. If you’ve seen a Spike Lee movie, you’ve heard (some of) jazz trumpeter, composer and educator Blanchard’s music. The five-time Grammy winner is always worth going out for. Here’s Britt Robson’s article for the Strib. 7 and 9 p.m. FMI and tickets ($35-$45).

Tomorrow at the U of M’s Coffman Memorial Union: An Evening with Steve Berry. The best-selling, award-winning author of historical thrillers (“The Lincoln Myth,” “The Columbus Affair,” “The Jefferson Key”) will share his insights as a writer and his interest in history and historic preservation. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($15 general public, $5 students).

Thursday at the Cedar: Stanley Clarke. If you play the bass (or follow jazz), you know Clarke’s seminal 1976 album “School Days” and its anthemic title track. He’ll perform the album in its entirety, along with other material, accompanied by Ruslan Sirota on keyboards, Brady Cohen on guitar and Mike Mitchell on drums. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($35/$50).

Thursday at Magers & Quinn: Grant Hart Presents 100 Years of William S. Burroughs. Originally scheduled for Feb. 18, postponed because of the storm. 7 p.m. FMI. Free and open to the public.

Friday at Aria: Heart of the Party. It’s a political-party party. Hosted by Congressional District 5 of the DFL Party of Minnesota, this combined fundraiser/energizer/recruitment event features entertainment on two stages by Steve Clarke & The Working Stiffs (absolutely no relation to Joe the Plumber), Voice of Culture Drum and Dance, Maria Isa, Ill Chemistry (hip-hop and beat boxing with Desdamona and Carnage the Executioner), and more. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges will be there. So will Congressman Keith Ellison and Tina Smith. 7 p.m. – midnight. FMI and tickets ($30).

Friday at the St. Anthony Main Theatre: the Nordic Lights Film Festival opens. Now in its sixth year, this annual festival brings contemporary films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to the state with America’s largest Scandinavian-American population. Through March 6. FMI and tickets.

Friday at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater: Kickin’ Ass and Takin’ Names: Measuring Success One Failure at a Time. Do we all have the same capacity to reach our goals, if we only work hard enough? Is it true that we must fail again and again in order to succeed? In an interactive, highly improvised solo show based on a 12-hour live-streamed web-a-thon, Seth Lepore takes on the self-help movement. Guests include Minneapolis theater stalwarts Jenny Moeller, Zach Coulter, Carl Atiya Swanson and more. Doors at 6 p.m., show at 7. Through Sunday, March 2. FMI and tickets ($14/$12). Facebook page.

©2011 Royal Ontario Museum

Cryolophosaurus

Saturday at the Science Museum: “Ultimate Dinosaurs” opens. Cryolophosaurus. Nigersaurus. Suchomimus, the spinosaur. Giganotosaurus, perhaps the largest land predator ever. Don’t worry, we’ve never heard of any of them either. The Science Museum’s new exhibit features 20 fully-articulated dinosaur specimens that evolved in isolation in South America, Africa and Madagascar. Through Aug. 24. FMI and tickets ($9-$21).

Saturday at the Ordway: Minnesota Opera’s “Dream of Valentino” opens. Tenor James Valenti, who was recently mistaken for an NFL football player, stars as the legendary Rudolph Valentino in a revival of the 1994 opera by Pulitzer Prize winner Dominick Argento. Brenda Harris (“Macbeth”) sings the role of screenwriter June Mathis; Oscar winner Eric Simonson directs. Seduction, scandal, tango and Valenti in guyliner. This could be kind of steamy. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($20-$200). Also next Thursday-Saturday.

Monday, March 3 at the Dakota: The Manhattan Transfer. Forty years of tight harmonies, impeccable swing, a dozen Grammys, a million albums sold – and that sound! 7 and 9 p.m. FMI and tickets ($40-$50). 

The Minnesota Orchestra board meets Friday and, in the wake of its recently-ended 16-month lockout, is expected to consider the future of its leadership.

The board appears divided on how it will deal with former Music Director Osmo Vänskä, who resigned during the lockout, and President and CEO Michael Henson, says Graydon Royce in the Star Tribune.

Says Royce's story:

New board chairman Gordon Sprenger has praised Henson, while Vänskä has said that for the orchestra to heal, Henson should depart.

Musicians, who accepted a 15 percent pay cut in a new collective-bargaining agreement last month, have called for Henson’s ouster and Vänskä’s return.

The story says there is pressure for the board to resolve the issue before the orchestra's March 27-29 performances of the Sibelius Symphonies No. 1 and 4.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, has proposed a community ownership model for the governance structure of the Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA), with a holding corporation selling shares in the MOA to the community, similar to the Green Bay Packers’ model.  On Feb. 25, she introduced H.R. 1930, a bill that would set in motion a change in governance structure that was never intended by the MOA’s founders.

During my research into MOA’s governance for a three-part series on my  Eyes on Life blog, I learned that the founders had something very different in mind.

Article II of the Articles of Incorporation, filed in 1907, created a membership of the association, one in which anyone could join as long as he or she paid the annual dues. This ensured that people dedicated to artistic excellence and classical music governed the association. Loss of membership occurred if the member stopped paying annual dues. A membership governance structure for nonprofit corporations is governed by Minnesota Statute 317A. 

Each member held the right to one vote, either in person or by proxy. The members elected a board of directors out of their diverse membership to govern the association. And the board, out of its membership, elected the officers. The founders meant for the officers and board to be accountable to the membership, as well as serving the wider community in Minneapolis and Minnesota.

In Minnesota, nonprofit corporations can choose whether or not they want a membership governance structure. I propose that a membership governance structure be implemented again for the current MOA to ensure that the board will answer to and be acccountable to a diverse group.

'No capital stock'

The dues could be $100 annually for adults, perhaps offering other levels such as student, family, and institutional (for companies, businesses, and schools). Unlike Kahn’s idea, it respects and obeys the founders’ Article III: “There shall be no capital stock of this corporation.” They showed they wanted the association to be solidly nonprofit, with no possibility of anyone to own any part of it or have expectations of a monetary return on their investment. The membership structure preserves the association’s nonprofit status.

Originally, members benefitted simply by being members of an association dedicated to the performance of the best in classical music and to the creation of education programs about classical music. The founders didn’t specify any other benefits in the original articles.

Today’s association, however, could offer additional benefits, such as single ticket or subscription package discounts, attending rehearsals, periodic receptions with the musicians, and so on. A student benefit could include a “concert card” that would give the holder one ticket to a subscription concert for a substantial discount. A family benefit could include discounted family concert series subscriptions. For an institutional benefit, perhaps offer a block of free tickets to a specific number of concerts each season.

Currently, anyone can buy tickets to any concert they want to attend. That would not change under the membership model. In addition, anyone would be able contribute to the MOA, either to the endowment, for operating expenses, or specific artistic initiatives, be they members or not. I propose that guest artists also receive an invitation to become members of the association.

Preserving accountability

Under this governance structure, the board would be accountable to the membership, without an expectation of a monetary return on investment, but with a sense of ownership and governing participation in the future of the MOA. 

Technology eases the logistics of communicating with a large local, regional, national and international membership. Voting could be done via the internet – many corporations already do this for their shareholders.

The Articles of Incorporation would need to be re-stated in compliance with Minnesota Statute 317A and re-filed with the Secretary of State, and the association’s bylaws revised. I propose that the bylaws include specific job descriptions for the board and officers, including conditions under which they can be removed.

It could also take some time to re-establish the membership structure. I believe, however, that it is the strongest governance structure for the MOA for the future of the Minnesota Orchestra. 

If you agree, please contact MOA Board Chair Gordon Sprenger, and your state legislators, including Rep. Phyllis Kahn.

Minnesota writer Gina Hunter blogs about the Minnesota Orchestra, health care, and other topics of current interest at Eyes on Life.

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If you're interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright at salbright@minnpost.com.)

Where, oh where is our orchestra going? Since the board meeting on Feb. 28, during which, according to a statement issued afterward, “the board came to a very strong agreement on leadership,” we’ve heard nothing from the MOA about that agreement and what it means. We’re reminded of the lockout, when weeks of silence were followed by more weeks of silence and time just ticked away. Will former music director Osmo Vänskä return? In what capacity? As music director or principal guest conductor? Will current president and CEO Michael Henson stay on? The fact that Henson is unpopular with the musicians and much of the public does not seem to faze the board. Keep in mind that while the lockout has ended, the hall has reopened and the musicians are back at work, the board has remained largely the same.

Meanwhile, audience members are shouting at each other before concerts (“Bring back Osmo!” “Shut up!”), Vänskä continues to book guest conducting gigs elsewhere (he’ll be in South Africa in December) and ticket sales are apparently so disappointing that the Orchestra on Tuesday began offering Groupons – deeply discounted tickets to upcoming concerts. (As of this writing, you can still get $100 seats to the March 20 concert by trumpeter Chris Botti for $25. The Minnesota Orchestra does not perform on this program. Groupons to two Minnesota Orchestra concerts were previously available for $10 but sold out quickly.) Also on Tuesday, the Orchestra announced a “24-hour fill the row sale” – three Minnesota Orchestra concerts for $99. That offer has now ended.

Members of the Save Our Symphony Minnesota leadership group have met twice with two unnamed MOA board members since Feb. 28. Most recently, they shared a graphic called “MOA’s Fork in the Road” listing their predictions of what seems likely to happen if Vänskä returns and Henson leaves vs. the opposite. They are urging the board to make a decision prior to the Grammy celebration concerts on March 27-29, during which Vänskä will lead the Sibelius symphonies 1 and 4. If matters are still up in the air by then, how awkward will that be? What will happen when Osmo comes to Orchestra Hall? Who from MOA leadership will join him on stage and congratulate him and the orchestra for winning the Grammy? What if no one does? In either case, how will the audience react? 

On a lighter note, a deadpan Vänskä recently sat down with cellist Nick Canellakis for a hilarious spoof interview during which Canellakis asked, “Is Osmo short for anything?” and reminded him, in a friendly and helpful sort of way, that unemployment in America is very high right now. Wait ’til you hear Canellakis’ take on Vänskä’s forthcoming return as guest conductor.

***

As always, admission to this year’s Art in Bloom at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is free. Tickets to special events surrounding the annual riot of flowers and art are not, and some look too good to miss. Like the lecture and demonstration on Thursday, May 1, by Laura Dowling, chief floral designer for the White House. Happening May 1-4, Art in Bloom will feature more than 150 floral displays inspired by works of art in the museum’s collection. Event tickets are on sale now.

Courtesy of the Bell Museum

Carolina parakeets

If you saw the first part of the Bell Museum’s exhibition “Audubon and the Art of Birds,” and especially if you didn’t, the second half is now on display: nearly 50 new works of art by Audubon and other artists, including representations of the now-extinct Carolina parakeet. Among the other artists in the show are Mark Catesby, Walton Ford, Francois Levaillant and Roger Tory Peterson. The centerpiece is the rare double-elephant folio edition of Audubon’s “Birds of America,” a collection of hand-colored engravings donated to the Bell in 1928. Through June 8. FMI. Beaks up, birders: On Wednesday, April 2, noted author and illustrator David Allen Sibley will be at the Bell to celebrate the release of the second edition of “The Sibley Guide to Birds.” 7 p.m. Tickets ($30-$43) include a copy of the book. The National Audubon Society dubbed the first edition “comprehensive, erudite, magnificent,” and this one is even bigger and better.

If you’re near the Minneapolis Central Library between now and April 11, stop by the Cargill Hall Gallery to see “Viva City,” a juried art show of work by Minneapolis Public Schools high-school students. Now in its 20th year, the annual exhibition features two- and three-dimensional works – drawings, paintings, ceramics, grapic design and fiber art – by students in participating schools. Students are eligible for awards from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, MCAD, MIA, Utrecht Art Supplies, and the U of M. Gallery hours are the same as the library’s. FMI.

After 20 years of making people dance and smile and generally feel good about life, Dan Newton’s Café Accordion Orchestra will make its debut appearance on Garrison Keillor’s radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.” Listen this Saturday from 5-7. All we can say is – what took you so long, GK? After hearing these fine musicians on the air, you may have the irresistible urge to see them live, and your first chance is Sunday at the Dakota, which happens to be a Foodie Night – no cover for music. 7-9 p.m. FMI.

Minnesota Opera’s loss is the Santa Fe Opera’s gain. Daniel Zillmann, communications manager at Minnesota Opera, has accepted a position as director of press and public relations in Santa Fe beginning May 1. If you’re an opera lover/goer/ticket holder, you may not know Zillman, but if you’re an arts journalist, a blogger, part of the Black Hat comic art collective, a singer with the Minnesota Chorale, or a member of Tempo, Minnesota Opera’s young professionals organization, you’re familiar with his boundless enthusiasm for opera, and his expertise. One of our last Zillman sightings was at Minnesota Opera’s “Macbeth,” where he wore a kilt. He made our job easier, and for that we’re grateful. We’ll miss him a lot.

Not that we want to hear the word “snow” ever again – at least, not until November – but Brave New Workshop’s “A Snowplow Named Desire: Love in Minnesota” has proved so popular that its run has been extended through April 12. In new sketches and songs, the BNW cast explores the comical, often ridiculous side of love, sex and relationships of all kinds. Luckily, love is always in season. FMI and tickets ($25-$30).

Plan ahead: Sally Rousse, co-founder of the James Sewell Ballet, turns 50 this month. The company is celebrating with “A Sally Jubilee,” a gala dinner and free public performance. Rousse received a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers in 2001, was named Artist of the Year in 2010 by City Pages, and won a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer in 2013. At the free performance, former James Sewell Ballet favorites Penelope Freeh and Christian Burns, among others, will perform works choreographed by and about Rousse, who will also dance. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 30, at the Cowles. Reservations here.

Our picks for the weekend

Opens tonight at Northern Clay Center: “Mythology Meets Archetype.” Not all pottery is mugs and teapots. In this exhibition of compelling, often haunting works, ceramic artists from the United States, London and Australia explore personal, cultural and religious myths and symbols: gods and mothers, selves and demons. Reception from 6-8 p.m. Through April 27.  

Courtesy of Northern Clay Center

Vipoo Srivilasa, The Country I Missed, 2013, porcelain and mix media material, collaboration with Thai and Chinese volunteers.

Tonight through Sunday at Intermedia Arts: Pangea World Theater presents “Rowzaneh – A Sufi Project.” An evening of music, film, movement, storytelling and poetry inspired by the principles and teachings of Sufism in modern life. With artists Aida Shahghasemi, Santanu Chatterjee and Dipankar Mukherjee. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 34:30 p.m. Sunday. FMI and tickets ($10-$12).

Tonight through March 22 at Nimbus Theatre: Savage Umbrella Theatre Presents “Rapture.” What if a tenth of the world’s population suddenly, quietly vanished? Not (sorry) conservative Christians, but (kind of the opposite) artists? Thomas Kinkade, the “Painter of Light,” figures into this quirky yet intriguing idea for a play, which deals with issues including why art matters, what “real” art is, and the value of art and artists. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($12-$20 sliding scale; pay what you can at the door). Arrive early or stay late to view the pop-up gallery of work by local visual artists on display in the lobby.

Photo by Megan Visel

Mary Cutler as Evelyn and Carl Schoenborn as Thomas Kinkade in Savage Umbrella Theatre's “Rapture.”

Tonight at the Lowertown Lofts Co-op in St. Paul:“Lowertown Classics #2.” For fans of classical music in obscure spaces. Go to 255 Kellogg Blvd., enter through the back alley, and follow the door signs. Then hear Trio Improv Is and Do (Maja Radovanlija, guitar; Scott Currie, saxophone; Ben Klein, tuba) perform improvised music, followed by guitarist Eva Beneke and classics of the Spanish guitar repertoire, then selections from Claude Bolling’s “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano” played by flutist Bethany Gonella, pianist Ted Godbout, bassist Eric Solberg and percussionist Scotty Horey. Donation at the door. 8 p.m. The concert will be followed by a wine reception in one of the lofts.

Saturday at the movies: Massenet’s tragic opera “Werther,” starring the great German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series, the performance at the Met in New York City will be transmitted live to big screens across the U.S. In the Cities, you can see it at the Showplace Icon in St. Louis Park, the Eden Prairie 18, and the Oakdale in St. Paul. It’s also playing at theaters in Mankato, Rochester and other locations. Starts at 11:55 a.m. CST. FMI and tickets. (Pssst: April 5, “La Bohème.”)

Opens Saturday and Sunday at the History Theatre in St. Paul:“Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” and “Lonely Soldiers: Women at War in Iraq.” The History Theatre is ambitiously presenting two plays at the same time from now through April 6. Based on Tim O’Brien’s National Book Award-winning account of his experiences in Vietnam, adapted for the stage by Jim Stowell, “The Things They Carried” is a one-man show featuring Stephen D. Ambrose. FMI and tickets ($32-$40). Directed by Austene Van, Helen Benedict’s “Lonely Soldiers” is based on the real words of eight battle-tested women warriors. FMI and tickets ($32-$40). Both are recommended for ages 16 and up.

Saturday at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul: Hymnathon. As a fundraiser for an upcoming tribute to Durham, England, where they’ve been invited to sing for a week in September, the choir at St. Clement’s will sing the first verses of all 720 hymns in the Episcopal hymnal. Six organists will take turns accompanying the singers. The public is invited to stop by and sing along, to pledge a set amount of money per hymn, and/or to request a special verse, descant, accompaniment or hymn dedication. Food, beverages, throat lozenges and cough syrup will be available. The estimated time for singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” (Hymn 720) is 5:30 p.m. The event begins at 7 a.m. Pledge forms are available on site.

Sunday at SubText Books in St. Paul, a double-header: Neal Karlen reads from (deep breath) “Slouching Toward Fargo: A Two-Year Saga of Sinners and St. Paul Saints at the Bottom of the Bush Leagues with Bill Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Dakota Sadie and Me” and John Ostergaard reads from “The Devil’s Snake Curve,” an alternative American history in which colonialism, jingoism, capitalism and faith are represented by baseball. How are Japanese internment camps like the Yankees? Walmart like the Kansas City Royals?  You’ll have to ask Ostergaard. 1 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Sunday at Hopkins High School: JazzMN Orchestra Presents New York Voices. Minnesota’s premier big band brings the Voices’ close-knit harmonies and swinging charts to their 15th anniversary season. The Grammy-winning Voices spent years with the Count Basie Orchestra before going out on their own. Big Band fans, to miss this would be silly. 3 p.m. FMI and tickets ($34/$38, $15 student rush).

Many supporters of the Minnesota Orchestra musicians may remember a particular patron we were all introduced to during the lockout, Eriko Matsukawa of Sendai, Japan. She sent a beautiful letter of support, along with a donation to the musicians, which you can and should read about here along with a stunning mobile of 96 hand-folded cranes that is now hanging in the musicians’ lounge: one crane for each member of the locked-out orchestra.

Now the lockout is over, if only in name, but the fallout continues. Last week one of the original 96 made the difficult decision to leave colleagues, friends, family and the city he loved. Comments to the Strib article about Burt Hara’s resignation last week ranged from the mournful to the sadly predictable (“It will take literally hours to find someone who can fill this position adequately!”). Thanks for that, fdrebin. Some of us are eminently replaceable in our jobs, and I count myself as one of them. Not so for Burt. But nobody in this ensemble would deny the wisdom in his decision, agonizing as it surely was.  

Now there is news that Tony Ross has been offered the principal cello position at Chicago’s Lyric Opera.  His departure — should he decide to leave — would mean the loss of one of the orchestra’s most vocal leaders, on stage and off. One can only imagine how the MOA would feel about that.

Challenges to morale

The musicians are damaged but not undone. But the maddening lack of leadership and insight in all aspects of this organization, from ticket sales to customer service to board management, continues to chip away at their morale. It is not an easy place for them to walk into every day. It is difficult to sit in their chairs onstage with a view of MOA President Michael Henson in his first-tier box — he who has yet to speak a word of explanation to his employees or his patrons.

Last week, the sixth week of the post-lockout season, the orchestra sat down to rehearse another program of Masterworks with another guest conductor. There have been many changes in personnel from week to week, as those of you in the audience have surely noted. This time there was an addition onstage: Eriko, the MoMO “Superfan” if you will, had a seat of honor next to the clarinets.  

Eriko is in town for three weeks. I asked her what her plans were, other than sit in on rehearsals. She answered, smiling, “Listen to the Minnesota Orchestra, talk about the Minnesota Orchestra, hang out with the Minnesota Orchestra.”  

She sat through Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony perfectly still, eyes closed as always, listening with her entire body. Most of us receive music passively, but you could tell by looking that this was an active experience for her. Elgar’s Enigma Variations elicited copious tears — and that was during rehearsal. The musicians took their break mid-day and found hundreds of treats and gifts from Japan had been left in the lounge by Eriko.  

Sending good wishes

If you were at the concerts last weekend you might have noticed a Japanese woman holding her white cane, sitting near the front row, wearing a scarf of “MoMO” green. This was Eriko, listening with closed eyes and sending her good wishes to the people onstage who have become her friends. Her own words describe the experience she is having so much better than mine ever could:

In good times, I feel my joy multiplied by your music. When going gets tough, I can immerse myself in the world of your music, and you comfort me, heal me and rejuvenate me. Your music has consoled me each and every time I thought I would never smile again. You always seem to know where to find broken pieces of my heart and how to put them back together, then, through that out-of-this-world sound, you simply hand it back to me so I can get up and find a courage to face the world again.

My hope is that when those onstage look out into the faces in the crowd at next weekend’s concerts, their eyes are drawn not to the first-balcony boxes, but to the uplifted face of Eriko — or of any other listener feeling the music with their entire bodies and souls, because she is not alone — and that they also find a way to put together their broken hearts and all the loss of the last two years.

Rena Kraut is a freelance classical clarinetist who performs, writes and lives in Minneapolis.

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It’s an interesting weekend at 1111 Nicollet Mall. Thursday morning, for the first time since June 2012 — when he led the Minnesota Orchestra in excerpts from Beethoven’s Fifth and “Carmina Burana” during the 2011-12 Season Finale concerts — Osmo Vänskä stepped onto Orchestra Hall’s stage before a live audience for the first of three Grammy celebration concerts that continue tonight and tomorrow. As you know unless you’ve been away – at a remote mountain retreat, say, or visiting silent monks or nuns – an awful lot happened in between.

The longest lockout in American orchestral history. The loss of an entire season and a half, plus major concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Proms in Britain, as well as important recording dates. The departures of many musicians and MOA staff. Vänskä’s resignation. Legislative hearings. National and international press coverage. The reopening of the renovated Orchestra Hall. A clamor of public voices demanding a change in leadership and Vänskä’s return. A Grammy win. The announcement of CEO Michael Henson’s upcoming departure. And, just this week, signs that the maestro and the musicians might be reunited. Both Vänskä and board chair Gordon Sprenger have confirmed that “negotiations” (Vänskä’s word) and “conversations” (Sprenger’s) are underway.

Will Friday’s concert or Saturday’s bring an announcement? We wouldn’t bet on it, although, as James Oestreich wrote in Wednesday’s New York Times, “to the last, the Minnesota Orchestra seems bent on confounding expectations.” Meanwhile, the steadfast citizens’ group Save Our Symphony Minnesota is encouraging everyone attending the concerts to wear blue and white – the colors of the Finnish flag – as a show of support for Vänskä’s reinstatement. SOSMN’s website lists local retailers where you can buy flags, caps, and other items, including suspenders. Blue-and-white earplugs may be in order, because the applause is likely to be thunderous and lasting.

If you don’t have Orchestra Hall tix this weekend but still want to see Vänskä, he’ll play clarinet Sunday at Ted Mann Concert Hall, joining pianist Lydia Artymiw, Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Erin Keefe, and cellist Wilhelmina Smith for a performance of Bartok’s “Contrasts,” originally commissioned by Benny Goodman. The program also includes Dvorák’s Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 26, and Brahms’ Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87. 2 p.m. Free and open to the public. First-come, first-seated. FMI.

Just out on the Swedish label BIS: the Minnesota Orchestra’s recording with Vänskä and Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24. Both were recorded at pre-renovation Orchestra Hall during June 2011 and May/June 2012. This is the second recording Vänskä and the Orchestra have made with Sudbin. The first, of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5, came out in December 2010. We stumbled on an article by Sudbin in which he describes what it was like to work with Vänskä. It’s charming. A snippet: “For a soloist, the outcome of collaborations with conductors of great stature … can also be good for the financial welfare of your shrink … Minnesota is certainly among the highest ranked orchestras in the US, where you are likely to be presented a maestro with a personality resembling a grand bazooka.” The original plan was for Sudbin, Vänskä and the orchestra to record all five of the Beethoven concertos. A third recording set for last September was canceled because of the lockout. The last we heard, Sudbin was scheduled to complete the cycle with Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta, under Vänskä.

***

The Loft has announced the 2014 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Writers. Poets/spoken word artists Sierra DeMulder, Danez Smith, Sun Yung Shin and Carolyn Williams-Noren and children’s author Molly Beth Griffin will each receive $25,000. This year’s judges were poet Nicky Finney and children’s editor Jordan Brown. The McKnight Foundation has been giving writers breathing room to write for the past 32 years, and we should all send them hand-written thank-you notes on good stationery. Past recipients include Robert Bly, Patricia Hampl, David Mura, Jack El-Hai, Pat Francisco, Kate DiCamillo and William Kent Krueger.

For you, actors: Park Square Theatre will hold auditions for select roles in the musical “The Color Purple” on Saturday, April 5, at Macedonia Baptist Church in Minneapolis. One of Park Square’s biggest musicals ever will feature the largest all-African-American cast in its history. Come prepared with eight bars of a song and a short dramatic reading (from a play, a story, or the Bible) and dressed for movement and dance. A short movement piece will be taught at the audition. A pianist will be provided. Allow one hour. Contact the theatre by email (parksquareauditions@gmail.com) to set an audition time or call the hotline (651-767-8491) on Tuesday, April 1, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Used by permission of the artist

Illustration by Eric Hanson

Minneapolis-based artist and writer Eric Hanson is the next resident in Coffee House Press’ Writers and Readers Library Residency Program. He’ll spend part of his summer as artist-in-residence at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Research and Reference Library. We’re crazy about this idea. For most writers, libraries are sacred spaces (speaking of which, MIA also has that “Sacred” exhibition going on), and the opportunity to spend tons of time in a really interesting library is a gift. So far, the program has placed poet Lightsey Darst in the Walker Art Center’s library, Carleton College professor and poet Greg Hewett in the Quatrefoil Library, poet Ed Bok Lee in the library of the American Swedish Institute, and poet Sarah Fox in the American Craft Council’s library. Hanson’s illustrations and writing have appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, McSweeney’s and the Atlantic; he has illustrated several book covers. On Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m., he’ll give a public presentation and show us his new library-inspired work in the MIA’s Friends Community Room.

Reader Scott Henry wrote to let us know that pianist Tom Chepokas died earlier this month in Cloquet at age 77. Chepokas studied piano at MacPhail, fell in love with jazz as a teen, played with the Golden Strings in the Radisson’s Flame Room, performed for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Pops concerts and Big Band series, and backed many stars who came through the Twin Cities over the years including Mel Torme, Cab Calloway, Henry Mancini and Rosemary Clooney. “Back in the days when Bob Hope and Red Skelton came to the old Carlton Celebrity Room, they would call Tom at home to book him for their shows,” Henry wrote. Chepokas and his band played the State Fair for 27 years, serving as the house band for the Amateur Talent Show. He taught music in the Edina and Robbinsdale schools. According to Henry, “If there was ever anyone more deserving of a tribute piece, Tom is the guy.” Do you remember Chepokas from the Fair, the Flame Room, the classroom or his dates with the orchestra? Leave a comment and we’ll send it on to the family.

Our picks for the weekend

davidmura.com

David Mura

Tonight (Friday, March 28) at the Loft: The Last Incantations: David Mura and Friends. An award-winning, third-generation Japanese American poet and memoirist based in the Twin Cities, Mura hasn’t published a new book of poetry since “Angels for the Burning” in 2004. In “The Last Incantations,” he harmonizes and contrasts multiple voices. Tonight’s reading celebrates that book and honors Mura’s late Aunt Ruth, whose birthday was March 28. Mura will be joined by Alexs Pate, Ed Bok Lee, Bao Phi, and Julianna Pegues. 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. 

Photo by Astrid Karger

Arditti Quartet

Tonight at MacPhail: Arditti String Quartet. Formed in London in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, this renowned quartet specializes in new music, much written especially for them. They have worked with every major composer of the past 50 years, premiered hundreds of new pieces, made 200+ recordings and received many major music prizes. They haven’t played the Twin Cities for over 20 years, which may be one reason they’re in relatively tiny but perfectly lovely Antonello Hall instead of a larger venue. They’ll play a program of music by Elliott Carter, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough and Helmut Lachenmann. English composer and Stanford professor Ferneyhough will likely be in the house; he’s here for a residency with the U of M’s School of Music. 7:30 p.m. FMI. Free and open to the public.

Guthrie Theater

Erika Lavonn and James T. Alfree in

"The Mountaintop"

Opens tonight at the Guthrie: “The Mountaintop.” Penumbra’s Lou Bellamy directs Katori Hall’s imagined account of Martin Luther King’s last night at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Winner of the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Play, this Penumbra-Arizona Theatre co-production stars James T. Alfred as King and Erika LaVonn as Camae, a hotel attendant. Through April 19 on the proscenium stage. FMI and tickets ($34-$64).

Tonight and Saturday at the Ted Mann: “I Am Harvey Milk.” For their spring concert, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus gives the area premiere of an hour-long, 12-part oratorio they co-commissioned. Written by Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (“The Addams Family,” “Big Fish”), it’s a big, passionate, moving and tragic, joyous and emotionally exhausting tribute to Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. Both Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor, and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by former supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. Lippa’s work traces Milk’s life in music and words, many borrowed from Milk, including the opening line of his famous stump speech, “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you.” With chamber orchestra, soprano soloist, baritone soloist and boy soprano, plus special guests the Minnesota Boychoir and TCGMC’s 12-man ensemble, OutLoud! 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($30-$53). Act fast if you want to see this; seating on both nights is tight.

Saturday at Heart of the Beast Theater: Be Heard MN Youth Poetry Slam Finals. After four rounds of preliminaries and two of semi-finals starting in February, six young poets between ages 13 and 19 will be chosen to represent Minnesota in the annual international Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Festival (BNV). Listen as teens express “their ideas, their passions, their pains, their histories, their hopes for the future.” 7-9 p.m. $3 students, $5 adults.

Courtesy of Gamut Gallery

"Hypocrite" by Stefani McDade

Saturday at Gamut Gallery: Opening reception for “The Lost Art,” an exhibition of drawings curated by Scott Seekins. Gamut challenged 20 artists to make a statement on something that matters to them and society at large. But they had to do it the old way: by hand-drawing with pencils, inks, markers, watercolor washes and stains – no technology allowed. A fixture on the local art scene, Seekins was the ideal curator, having nothing to do with texting, email and computers in general. The topics are controversial – racism, transgender sexuality, technology, the food system – and the prospect of viewing art created by human hands (no Photoshopping, no techy tweaking period) is actually kind of breathtaking. Reception from 7-11 p.m. Through April 24.

Sunday at the Cathedral of Saint Paul: Music for a Grand Space. Few spaces in the Midwest are grander than the great Cathedral overlooking the city of the same name. At this annual concert, the University Singers and Men’s and Women’s Choruses will perform choral music especially suited for one of the largest cathedrals in the United States. Directed by Kathy Saltzman Romey, Matthew Mehaffey, and graduate student conductors. 2:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Free will donation at the door.

All was as it used to be. The Minnesota Orchestra, under the direction of Osmo Vänskä, performed in Orchestra Hall Thursday.

The orchestra, playing the Sibelius symphonies that led to a Grammy Award, was wonderful. The audience — it appeared to be a full house — was thrilled.

Vänskä did not speak to the audience, but he bowed his appreciation and he hugged every musician in sight and later signed autographs on CDs for a long line of  music lovers.

Everybody who sought an autograph, had essentially the same comment.

“Please come back,’’ they’d say.

“We’ll see,’’ Vänskä would respond.

But it seems clear he wants to come back.

What surprised Vänskä

After the emotionally charged concert, after the autographs, Vänskä was in his studio, talking about what surprised him. It wasn’t the concert itself; it wasn’t even the warm welcome.

What surprised him most was an event earlier in the week. The players and Vänskä were starting rehearsals for the performances that will run through the weekend. Nobody really knew what to expect.

“What surprised me  was the attitude [of the musicians],’’ Vänskä said. “So much had happened over the last 16 months but to come to that first rehearsal and be ready to work, that was wonderful.’’

That let’s-get-to-work attitude is what created the unique chemistry between Vänskä and the musicians. It was that attitude and a lot of talented people that combined to create an orchestra that was considered among the elite in the U.S. and beyond, before the lockout.

No one was sure if that could be replicated after all the emotion that came with the lockout.

But the rehearsal, Vänskä said, was a hopeful sign that overcoming the loss of some key musicians and anger surrounding the lockout is possible.

“None of the other things [from the lockout] was there,’’ he said of that rehearsal. “The players and me — we’re one unit.’’

Tony Ross, the principal cellist, was making similar comments as he walked through the lobby after the concert. There’s something unique about the fit of Vänskä and the musicians.

“I’m not talking about love or even like,’’ said Ross of the musicians' relationship with Vänskä. “I’m talking about how we work together. There’s a special respect.’’

Fate of superstar Ross

Ross is a key part of the future. By mid-April, he will decide whether to stay with the orchestra or move to become principal cellist of Chicago’s Lyric Opera.

Ross is a special sort of superstar. 

When, during the lockout, the musicians put together a series of concerts, Ross took to wandering through the lobbies of the various venues, greeting those coming to the concerts and then wandering among the patrons after concerts to shake hands and to chat.

He was at it again Thursday. Ross and a handful of other musicians wandered through the newly renovated Orchestra Hall foyer before the concert, thanking people for coming. Ross returned post-concert for more time with people who buy the tickets. It’s a habit he plans to continue.

MinnPost file photo by John Whiting

Tony Ross, the principal cellist, playing a sold-out concert at John’s Episcopal Church in June 2013.

“This was an emotionally charged concert,’’ Ross said after the concert. “We knew it would be.’’

Ross wasn’t talking about the emotion of the audience, which was powerful.

He was talking about the emotions of the musicians. For at least the start of one weekend, everything was as it had been.  Rehearsals, stepping onto the stage and finally, performing.

“We put everything we have into every concert,’’ said Ross.

He doesn’t know if all orchestras have that sort of professional attitude. But this orchestra does, he said. It’s what has made it special.

Much work left to do

Off stage, of course, much remains to be done.

Leaders of the organization Save Our Symphony Minnesota were at the concert, saying this is a crucial time for the Minnesota Orchestral Association to move aggressively.

“The orchestra has a huge opportunity,’’ said Jon Eisenberg, vice president of the fan-based organization that began with the lockout. “The community is energized around the orchestra in a way that it hadn’t been for years.’‘

In the eyes of SOS leaders, Step One has happened. Michael Henson, CEO of the Orchestral Association, will be leaving officially in August, although it’s presumed he’s already a non-factor in decisions about the future.

Second step, of course, is the rehiring of Vänskä.

“That he’s been talking [to the media] is a good sign,’’ said Maryellen Jacobson, treasurer of SOS. “We need him to come back for a productive period of time.’’

Third is making sure such musicians as Ross remain.

Fourth, a number of administrative positions need to be filled.

But there will remain heavy lifting, surrounding future governance of the board.

MinnPost photo by Doug Grow

“The orchestra has a huge opportunity,’’ said Jon Eisenberg, left, with SOS treasurer Maryellen Jacobson.

“I’m most concerned about two and three years from now,’’ said  Eisenberg. “The financial health of the organization is critical.’’

Eisenberg and Jacobson believe that means a different sort of “governance’’ from the massive, 80-member board of directors.

The board, as currently constituted, is filled with rain-makers.

“Let me be clear,’’ said Eisenberg. “We love big donors. The organization needs them to survive.’’

But SOS members doubt that such a massive board can be effective in actually governing an organization or reaching out to the new audiences that must be discovered if the orchestra is to survive.

Those, though, are challenges for another day.

Mostly Thursday was a day of celebration of the return of something special.

After the concert, musicians and Vänskä seemed both tired and pleased.

It should be noted, however, Vänskä didn’t have much time to rest on his laurels. Following the concert, the maestro was in his Orchestra Hall study, working with his clarinet.

He’s performing as a “special guest’’ at a concert at Ted Mann Concert Hall at 2 p.m. Sunday with the Artymiw-Keefe-Smith Trio. He’s obviously nervous about the performance.

And then, of course, there’s his status with the Minnesota Orchestra.

“I have no announcements to make,’’  he said.

Does that mean that there are ongoing negotiations, he was asked.

“Yep,’’ he said.

Will he, won’t he return as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra? Despite speculation, no official announcement was made this weekend about Osmo Vänskä’s future, but the message from the audience and the musicians was clear and, at times, very loud: Bring back Osmo. On Friday night, the audience made its wishes known by shouting, rhythmically clapping and stamping on the new white-oak floors, waving Finnish flags and unfurling “Finnish It!” banners, all before the orchestra and Vänskä came on stage. They greeted the musicians and the maestro with a standing ovation and deafening applause, which Vänskä cut short by turning to face the orchestra. And then the musicians showed their support by playing splendidly and wholeheartedly.

Performing the fourth and first Sibelius symphonies, for which they recently won the Grammy, they gave us the emotion, precision and astonishing dynamics for which they became internationally known during Vänskä’s tenure. Although written by the same composer, the two symphonies are very different. The Fourth is the lying-awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night one, anxious and brooding and dark; the First is a radiant sunrise, the optimistic start of a new day. Principal cellist Tony Ross was outstanding in the Fourth; the question now is will he, won’t he accept the principal cello position at the Chicago Lyric Opera he has reportedly been offered? Acting principal clarinet Gregory T. Williams opened the First; as his solo soared, no doubt many in the crowd were thinking fond thoughts of principal clarinet Burt Hara, who recently decided not to return to Minnesota after a one-year leave at the L.A. Philharmonic. Vänskä, as ever, was beautiful to watch, dancing and swaying, guiding the musicians with grand and subtle gestures. As James Oestreich wrote rather drily for the New York Times, “Wow, what a job audition!”

Photo by John Whiting

Vänskä led the Minnesota Orchestra in the fourth and first Sibelius symphonies.

Was the lavish flower arrangement at the front of the stage a welcoming or congratulatory gesture by the MOA? It was not. It was a gift from the citizens’ group SOSMN, which noticed there were no flowers on stage at Thursday’s concert and promptly ordered some for both Friday and Saturday. SOSMN can also take credit for the proliferation of Finnish flags at Orchestra Hall during the weekend concerts; we’re guessing that Ingebretsen’s had a spike in sales of all things Finnish, thanks to SOSMN’s “Finnish It!” campaign.

Meanwhile, in case you haven’t heard, eight Minnesota Orchestra board members resigned Friday in response to the news that CEO and President Michael Henson will step down at the end of August. Their timing – in the midst of Vänskä’s first concerts at Orchestra Hall after the lockout, and during talks about his possible return – seemed pointed. Call it Osmosis? SOSMN, which has become the go-to group for comments on the orchestra’s endless saga, responded almost immediately with a press release saying, in part, “Save Our Symphony Minnesota (SOSMN) is disappointed to learn that eight members of the Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA) Board have resigned in protest of last week’s announcement … Nevertheless … we believe that Henson’s departure will pave the way to restoration and growth of audiences, donations and artistic excellence.”

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Past its own lockout, moving full steam ahead, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has announced its 2014-15 season. Things we wanted to know right away: Who will open the new concert hall at the Ordway, and when do we get to see violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianist Jeremy Denk make their debuts as artistic partners?

The answer to the first question is the SPCO musicians themselves. Rather than bring in a star conductor or soloist, SPCO musicians will lead and perform a series of celebratory concerts next March featuring Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony, Adams’ Chamber Symphony, Rossini’s Overture to “The Thieving Magpie,” and Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” Those dates, if you have your calendar handy: March 5 and 6. About the new hall, Kyu-young Kim, the SPCO’s principal second violin and senior director of artistic planning, is enthusiastic. “The intimacy of the space and the ability of the audience to hear every nuance of the orchestra will transform the concert experience,” Kim said in a statement, “and I’m literally counting the days until we can begin making music in the new hall.”

Kopatchinskaja’s first performances will be in November at Temple Israel, Wooddale Church, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Wayzata Community Church, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, and the Ted Mann. She’ll play music by Mozart, Mansurian, Bartók, Mendelssohn, and Schubert, and also traditional folk music accompanied by her parents, musicians Emilia Kopatchinskaja and Viktor Kopatchinsky. She’ll return in March with Bach, Ligeti and Schubert. Denk will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 and music by Charles Ives in October; in February, he’ll be back with Bach.

The other artistic partners will perform major concerts throughout the year. Roberto Abbado will open the season in September with Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth symphonies and return in April for Ravel, with Lise de la Salle at the piano. Christian Zacharias will play Mozart in October and May. Thomas Zehetmair will lead works by Mozart, Chopin and Schubert in May and perform pieces by Casken and Bach. (Edo de Waart’s tenure as artistic partner ends with the 2013-14 season.)

Abbado’s Beethovens are the start of an ambitious undertaking. From September through February, the SPCO will play all nine Beethoven symphonies in the Ordway Music Theatre, commemorating its 30 years of performing in that space. When it opens in March, the Ordway Concert Hall will be the SPCO’s new St. Paul home. Uh-oh, we’re kind of confused about the naming of these two side-by-side venues. A “Music Theatre” sounds smaller than a “Concert Hall,” but in this case, it’s not. Also, both are Ordways. We’re already thinking of them as the Big Ordway (Music Theatre) and Little Ordway (Concert Hall). Here’s where a naming deal would help to clarify things. Donors? Anyone?

Even with its new St. Paul home, the SPCO will continue going out into Twin Cities neighborhoods and suburbs, playing concerts at Temple Israel, the Ted Mann, the Capri, Trinity Lutheran in Stillwater, and other venues – 12 in all. Does any other chamber orchestra have a dozen homes?

More highlights of the SPCO’s 2014-15 season: an all-Baroque December. World premieres. And a residency at UC Berkeley in March. The SPCO will be the first chamber orchestra to participate in Cal Performances’ Orchestra Residency program, and these will be its first West Coast appearances in eight years.

Season tickets are available now. Call 651-291-1144 or visit the website. 

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If you aren’t already a regular watcher of “Minnesota Original,” TPT’s original program about the arts and artists of Minnesota, here’s a nudge. Last Sunday’s show featured musician Paul Metzger, artist Kurt Seaberg (who specializes in drawings of the indigenous Sami people of Northern Europe), actress and playwright Sun Mee Chomet (“How to Be a Korean Woman”), and the Walker’s annual Artist-Designed Mini Golf. Turns out the TV series is not only eclectic but timely. On Monday, the Walker gave us a peek at this year’s mini golf course, now expanded to 18 holes including old favorites (roaming holes, a rock-and-roll soundscape, garden gnome foosball) and new challenges (a chicken coop, an overlay of all 18 greens at Augusta National Golf Course, a hole based on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, and a rendition of Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” – a urinal). Every ticket includes free gallery admission. Starts Thursday, May 22 and runs through Monday, Sept. 1. Check the “Minnesota Original” website for air times; watch previously aired segments online.

The Textile Center in Minneapolis is seeking a new executive director. Like the Loft Literary Center, Northern Clay Center, Playwrights’ Center, and Mpls Photo Center, the Textile Center is a jewel of the Twin Cities. A place to learn and practice the fiber arts, it offers classes, presents shows and exhibitions, and serves as a home for fiber artists. It’s a respected organization on a national scale, and financially healthy. Tim Fleming has resigned to pursue other opportunities. 

And this for those who’ve been wondering about the Artists’ Quarter, closed since January 1: the Dakota has bought it. It won’t be called the Artists’ Quarter, and it will have a kitchen, which means no more bringing burgers downstairs from Great Waters.

Our picks for the week

Wednesday at the Amsterdam in St. Paul: Composer Conversation with John Luther Adams. This Thursday through Saturday, the SPCO performs Adams’ “Become River,” which he wrote for the SPCO. Come and hear him talk about it. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets (free, but required).

Wednesday at the Coffee Grounds in St. Paul: Cracked Walnut Literary Festival 2014 begins. A monthlong series of readings (poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative fiction) in all kinds of places (coffee shops, galleries, a funeral chapel, a museum) across the metro area and into greater Minnesota. Tonight, the Coffee Grounds will host Star Tribune books editor Laurie Hertzel, poet Kelly Hansen Maher, Maya Washington, Nick Metcalf, Chilli Lor, and Hawona Sullivan Janzen, who will read creative responses to the phrase “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall.” 7 p.m., 1759 Hamline Ave. N. All are free and open to the public, but if you’re at a coffee shop, it would be decent of you to buy a cup. Learn about more readings and keep up on the festival’s Facebook page.

Thursday at the St. Anthony Main Theatre in Minneapolis: Opening night of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. Film buffs wait all year for this event – more than two weeks of films from around the world. Thursday night’s gala includes a party at the Festival Pavilion across the street from the theater and a screening of “Belle,” the true story of the illegitimate, biracial daughter of a Royal Navy admiral in 18th-century Britain. (Think Jane Austen with a black Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse.) 7 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. FMI and tickets ($65-$75). Browse the complete lineup at the Festival’s excellent website. We’ll return Friday with comments on selected films; meanwhile, the Strib is providing extensive coverage in print and online.

Thursday at the U’s Continuing Education and Conference Center in St. Paul: “Of Monuments and Men: Cultural Property in Conflict.” Have you ever thought that the Elgin marbles should be returned to Greece? Or wished that some nation had saved the monumental Buddha statues in central Afghanistan from the Taliban? Should museums that unwittingly bought art looted by the Nazis have to return it to the original owners’ families? What does “cultural property” mean? Who owns the past? As part of the U’s Headliners series, law professor Stephen Cribari will lead a conversation on a fascinating topic. 7 p.m. FMI and registration ($15).

Thursday at the Minneapolis Central Library: Ron Padgett. The celebrated poet, editor and translator is the “Talk of the Stacks” guest, in honor of National Poetry Month. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Padgett has written more than 30 collections of poetry and books of prose. His latest, “Collected Poems,” is just out with Coffee House Press. Doors at 6:15 p.m. Program starts at 7. Free and open to the public; first come, first seated. Books available for sale and signing.

Courtesy of Vanessa Voskuil Performance

A scene from The Student, presented by The O'Shaughnessy and Vanessa Voskuil Performance.

Thursday and Friday at the O’Shaughnessy in St. Paul:“The Student.” A large-scale, community-inclusive music and dance theater performance event featuring some 80 local and international dancers, actors and community members, and 100 student vocalists from St. Kate’s, Hamline, and Perpich Center for the Arts. Choreographed and directed by Vanessa Voskuil, with music by award-winning composer Janike Vandervelde and sound artist Jesse Whitney of A. Wolf and her Claws. Voskuil received a 2009 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Chroeography. 7:30 p.m. both nights. FMI and tickets.

Thursday through Saturday at the Ordway in St. Paul: the SPCO with the Miró Quartet. Stephen Schick conducts Beethoven’s First; the regional premiere of “How Wild the Sea,” a new work by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts for string quartet and chamber orchestra; the world premiere of John Luther Adams’ “Become River,” written for the SPCO; and Rossini’s Overture to “The Barber of Seville.” FMI and tickets ($12-$42). 

After 20 years as artistic director of the Guthrie, Joe Dowling will step down after the 2014-15 season, the Guthrie announced late last week. The longest-tenured artistic director in Guthrie history, under whose leadership the Guthrie broadened its repertoire, worked with visiting international theater companies, collaborated with local theater companies, trained hundreds of young actors and moved into its big, blue building on the Mississippi, Dowling will direct three plays, all personal favorites: Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and Sean O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock.” Four playwrights will have their first productions at the Guthrie: A.R. Gurney, Anne Washburn, Sarah Ruhl and Mary Zimmerman. Among the other plays scheduled for 2014-15 are Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize winner “The Heidi Chronicles,” the Guthrie’s first-ever staging of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” and its 40th annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” Plays scheduled for the intimate Dowling Studio include Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy,” directed by Peter Rothstein. Subscriptions go on sale June 17.

How many prizes can an independent publisher in Minneapolis legally win? When the 2014 Pulitzers were announced yesterday, Graywolf Press was on the list – for the second time. Its book “3 Sections” by Vijay Seshadri took this year’s prize for poetry. The Pulitzer committee described “3 Sections” as “a compelling collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate and remorseless.” Born in Bangalore, India, in 1954, Seshadri has lived in the U.S. since age 5. Graywolf’s first Pulitzer was for Tracy Smith’s book of poems, “Life on Mars,” in 2012.

Also among this year’s Pulitzer winners is composer John Luther Adams, who was in St. Paul the first week of April for the premiere of his work “Become River,” which he wrote for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Maybe you saw him at the Composer Conversation April 2 at the Amsterdam. Adams won the music prize for “Become Ocean,” which was premiered in June of last year by the Seattle Symphony.

The line-ups for the cities’ biggest summer outdoor music shows, Rock the Garden (June 21-22) and the Basilica Block Party (July 11-12), are being revealed this month. Tune into 89.3 The Current at 4 p.m. today (Tuesday) to hear the Walker’s Philip Bither and the Current’s Jim McGuinn announce Rock the Garden, which has now been expanded to two days. Tickets ($59 single day, $100 two-day pass; VIP options) go on sale Thursday, April 17, at 11 a.m. exclusively to Walker and MPR members. Go here for the link to purchase tickets from Etix. (Online sales only; no phone sales.) If you’re not a member, your chances of scoring tickets are slim, and even if you are a member, you’ll have to act fast. Any remaining tickets go on sale to the general public April 19.

Courtesy of the Walker Art Center

A scene from Rock the Garden 2012.

On Thursday, April 24, the 20 bands performing at the 20th annual Basilica Block Party will be announced live on Cities 97. A limited number of presale tickets go on sale Saturday, April 26 at 10 a.m. to Cities 97 Frequent Listener Club members. General admission tix are available Saturday, May 3 starting at 10 a.m. Single-night passes are $45-$60, depending on when you buy them; two-night passes $80-$100. Tickets at the Electric fetus, Etix, or by phone at 1-800-514-3849.

Music in the Zoo has added several shows to its line-up for the summer, including Jonny Lang (June 21), Los Lobos (June 22), Taj Mahal & Mavis Staples (June 29), Marc Cohn (July 19) and “The Voice” Season 3 finalist Nicholas David (Aug. 15). Complete information here. Tickets on sale Saturday, April 26, at the Electric Fetus, the Sue McLean website and Etix.

Seems that Etix is increasingly the online ticketer of choice for many venues and promoters. As of October 2013, the company’s software could handle 2,000 transactions per second. In theory at least, Rock the Garden could sell out in five seconds.

If you’re attending tonight’s sold-out concert at Orchestra Hall – where superstar violinist Joshua Bell performs with the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä– the citizens’ group Save Our Symphony Minnesota (SOSMN) hopes you’ll wear blue and white and bring a Finnish flag to wave. Their “Finnish It!” campaign asks the Minnesota Orchestral Association board to “finish” the task of reinstating Vänskä as music director. Negotiations between MOA and Vänskä are reportedly continuing, but when and how they will end is anybody’s guess. Meanwhile, September’s Symphony Ball, the Orchestra’s main annual fundraiser, was canceled last week when the co-chairs resigned, saying the current climate at the orchestra did not lend itself to celebration.

Last year’s Symphony Ball was held when the musicians were still locked out and attendees were quickly escorted into Orchestra Hall under the watchful eyes of Minneapolis police. So we’re not entirely clear on what constitutes a sufficiently festive climate. We know, for example, that the musicians are glad to be back at work, the fans are happy to be attending concerts again, and the Minnesota Chorale, which was hit hard by the lockout, felt pretty good last week about making its first appearance on the Orchestra Hall stage since June 15, 2012, just before the hall closed for renovations. Bob Peskin, the Chorale’s executive director, had this to say: “The Minnesota Chorale is delighted to return to Orchestra Hall to perform with our friends and colleagues in the Minnesota Orchestra. As busy as the Chorale was during the lockout by presenting self-produced concerts and collaborative performances with superb ensembles, our relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra is at the heart of our work as a symphonic chorus.” We’ll celebrate that.

Do you have an idea for the arts in St. Paul? The Knight Foundation has committed $4.5 million over the next three years for fresh, exciting ideas, and they really want to give that money away. Anyone can apply; no idea is too crazy. Applications are being accepted now until May 5. Tatiana Hernandez has come to Minnesota from Knight HQ in Miami to explain how simple and non-bureaucratic the process is. She’s presenting a series of community Q&A sessions that explain the Knight Arts Challenge St. Paul in plain language, complete with insider tips. Two sessions remain: one tonight (Tuesday, April 15) at Neighborhood House at the Wellstone Center (179 Robie St. E., St. Paul), one tomorrow (Wednesday) at Penumbra Theatre (270 North Kent St., St. Paul). Both are at 6 p.m. They’re free, informative, encouraging, and they last about an hour. 

We might have to come up with an award to give Minneapolis children’s book author Kate DiCamillo, just so we don’t feel left out. After winning her second Newbery in January for “Flora & Ulysses,” DiCamillo will receive the Christopher Award on May 15. Now in their 65th year, these annual awards go to “films, TV, and books that affirm the highest values of the human spirit.” DiCamillo also currently serves as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a position at the Library of Congress … Debuting at No. 11 on this week’s New York Times bestseller list for paperback nonfiction is Leslie Jamison’s “The Empathy Exams,” published by Graywolf in Minneapolis. Graywolf just ordered the sixth printing of Jamison’s book of essays … The great Minnesota poet Robert Bly reads tonight. Check the picks below.

Photo by Michal Daniel

Ben (John Middleton), Mary (Angela Timberman), Sharon (Anna Sundberg) and Kenny (Tyson Forbes) in the Jungle's “Detroit.”

The morning after seeing “Detroit,” the dark comedy now at the Jungle, we read that Sears is dying. Just as Sears was once the place where America shopped, the neighborhood in which Lisa D’Amour’s Obie-winning play is set – a fictional first-ring suburb, not literally the city of Detroit – was once the sort of place where Americans aspired to live: safe, new, solid and comfortable. That those days are gone is evident from the first meeting between laid-off loan officer Ben (John Middleton) and his wife, Mary (Angela Timberman), and their shady new neighbors Kenny (Tyson Forbes) and Sharon (Anna Sundberg), recently moved into the dilapidated house next door. They all have secrets they’re trying to hide but desperate to share, and the tension builds as they socialize in their backyards, which the Jungle’s small size brings unnervingly close. Joel Sass directs and also designed the set, which undergoes an astonishing transformation near the end, after a Bacchanalian party scene that will burn itself into your brain. Playwright D’Amour has strong Twin Cities ties; she’s a core member of the Playwrights’ Center and recipient of Jerome and McKnight fellowships. “Detroit” runs through May 25. FMI and tickets.

On sale today: Garrison Keillor reads from his new book, “The Keillor Reader,” at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m. He’ll also take questions from the audience, then hang around to sign. “The Keillor Reader” is a collection of stories from the New Yorker and the Atlantic, monologues from “A Prairie Home Companion,” excerpts from novels and newspaper columns, poems, personal reminiscences and memorabilia. A GK sampler, if you will. $10 gets you admission to the event and a $10 off coupon for the book. Tickets at Common Good Books or the Fitz box office.

Our picks for the week

Tonight (Tuesday, April 15) at the University Club in St. Paul: Readings by Writers. Maybe because it’s National Poetry Month, St. Paul poet laureate Carol Connolly has arranged a constellation of stars for this month’s installment of the smart and popular series. Robert Bly, Louis Jenkins, Freya Manfred and Thomas R. Smith will all read from their writings and sign copies of their books. Bly’s latest, “Stealing Sugar from the Castle,” spans his remarkable career – over 60 years of poems lyrical, political, loving and raging. Louis Jenkins’ play with Mark Rylance, “Nice Fish,” was part of the Guthrie’s 2012-13 season. Freya Manfred’s most recent book is “Swimming with a Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle.” Poet Thomas R. Smith edited “Airmail: The Letters of Robert Bly and Thomas Tranströmer,” published earlier this year by Graywolf. Doors/music at 7 p.m., reading at 7:30. Free.

Tonight at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater: Café Scientifique. Presented by the Bell Museum, this monthly happy hour brings in experts for discussions about science, environment, and pop culture. Tonight’s topic: our disappearing bees. Entomologist, U of M professor, and MacArthur “genius” grant winner Marla Spivak is among many researchers who are working to discover the causes and consequences of colony collapse. Doors at 6 p.m., program at 7. FMI and tickets ($5-$12, sliding scale).

Wednesday at the Guthrie: “The Mountaintop.” The Guthrie’s proscenium stage hosts the Penumbra Theatre/Arizona Theatre co-production of Katori Hall’s play imagining Martin Luther King Jr.’s final night before his assassination. This acclaimed two-person drama stars James T. Alfred as King and Erika LaVonn as Camae, a maid who brings coffee to his room at the Lorraine Hotel. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets. Ends this Saturday, April 19.

Photo by Tim Fuller

James T. Alfred (the Rev.Martin Luther King, Jr.) in the Guthrie Theater's presentation of the Penumbra Theatre Company and Arizona Theatre Company production of "The Mountaintop," by Katori Hall.

Thursday at the St. Anthony Main Theater: “Giselle.” See the ballet Northrop chose for its grand reopening, performed by a company featured in its 2013-14 dance season. Part of the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival. 2:20 p.m. FMI and tickets ($6-$12).

Thursday at Jazz Central: Lucia Newell. The always excellent jazz singer promises an evening of songs about spring. Newell brings an easy warmth and intimacy to her performances, which nearly always include some softly swinging Brazilian rhythms. With sympatico pianist Phil Aaron. 7:30 p.m. Jazz Central is at 407 Central Ave. SE in Minneapolis, across from Aveda. Go through the door, down the hall and down the stairs. $10 suggested donation.

Thursday at the Lab Theater:“Romeo and Juliet.” Collide Theatrical Dance Company tells the old story of young love with dance, live music performed by a string quartet, and a few strategic shifts: the action moves from Renaissance Verona to contemporary Brooklyn, and the Montague-Capulet blood feud is rooted in politics. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($22-$40 VIP). Through Sunday, April 20.

Correction: An earlier version of this article had incorrect dates for John Luther Adams' visit to the Twin Cities.

Photo by Michele Spaise

Mankwe Ndosi

Twin Cities artist Mankwe Ndosi, a music-maker, performance artist, educator and activist, has won Forecast Public Art’s largest 2014 grant, the $50,000 McKnight Project Grant, to create digital soundtracks unique to the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis. They will include contributions from neighborhood residents, field recordings and her own vocal work, and will be available digitally and physically at listening posts. Ndosi calls herself “a Culture Worker — an artist using creative practice to nurture and be useful to my community, my ancestors, and my planet.” Her previous recordings include the acclaimed “Science and Spirit” (2012), a fusion of hip-hop, soul and improvisation. Other Forecast grants went to Lisa Bergh and Andrew Nordin from Rural Aesthetic Initiative, to expand the territory of their Traveling Museum; Andrea Steudel, to research how artistic lighting projects could become a permanent part of all cities’ lighting infrastructure; Mara Pelicis, to create a community-driven public-art series commemorating the 22 soldiers and veterans lost to suicide every day; and Aaron Squadroni, to research abandoned mines around his Iron Range home and create a site-specific installation of graphite drawings.

The Loft will receive a $55,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support in-house and online classes, workshops, conferences, mentorships, readings and author dialogues designed for both casual participants and writers with literary career goals. In all, 27 Art Works grants totaling $2,809,490 were given to arts organizations in Minnesota. Among the other recipients are Arts Midwest ($1,404,690), the Minnesota State Arts Board ($735,300), Cantus ($20,000), MCAD ($40,000), the Minnesota Chorale ($15,000), the Minnesota Orchestra ($40,000), Ten Thousand Things ($35,000), MPR ($47,000) and Skylark Opera ($12,500). For a complete list of all Minnesota winners and their projects, go here and click on Minnesota.

Andy Sturdevant, who writes The Stroll for MinnPost and hand-draws the maps, is the latest participant in Coffee House’s imaginativeWriters and Readers Library Residence Program. The author of “Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow,” he’ll spend time during the next two weeks at the Northeast Public Library on Central Avenue, working with the collection to create new work. On Wednesday, May 28, he’ll return to the library to report on his activities. Whatever Sturdevant takes in usually comes out in interesting ways, whether in his writings, drawings, or public conversations (he hosted the monthly Salon Saloon at the Bryant Lake Bowl, now on hiatus, from 2010-2013). City Pages just named him 2014’s Best Local Author.

We had heard that Minnesota Orchestra principal cellist Tony Ross might be leaving for a new job in Chicago. Instead, he and his wife (Beth Rapier, assistant principal cello in the orchestra) have decided to stay put. Euan Kerr reports that Ross made the announcement before a Minnesota Orchestra concert at South High School on Wednesday. (The concert was closed to the public but open to the media.) Ross told the crowd, “We decided to, I won’t say take a risk, but have faith that this orchestra will remain, as it was, world class.” Meanwhile, former music director Osmo Vänskä and the MOA are still negotiating.

Writing for vita.mn, Sheila Regan reports that Ballet of the Dolls is in trouble. Founder and artistic director Myron Johnson has been hospitalized for anxiety and stress, the two remaining productions of the 2013-14 season have been cancelled, and Michael Rainville, chair of the Dolls’ board and the Ritz Foundation, describes the financial picture as “grim.” Established in 1986 by Johnson, a choreographer, Ballet of the Dolls was the Twin Cities’ first year-round dance-theater program; it has been a fixture in the arts community ever since.

On sale today starting at 10 a.m.: author and humorist David Sedaris (“Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day”) at the State Theatre, Oct. 29. Go here or call 1-800-982-2787.

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You’ve never seen anything like “The Magic Flute” now at the Ordway. Created by director Barrie Kosky of Berlin’s Komische Oper and the radical British theatre group 1927, presented here in co-production with LA Opera, which gave the first U.S. performances in November and December of last year, it’s funny, fast-paced (even at nearly three hours, with one intermission) and visually stupendous. It’s also the most successful show in Minnesota Opera’s history.

Photo by Michal Daniel

You’ve never seen anything like “The Magic Flute” now at the Ordway.

Mixing live performances with wildly inventive projected animation, with which the singers interact, it’s part “Fantasia” and part silent film, seasoned with steampunk and old horror movies. Most of the action happens in the animation; the singers, often several feet above the ground, appear and disappear as doors open and close and small platforms rotate them on and off. The talky parts in German have been replaced with short, clever projected captions in English. Selections from Mozart’s piano sonatas underscore those transitions; some sound as if they’re being played on an old upright barroom piano. The Queen of the Night is a monstrous animated spider with a hideous head, and Papageno has a new companion: an animated black cat that drew frequent laughs from the crowd.

Mozart’s comic opera — a sometimes confusing blend of Freemasonry and Enlightenment philosophy, Egytian gods, witches, a dragon, three boys up past their bedtimes, names that sound too much alike (Tamino and Pamina, Papageno and Papagena), symbolism, ritual, silliness and magic — actually makes more sense here than in more classic versions. “Flute” is a surreal, crazy masterpiece with splendid music. The over-the-top visuals give an old favorite a powerful reboot. At the Ordway, two casts alternate in the lead roles. The night we saw it, Jesse Blumberg was a loose-limbed Papageno, Aaron Blake an elegant Tamino and Christie Hageman Conover a lovely Pamina. Conductor Aaron Breid met two challenges brilliantly: to lead his orchestra through the score and meet the timing demands of the animation. Only four performances remain, and if you want to see it, don’t delay. Wednesday, April 23 is your best bet. FMI and tickets ($20-$190).

Our picks for the weekend

Tonight (Friday, April 18) at the Parkway: “Oh What a Night.” If the Temptations, the Stylistics, the Drifters and the Dells ring a bell, this is for you. Led by Ronn Easton, some fine Twin Cities vocalists — Willie Walker, Maurice Jacox, Sonny Knight and Maurice Young — will sing sweet doo-wop and soulful R&B from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. 7 p.m. Tickets at the door or online ($18-$20). P.S. The Parkway is owned by Pepito’s, so you can bring Pepito’s food and drinks into the theater. Two words: spicy pork.

Tonight and tomorrow at the Cowles: Shapiro & Smith Dance. Last night at the Ordway, we watched a couple take selfie after selfie in the lobby, oblivious to the crowd milling around them. Tonight Shapiro & Smith premieres its newest work, “Narcissus.” It’s a dance about reflections: what we see and don’t see, what we want to see and ultimately, what is really there. So ancient, yet so now. Also on the program: a reprise of three S&S favorites “Jack,” “Dance with Two Army Blankets,” and “What Dark/Falling into Light.” Tonight’s performance includes a discussion with the artists after. 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($27-$31). Some nudity, so mature audiences please.

Saturday at Franconia in the City@Casket: Opening reception for Rollin Marquette’s “Natural Beauty.” If you saw Marquette’s “Untitled” at the Minneapolis Institute’s MAEP show, you haven’t forgotten it. The large, floating black ring took up two rooms and pierced the wall between them. It was magnificent and disturbing. Marquette’s new sculptural environment, “Natural Beauty,” is a decagonal steel chamber that almost completely occupies the gallery space. Walk inside to find yourself in a clear box engulfed in smoke. How will that feel? Claustrophobic? Mysterious? Threatening? You won’t know until you try. 6-9 p.m. Free and open to the public. Artist talk May 8 at 7 p.m.

Saturday at Studio Z: Cory Healey 4Tet. Iowa native, ex-Chicagoan and current Minneapolis resident via NYC, drummer Healey has performed with Fareed Haque, Kenu Wheeler, Dr. Lonnie Smith, John Abercrombie, David Berkman and other luminaries. At Studio Z, he and his band Jake Baldwin (trumpet), Zacc Harris (guitar) and Eric Fratzke (bass) will play an evening of Healey originals plus songs from Charlie Parker, Tony Williams, Charles Lloyd, Bob Dylan and others. Part of the Jazz at Studio Z series. 6 p.m. workshop (free), 7 p.m. show ($10).

Every day but Monday at the MIA: Matisse: Masterworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art. The largest collection of Matisse’s paintings, sculptures and prints ever assembled in Minneapolis won’t be here forever, and if you miss it, you’ll be sorry. FMI and tickets ($16 weekday/$20 weekend, free to members). Docent-led tours at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, and Thursdays at 7 p.m. Ends May 18. 

Saturday all over: It’s Record Store day at the Fetus, Cheapo, Treehouse, Hymie’s, Fifth Element, Know Name, Extreme Noise, Roadrunner and who knows where else. A big day for music lovers, with live bands and rare finds. Here’s a list of participating Minneapolis stores; here’s St. Paul; here’s the state of Minnesota; here’s Wisconsin. Dust off the turntable and bring home some vinyl.

Saturday at Orchestra Hall: Bobby McFerrin’s “Spirityouall.” McFerrin remains one of the most creative, surprising and satisfying performers we’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen him a lot. At the end of one of his shows, you feel good — not because you’ve been manipulated or sedated, but because his joy in music, in life, in communicating with the audience is infectious. In “Spirityouall,” the 10-time Grammy winner goes where the spirit leads him, from gospel songs to the Twist, Bob Dylan to “Wipeout.” The Minnesota Orchestra does not perform on this program, but McFerrin’s daughter, Madison, does. And he’s bringing a band. 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($45-$93).

Saturday at the Hillcrest Center Theater in St. Paul: “The History of Invulnerability.” You know who Superman is, but do you know where he came from? Easy answer: Krypton. More interesting answer: the imaginations of Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster. Minnesota Jewish Theater Company waited two years for the rights to David Bar Katz’s play, the story of the creation of a superhero and his rise to iconic status during the 1930s and ’40s. With Jim Lichtsheidl as Siegel, Alex Brightwell as Shuster, Dan Beckmann as Superman and Joanna Harmon as Lois Lane. 1978 Ford Parkway, St. Paul. FMI and tickets ($19-$28). Through May 11.

Photo by Janette Beckman

José James' music music is soulful, seductive, tinged with jazz (he started out as a jazz musician) and without limits

Monday at the Cedar: José James. Born and raised in Minneapolis, where he once sang at Fireside Pizza in Richfield with his high school music teacher, Denny Malmberg, James is now a citizen of the world, a Blue Note recording artist and a star in Europe who keeps reinventing himself. His music is soulful, seductive, tinged with jazz (he started out as a jazz musician) and without limits, embracing (at the moment) gospel, hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock, electronica and Moroccan Gnawa. He’s very much a global musician for today, but we can still call him one of our own. James’s next album on Blue Note, “While You Were Sleeping,” is due out June 10, and he’ll preview it for us Monday. Here’s the new single, “EveryLittleThing.” Pianist Kris Bowers, a member of James’s band with his own debut album on Concord, “Heroes + Misfits,” will open. 7 p.m. doors, 7:30 show. FMI and tickets ($20-$25).

Monday at the Trylon:“Psycho.” Movies are easier and more convenient at home, but still bigger, better and more fun at the theater. Even at 54 years old and pre- most of the special effects we’re used to seeing today, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece has the power to make you swear off showers for the near future. In the cozy little Trylon, you’ll hear your neighbors’ hearts pounding. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($8).

Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1527 - 1593, Milan. Fire, 1566.
66.5 cm x 51 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.

Europe’s longest-ruling royal family – rising in the late Middle Ages, declining at the end of World War I – the Habsburgs had the time and the money to acquire a lot of art. Paintings by Rubens, Tintoretto and Titian. Greek and Roman antiquities. Arms and armor. Court costumes and carriages. In February 2015, a major traveling exhibition titled“The Habsburgs: Rarely Seen Masterpieces from Europe’s Greatest Dynasty” will bring nearly 100 artworks and artifacts to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Most have never left Austria until now. From here, where it debuts, the show will go to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.

Key works include Caravaggio’s “The Crowning with Thorns,” a portrait of Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger, and Correggio’s “Jupiter and Io,” a jaw-dropper showing a nude Io being embraced by Jupiter in the form of a giant, menacing yet furry gray cloud. Be ready with a story to tell the kids about that one. Opens February 15, ends May 10.

A week before conducting two “Echoes of History” concerts at the newly remodeled Northrop, Osmo Vänskä will be at the Kennedy Center, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in three nights of music by Sibelius, Aho and Mendelssohn. Speaking last week with the Washington Post’s Anne Midgette, Vänskä touched on his feelings about resigning last October as the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director.

Months before, Vänskä had said he would quit if the then-unresolved lockout prevented the orchestra from performing at Carnegie Hall in November. When the orchestra’s board canceled the Carnegie dates in late September, “I wanted to give a pressure so that they could make an agreement,” he told the Post, then added, “I was very surprised that they, that the board allowed [the resignation] to happen.” And hurt? the Post asked. “Oh, yeah. Of course.”

Vänskä’s future remains uncertain. He’s still talking with the Minnesota Orchestral Association about a possible return. He continues to guest conduct around the world; the NSO concerts were already on his calendar when he left the MOA, but he has also been free to accept more last-minute dates. “There is a temptation to think about doing only guest conducting,” he told the Post, “because you don’t need to take all the headaches that the music director has to. It’s obvious that I am still living with many question marks.” As are the musicians and the audiences.

Twenty years after a split so bitter that Prince changed his name to a glyph and wrote “slave” on his face, he’s back with Warner Bros., the label he first signed with in 1977. The new deal includes a 30th anniversary “deluxe reissue” of his classic album “Purple Rain,” the release of long-awaited, previously unheard material and a new studio album, probably with his band 3RDEYEGIRL. Plus Prince will regain ownership of all the master recordings made when he was previously with Warner. “If you don’t own your masters,” he once told Rolling Stone, “your master owns you.”

Prince said in a statement, “Both Warner Bros. Records and Eye are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working relationship.” Shortly before midnight on Friday, Prince released a surprise new single, a ballad called “The Breakdown.”Listen here.

Benedict Cumberbatch – the “Sherlock” star, “Star Trek” villain and voice of Smaug the dragon – will not be attending Wizard World Minneapolis Comic Con, coming up this weekend at the Convention Center. (We’re thinking the rumors that he would attend started because Cumberbatch was booked for – and recently appeared at – the Oz Comic Con in Adelaide, Australia.) But William Shatner will be here, as will Dean Cain, Ernie Hudson, James Hong, Matt Smith (the new Doctor Who), Lou Ferrigno (Hulk!), Robert Englund, Sean Astin, and many more, plus a slew of creators, writers and artists. C.J. has a hilarious interview with Shatner. FMI and tickets ($35-$45 single day, $75 weekend, more at the door).

On Thursday, Shatner fans will also have the chance to see their staccato hero on screen in “Shatner’s World,” the film version of the one-man Broadway show Entertainment Weekly called “agreeably ramshackle.” FMI and tickets. In the Twin Cities, “Shatner’s World” will screen at the Showplace Icon in St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie 18, Brooklyn Center 20 and Rosedale 18.

Minnesota Citizens for the Arts tells us that according to a new national study, Minnesota has 13,835 arts-related businesses that employ 55,040 people– up 2,785 businesses and 2,091 people since the Legacy Amendment kicked in. Using data from Dun & Bradstreet, the study includes nonprofit museums, symphonies and theaters as well as for-profit film, architecture and design companies. “Arts businesses and the creative people they employ stimulate innovation, strengthen America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, and play an important role in building and sustaining economic vibrancy,” the study said. If you like, you can download and peruse the complete “Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts” reports here. You’ll need to create a log-in.

Also from MCA: Eight of ten of our representatives in Congress are members of the Congressional Arts Caucus. This includes six of our eight Congressional representatives – Democrats Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Rick Nolan, Collin Peterson, and Tim Walz and Republican Erik Paulsen – and both of our senators, Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar (both Democrats, they joined the Senate Cultural Caucus). Which two haven’t signed on? Republicans Michele Bachmann and John Kline.

The Rochester Art Center has received a $40,000 grant from the Jerome Foundation in support of its 3rd Floor Emerging Artist Series. Jerome has helped to fund this series since its launch in 2004. So far, 40 Minnesota artists have presented solo exhibitions at RAC. Additionally, a $5,000 grant from the Carl & Verna Schmidt Foundation will support RAC’s upcoming exhibition “Lamar Peterson: Suburbia Sublime” and accompanying programs. If you live in or near the Twin Cities and haven’t yet visited RAC, it’s a nice drive and not too far.

For artists: Applications for the Loft’s 2014-15 Mentor Series program are due by 11:59 p.m. on April 28, 2014. Now in its 35th year, the Mentor Series offers 12 writers the rare and precious opportunity to work closely with bestselling, award-winning writers in workshops, craft seminars and individual conferences, plus give a public reading. If you’re chosen, it’s free. The 2014-15 mentors are Ru Freeman and Diego Vázquez (fiction), Dani Shapiro and Kao Kalia Yang (nonfiction), and Matt Rasmussen and Patricia Smith (poetry). FMI. … The 7th annual Minneapolis Underground Film Festival (M.U.F.F.), scheduled for Oct. 2-5, 2014 at the St. Anthony Main Theater, is accepting entries in the feature film, documentary feature, experimental/avant-garde feature, music video, short film and MN-made categories. FMI.

It’s the final full week of National Poetry Month, and Thursday is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Choose a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others. Need a poem? Go here, click a pocket, and print out a PDF. Or visit a local bookstore and head for the poetry section.

***

In a metro area with more live theater than any sane person can keep track of, there’s a new theater with a new play worth seeing. Especially if you have ever wondered, “Why are there so many Hmong people in the Twin Cities?” (Minnesotans elected the first Hmong-American legislator in the U.S. Mee Moua of St. Paul served in the Minnesota Senate from 2002-2011.)

Originally from Laos, thousands of Hmong came here after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975. During the Vietnam War, when they were trained, funded and armed by the U.S. government, they fought a secret guerrilla war against the Communists; after the Americans withdrew, hundreds of thousands tried to escape the massacres and re-education camps.

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Gregory Yang and Song Kim in “The Shadow War”

American playwright Amy Russell was a child in Laos during the war. A play that began in her memories and took shape over four years, with help from the Hmong community and Hmong actors including Sandy’Ci Moua, “The Shadow War” combines Hmong, Lao and American perspectives on the war, giving us glimpses into the complexities, loyalties, politics, and immense human costs of a conflict most of us know little or nothing about. It’s a play produced on a shoestring and presented on a mostly bare stage; each of the five actors plays four or five roles, and the scenery consists of shadow puppets and images projected on a white backdrop. The story and the passion of the actors draw you in.

Last Friday’s performance was followed by a talkback with Russell, the cast, We Theater founder Teresa Mock, a Hmong veteran who served in Laos, and dramaturge Lee Pao Xion, who told the mostly Hmong audience, “I was one of those kids that got on one of those planes in Long Tieng [the CIA-operated military base] … When the plane landed, it kept taxiing and Dad pushed us on.” Many in the audience brought their young children. “The Shadow War” continues through this Sunday, April 27, at the Wellstone Center. FMI and tickets ($10-$15; tonight only, Tuesday, it’s pay what you can).

Our picks for the week

Tonight (Tuesday, April 22) at Northrop: Trey McIntyre Project. After two years on Hennepin, the Northrop Dance Series has officially moved back home. Meanwhile, the Trey McIntyre Project has announced that it will end its full-time dance company to pursue new artistic projects. So this performance is both hello and good-bye. “Mercury Half-Life” is set to the music of Queen, “The Vinegar Works: Four Dances of Moral Instruction” is inspired by the work of Edward Gorey, who loved the ballet (and cats, and books). 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($40-$60; free for U of M students).

Wednesday at the U of M and Carleton College (and probably other places, too): Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday. Forsooth, the Bard is a very old dude! Celebrate his birthday at the U outside Murphy Hall on Church Street from 4-6 p.m. with live music, food, and special guests. Theatre arts and English students will perform their favorite scenes, readings, sword fights, sonnets and songs. Share your own tales about Shakespeare at the open mic. If you’re near Northfield, stop by Room 172 of the Carleton’s Weitz Center for Creativity on 3rd St. E. two blocks south of the campus for performances, displays and refreshments. Both events are free and open to the public.

Wednesday at the Black Dog: Poetry About Food & Sex. An attention-getting title for a poetry reading, for sure. Celebrate National Poetry Month with performances by poets, activists and storytellers Robert Karimi, May Lee-Yang, Jessica Lopez Lyman and Chaun Webster. The Black Dog promises “special aphorodisiac surprises” on its menu. 7:30 p.m. No cover, donations accepted.

Wednesday at the Regis Center for Art (East): Public reception for the new exhibition “The Enduring Spirit of Labor.” Organized by Anna Meteyer, an undergraduate senior at the U majoring in global studies and studio art, this show speaks to injustices rampant in labor industries and celebrates the struggle against systemic forces of injustice. Much of the art shares two common themes: the underlying social, political and economic systems that maintain injustice in labor industries, and the detrimental effects of hardening, mechanized work on the human psyche. Featured artists include David Bacon, Rachel Breen, Meteyer, and Xavier Tavera. Public program on art and activism with the curators and artists at 6 p.m., reception from 7-9. Free and open to the public. The exhibition continues through May 3.

Courtesy of the Regis Center for Art

Xavier Tavera, Stone Worker, 2014 Digital photo, inkjet print 35 x 35 in.

Thursday at the Dakota: Evan Shinners. Bach is not old music. Bach is about the newest music there is, especially when performed by someone like recent Juilliard grad Shinners. His playing is joyous, fearless and infectious. (We’re reminded of something Bobby McFerrin said Saturday night at Orchestra Hall: “We’re musicians, and we play for a living.”) Here’s Shinners performing Bach’s “French Overture” on two pianos, because Bach wrote it for a harpsichord with two manuals. He also reportedly tells stories and sings songs. 7 p.m. (one show only). FMI and tickets ($20).

Thursday and Friday at the Hopkins Center for the Arts: Art Spiegelman. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Holocaust narrative “Maus” – told as a graphic novel with Jews as mice and Nazis as cats – artist and illustrator Spiegelman has been a major force in changing how the public perceives comic books. He appears not at Comic Con but at the Pen Pals Author Lecture Series, a ticketed series benefiting the Friends of the Hennepin County Library. What could a cartoonist possibly have to say? We heard Roz Chast last year in this series and she was fascinating. Friday at noon, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($40-$50).

Osmo Vänskä will return as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra on May 1.

On one hand, the word today that the Minnesota Orchestral Association’s board of directors and Vänskä have reached agreement on a two-year deal ends the long labor saga that started Oct. 1, 2012, when the board locked out musicians.

It ends with musicians receiving half the pay cut that was being demanded by the board. It ends with chief executive Michael Henson out the door (at the end of the summer). It ends with Vänskä back.

A new series of challenges

But it’s far too early to determine winners and losers. All parties face a whole new series of challenges.

Clearly, the fan base supported Vänskä and will be cheered by his return. But will those fans, who waved Finnish flags when he was the “guest conductor" for a concert in late March, buy tickets into the future?

Even more important, the board  has been split over the lightning rod of this whole labor dispute, Henson. Several members of the board left when Henson was forced out on March 20 by a majority of the board. Board members are the big revenue producers for the orchestra. Presumably, the departure of several board members  means the loss of big dollars.

Hard work ahead

Can new donors be found? Will other donors, who supported the hard line once so enthusiastically espoused by Henson, stop writing big checks?

Finally, it will be hard for the orchestra to return to its position of excellence. Key musicians have left. The new contract calls for a smaller body. With Vänskä back, expectations may prove absurdly high.

Still, the return of Vänskä offers hope that an institution that was pulled apart might have a chance at being put back together. 

ragamala.net

Ranee Ramaswamy

The warm spotlight of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards shone brightly on Minnesota earlier this week, when four artists with connections to the state were named winners of the prestigious and generous award. Emily Johnson, founder and artistic director of Catalyst Dance, Ragamala Dance founder and co-artistic director Ranee Ramaswamy, and jazz pianist Craig Taborn, who now lives in New York but grew up in Golden Valley, each received the 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, a largely unrestricted grant of up to $275,000. Open Eye Figure Theatre co-founder and puppet-maker Michael Sommers received the Doris Duke Impact Award, worth up to $80,000. This is the first time since the awards began in 2012 that Minnesotans have been among the winners.

The Doris Dukes are unique among awards given to artists. They are not lifetime achievement awards or “genius” grants, but investments in the potential of individual artists, with an emphasis on saving for the future. Their focus is on contemporary dance, jazz and theatre. Read more about the awards and the winners here. In May at the Walker, we’ll see two Doris Duke winners on the Walker’s stage at the same time when Ragamala Dance debuts its new work, “Song of the Jasmine,” a collaboration with jazz musician and 2013 Artist Award winner Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Big news for a whole lot of music fans: The Replacements will play Midway Stadium in St. Paul on Saturday, Sept. 13. That’s 23 years after their last hometown gig (in 1991) and shortly before Midway comes tumbling down. (The St. Paul Saints are getting a new stadium in Lowertown.) The Current’s Andrea Swensson has written a blog post with everything you need to know about this event, which will be talked about nonstop before and after. Tickets ($50) go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 3 at eTix, the Midway box office, and the Depot Tavern at First Avenue.

And, speaking of big music news: Starting May 1, Osmo Vänskä will return as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. See Doug Grow's Thursday story here and my article on reactions to the news here.

Gov. Mark Dayton has proclaimed next Saturday, May 3, “Pete Seeger Day.” That would have been Seeger’s 95th birthday; the great folksinger and activist died in January. Minnesota will celebrate with “For Pete’s Sake,” a festive event at the Fitz. Structured like “a folk opera in two acts,” it will include live music and readings of Seeger’s written works. Among the parade of performers scheduled to appear are Robert Robinson, Prudence Johnson, Estaire Godinez, John Gorka, Chastity Brown, Peter Ostroushko, Tonia Hughes, Aimee Bryant, Tony Glover, Mitch Walking Elk, Dale Connelly, Louis Alemayehu, Sharon Sayles Belton, Rhiana Yazzie, Ann Bancroft, Scarlett Lopez Cruz and Hector Lopez. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($30). Proceeds benefit the Park Avenue Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School in south Minneapolis.

Mark Moran

What’s that old painting, quilt, vase, toy, clock, chair or weathervane really worth? Have an antique professionally appraised for free by Mark Moran, guest expert on “Antiques Roadshow.” He’ll be at two St. Paul public libraries in May, and if you want your time with him, pre-registration is required. (Walk-ins may be allowed, but don’t count on it.) Thursday, May 8, 4-8 p.m. at West 7th Library; Sunday, May 18, 1-5 p.m. at Hayden Heights Library. FMI.

For artists: Here’s your chance to fill a street-facing vacant window in downtown Minneapolis with your creative work. Led by Hennepin Theatre Trust, “Made Here” is making the Minneapolis Cultural District – stretching from the Walker and the Sculpture Garden to the Mississippi riverfront – more colorful, lively and inviting. “Made Here” has issued an open call to artists, with applications due Monday, May 13. Here are the deets.

Not to nag, but: (1) This Saturday (April 26), thousands of people in 11 American metro areas including Minneapolis-St. Paul will grab their smartphones and video cameras and head out to film “One Day in the Twin Cities,” part of a nationwide media event. Participation is free, and your video could end up on TV. FMI here and here. (2) If you have an idea for the arts in St. Paul, you have 10 more days to apply for the Knight Arts Challenge and some of the $4.5 million the Knight Foundation has committed to this program. Applications (just 150 words) are due by 11 p.m. Monday, May 5. One thing we learned from a Q&A session we attended earlier this month: Most applications come in at the last minute. Sending yours sooner might improve your chances. FMI here and here.

On sale now: Love “The Voice” on TV? See top finalists and past stars at Mystic Lake on July 17. Confirmed so far: Tessane Chin, Jaquie Lee, Will Champlin, Dia Frampton and this season’s winner, runner-up and third-placer. 8 p.m. Tickets here ($59-$69). Coming to Mystic Lake Aug. 9, not yet on sale: American Idol Live 2014… Due at the Dakota: Diane Schuur on June 24 ($30, $40), Nels Cline and Julian Lage on July 1 ($25, $35).

Our picks for the weekend

There’s so much going on this weekend that we hardly know where to begin. To cram in more choices, we’ll try to keep the descriptions short, which runs counter to our nature but there it is. Follow the links FMI.

All day today (Friday, April 25) and into the night at the University of St. Thomas O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library: Emily Dickinson 1,789-Poem Marathon. At 8 a.m. this morning, someone started reading Emily Dickinson’s poem No. 1. Sometime between 9 and 10 tonight, someone will read No. 1,789. Anyone who shows up can join the circle of readers. 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Free and open to the public. FMI.

Tonight: MinnRoast. MinnPost’s annual whoop-de-do and fundraiser features headliner Lizz Winstead (co-creator of “The Daily Show”) and willing participants Gov. Mark Dayton, Sen. Al Franken, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, U of M President Eric Kaler, vocalist Erin Schwab, Tesfa Wondemagegnehu and VocalEssence, K-TWIN’s B.T., former state Sen. Amy Koch, and more. At Rock Bottom Brewery and the State Theatre. Pre-show reception at 5:30, show at 7:30.

Tonight through Sunday: Spring 2014 Saint Paul Art Crawl. Over 300 artists will display and sell their original artwork at 28 building locations throughout the city, mostly in Lowertown. Some 25,000 people are expected to attend. Now in its 23rd year, the Crawl isn’t only about buying and selling; it’s also about music (more than 50 acts), dance, poetry, parades, eating, drinking, and participation. New this year: five busking stations, free to all performers on a first-come, first-served basis. A beer-themed art exhibit. Art on baseballs (at Union Depot). An “Art in Architecture” tour of the Rossmor Building. Free pedicab and Metro Transit bus rides. And passports that earn prizes. 6-10 p.m. Friday, 12-8 p.m. Saturday, 12-5 p.m. Sunday. Free.

Saturday in Uptown: The new Walker Library opens with a celebration starting at 9 a.m. Spacious, sunny, and (thankfully) above ground, the $12 million, 15,000-square-foot library on the northwest corner of Hennepin and Lagoon was developed with help from a community advisory committee. Remarks and ribbon-cutting will be followed by music and activities. 2880 Hennepin Ave. S.

Photo by Jimmy Katz

Miguel Zénon will appear with the JazzMN Orchestra on Saturday.

Saturday at Hopkins High School: Miguel Zénon and the JazzMN Orchestra. The prodigiously talented young Puerto Rican jazz musician, a multiple Grammy nominee and MacArthur “genius” grant winner, has mined the music of his native land to make some of the most beautiful albums released in the past several years. JazzMN founder and director Doug Snapp says, “The music … is nothing like you’ve ever heard performed by a jazz orchestra before … Zénon’s playing just sings over the top of the band.” He’ll join JazzMN for the second part of the final concert of its 14th season. The first part will feature standards and vocalist Debbie Duncan. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($18-$30, more at the door).

Saturday and Sunday: Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour. The popular annual Home Tour invites you into people’s homes to see their additions, renovations and remodeled rooms. This year’s 53 homes include old, new, large and small in various neighborhoods. The owners (and contractors, architects, and tradespeople) are around to answer questions. You can pick up a printed guide at local libraries. Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 1-5 p.m. Free.

Saturday and Sunday at the Capri: “Where Is the Love? A Salute to Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack.” Music writer and Hathaway fan Michael Anthony sent these words our way: “Donny Hathaway’s premature death in 1979, ruled a suicide, brought an untimely silence to one of the most distinctive and sensual voices in American popular music. But Hathaway’s many recordings, including those with Roberta Flack like the Grammy-winning hit single ‘Where Is the Love?’ remain a welcome part of the soundtrack of our lives. Two excellent singers, Aimee K. Bryant and Julius Collins III, backed by the multi-talented Sanford Moore, will pay tribute to Hathaway and Flack in two concerts at the Capri Theater (2027 W. Broadway) this weekend: 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday.”FMI and tickets ($25).

Sunday at Bethel’s Benson Great Hall:“Tchaikovsky for Voices.”VocalEssence ends its 45th season with a big, romantic bang. Three hundred voices – VocalEssence, the Bethel Choir, the Gustavus Choir, Luther College Nordic Choir, and the University of St. Thomas Chamber Singers – will join in singing Tchaikovsky’s “The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.” Plus each college choir will sing a solo set. And MPR’s Steve Staruch will host a pre-concert conversation. 3 p.m. FMI and tickets ($20-$40).

Sunday at Macalester’s Weyerhaeuser Chapel: A celebration of poetry hosted by Garrison Keillor, and the announcement of the winners of “Love Letters,” the second annual Common Good Books Poetry Concert. Someone will win $1,000 – for a poem! Imagine that! 1:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Monday at Christ Church Lutheran: Accordo. Minnesota’s chamber supergroup turns five and ends its fourth season with a program of music by Schumann, Shostakovich and Dvorák. With Ruggero Allifranchini & Kyu-Young Kim, violins; Rebecca Albers, viola; Anthony Ross, cello; and Mihae Lee, piano. Stay after for a birthday-style party with sweet treats. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($12-$25).

Monday at the Dakota: Joe Lovano Us Five. Grammy winner, educator, composer and innovator, saxophonist Joe Lovano is a genial giant of modern jazz. When he plays the Dakota on Monday, there should be a line out the door and around the block. This is 2014, so there won’t be, but if you have the slightest interest in jazz, don’t miss this. Us Five features two drummers, which is pretty darned exciting. 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. FMI and tickets ($40 and $25). 

For those following the long, agonizing story of the Minnesota Orchestra, Thursday’s news was a thunderbolt: Osmo Vänskä had his old job back. The Minnesota Orchestral Association board, or enough of the board, had voted to reinstate him as music director.

Doug Wright, the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal trombone and a member of the musicians’ negotiating committee, was as surprised as the rest of us. “I did not know this was coming,” he told MinnPost later that day. “I knew the vote was coming, and I was hopeful, but I really didn’t know where it was heading.

“The last two years have been a hell of a roller-coaster ride,” Wright said, “with lots of ups and downs. Over the past couple of months, that has intensified to some degree. But I was always hopeful this day was going to come.”

Under the terms of a new two-year agreement, Vänskä will begin May 1. He will lead at least 10 weeks of concerts during each of the next two seasons, 2014-15 and 2015-16, which are now in the planning stages. He'll accept the same 15 percent reduction in compensation the musicians agreed to.

Musicians 'truly excited,' MOA 'delighted'

The musicians issued their statement shortly before the MOA did: “The musicians are truly excited by the board’s decision to bring back Osmo as Music Director. This is a major step in rebuilding the trust and collaborative spirit within our organization as well as with our community. We very much look forward to further collaboration with Osmo, our Board, and our community to continue to build upon the Minnesota Orchestra’s 110-year legacy of artistic excellence.”

Speaking through the MOA’s official statement, board chair Gordon Sprenger said, “Osmo Vänskä led the Minnesota Orchestra to great heights during his previous tenure as music director, and we are happy to be able to reunite Osmo and the Orchestra to deliver outstanding musical performances for our community and to extend their celebrated musical partnership. We are delighted he is back.”

Vänskä said, “I am very pleased to have this chance to rebuild the Vänskä/Minnesota Orchestra partnership, and I look forward to getting back to music-making with the players and together re-establishing our worldwide reputation for artistic excellence.”

Wright and Vänskä texted back-and-forth on Thursday. “I believe he’s thrilled,” Wright said of Vänskä. “I think he’s really excited and ready to get to work immediately.”

Photo by John Whiting

Minnesota Orchestra principal trombonist Douglas Wright: “The last two years have been a hell of a roller-coaster ride. But I was always hopeful this day was going to come.”

It’s a bit early for reflection, but we asked Wright what he thought had made this outcome possible. There were many times – during the 16-month lockout and after, as board members battled, several resigned, and the Symphony Ball was canceled – when it seemed that matters could only get worse.

“I’m guessing that the board ultimately saw this as the best, if not the only, avenue toward success,” Wright mused. “Osmo is our artistic leader. He is clearly sought after by the community. The entire music world has been clamoring for this day. He’s our biggest ticket seller and one of our greatest fundraisers. All of these things add up to – this is what we’ve got to do.”

SOSMN calls for community contributions

The citizens’ group Save Our Symphony Minnesota (SOSMN), a steadfast, articulate supporter of the orchestra and originator of the “Finnish It!” campaign that brought Finnish flag-waving audiences to Orchestra Hall in recent weeks, also issued a statement Thursday afternoon:

We believe that the return of Maestro Vänskä as Music Director will foster healing of the organization’s relationship with its constituencies, will increase ticket sales and donations, and will help restore the orchestra’s international reputation. SOSMN looks forward to working with MOA on this restoration and calls upon the audience, donors and community to support the Minnesota Orchestra through the challenges ahead.

MinnPost spoke with SOSMN’s Mariellen Jacobson. “Restoring Osmo to his position as music director was essential,” she said. “We’re very happy that has taken place, and we’re expressing our thanks to the board for approving this move today. We are also calling upon our constituents – audience and donors – to make their appreciation known by making a contribution right away.”

By 5:30 Thursday afternoon, this status was posted on SOSMN’s Facebook page:

Remember how we flooded the MOA’s ticketing system back in January when the lockout was ended? Let’s flood their ‘giving’ system now to express our thanks to the Board for rehiring Osmo Vanska! If all 11,765 of us gave only $10 the impact would be mighty. But some of us can give $50 or $100 or $500 or more. Join the groundswell already started by SOSMN Leaders this afternoon! And be sure to add a personal message of thanks on the ‘checkout’ page at the end of your transaction.

Two years is a very short time to repair an orchestra that has been badly damaged. So SOSMN isn’t shutting down anytime soon.

More to be done

“We’re continuing," Jacobson said, “and we want to help fix things that need to be fixed. Governance changes still need to be made. Rebuilding the audience, rebuilding the donor base, getting tickets sold – all of those things are important. We’re here to help out in any way we can. We can’t be in the same financial crisis two years from now, or it has all been in vain.”

Donations, ticket sales, listeners in seats. That’s what the orchestra needs from the community, starting now. For Vänskä, who clearly considers the Minnesota Orchestra his own — anyone who attended his farewell concerts in October 2013 saw the pain on his face and heard it in his voice, when he asked the audience for silence — reinstatement must feel like victory tempered by sorrow. Like returning home after a hurricane, or a terrible fire. Your house needs major repairs, but it’s solid and standing. The neighborhood is mostly still there. You’re relieved and a bit giddy. Then you roll up your sleeves and, as the Maestro would say, get to verk. 

The numbers are in for “The Magic Flute,” which ended the Minnesota Opera’s 2013-14 season on Sunday. The most successful show in the opera’s history — a new staging created by Komische Oper Berlin and the British theater group 1927, featuring projected animations and a silent-film theme — ran for nine performances (one more than the previous record-breaker, “La Bohème” in 2010) and sold 15,413 tickets. Revenues, which had been forecast at $845,000, exceeded $950,000. On average, the Ordway was at 97 percent capacity. For the final performance, even standing room sold out. All this for an opera that’s not usually among the top sellers, which typically include “Bohème,” “Butterfly,” “Carmen,” “Traviata,” and “Turandot” (which closed the opera’s 2012-13 season and sold just under 13,000 tickets). “It’s really gratifying to end a season like that,” Minnesota Opera’s Lani Willis told MinnPost. “Both of the last two seasons have ended on – pardon the pun – a high note. People have left feeling satisfied and happy.”

The New York Times has been following our Minnesota Orchestra woes almost as closely as local media. Maybe more closely, since it's the one that broke the news Sunday of the romantic relationship between newly reinstated music director Osmo Vänskä and concertmaster Erin Keefe. The Times reported in November that Keefe was playing concerts with the New York Philharmonic and was being considered for the position of concertmaster there. The Times reminded us that she’s auditioning. Will she stay, or will she go?

The personal relationship was part of Vänskä’s discussion with the Minnesota Orchestra’s board during the negotiations for his return. Gordon Sprenger, orchestra board chair, said in a statement, “Osmo was open with the board regarding his relationship with Erin Keefe.” He needed to be, because at the Minnesota Orchestra, like most major orchestras, the music director and committees of musicians make the decisions about hiring and advancing individual players. In a statement released to MinnPost on Monday, MOA board leadership offered this clarification: “If a conflict of interest exists with regard to any of these issues, the individual with the conflict steps aside, as Osmo Vänskä has indicated he will do in any decisions relating to the concertmaster’s status. Instead, these decisions will be made collectively between the musicians and the Association.”

Vänskä told the Times that he would avoid taking part in any decisions relating to Keefe’s status; Keefe declined to comment. Predictably, others couldn’t resist. There are plenty of comments at the Strib, if you care to dip your toe into that murky pool. Meanwhile, although we enjoy love stories as much as the next person, we’re more interested in what the new season will bring. What will the orchestra play? Who will be the guest performers and conductors? As the Times noted, most major American orchestras announce their seasons in February. Now that they’re back together, Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra will have to hit the ground running.

Northern Clay has announced the recipients of the 2014 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grants. Margeaux Claude of Coon Rapids, Matthew Krousey of St. Paul, and David Swenson of Minneapolis was each awarded $6,000 for projects that include implementing a design studio (Claude), creating a tile-based body of work (Krousey), and making modular dinnerware using a 3-D printer he’ll build himself (Swenson). The Ceramic Artists Project Grant program is now in its 24th year.

Courtesy of Northrop

Osnel Delgado Wambrug

Cuban choreographer Osnel Delgado Wambrug has been chosen as the 2014 McKnight International Artist, Northrop and McKnight announced earlier this month. The program provides a Minnesota residency for an international choreographer to work with Twin Cities dance artists to develop and showcase new works. This year’s residency will be cohosted with Zenon Dance Company, for whom Delgado Wambrug will create a new work to be premiered at the Cowles Center November 21-30 of this year. He’ll be here for two weeks in August and again for a week in November, during which he’ll teach classes in Cuban dance at the Zenon Dance School.

Mu Performing Arts’ 2014-15 season, announced last week, includes two world premiere plays, classics from the Asian-American canon, and a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Highlights include the world premiere of “Middle Brother,” written by and starring longtime Mu performer Eric Sharp (“Yellow Fever”), opening Sept. 12 at the Southern; the return of “A Very Asian Christmas Concert” on Nov. 29-30; the Obie-winning play “F.O.B.” by David Henry Hwang (Jan. 30-Feb. 15, 2015, at Mixed Blood); a collaboration with the History Theatre on their world premiere of “The Debutante’s Ball” by Eric “Pogi” Sumangil (March 21-April 12); and the aforementioned “Twelfth Night” (May 29-June 21), Mu’s first foray into Shakespeare since 2006. Discounted season subscriptions ($100) are on sale now through May 4. FMI.

Our picks for the week

Tonight (Tuesday, April 29) through Thursday at the Film Society’s St. Anthony Main Theater: “The Unknown Known.” Oscar-winning director Errol Morris (“The Fog of War,” “The Thin Blue Line”) has created a chilling and fascinating portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, former congressman, adviser to four Presidents, twice secretary of defense and a key architect of the Iraq War. Here’s the trailer. In Rumsfeld’s words, “Everything seems amazing in retrospect.” Four showings daily. FMI and tickets ($5-$8.50).

Wednesday at Jazz Central: Kevin Gastonguay Quartet. Wednesday is International Jazz Day, a big deal on the world stage. The United Nations has issued new postage stamps in honor of the occasion, and Osaka will host a star-studded concert to be webcast worldwide. Here in Minnesota, the Artists’ Quarter has been closed since Jan. 1, and the Dakota was originally scheduled to present Lisa Marie Presley (she has now been postponed until sometime in 2015), but there’s jazz in many other places, if you know where to look. Jazz Central now features five nights of jazz every week. For tonight’s New Music Wednesday, keyboardist and composer Kevin Gastonguay leads a fine quartet including Zacc Harris on guitar, Greg Schutte on drums and Andrew Germann on bass. 8:30-11 p.m., 407 Central Ave. SE, Minneapolis (across from Aveda). Donations accepted.

Thursday at the Westminster Town Hall Forum: Cantus: “The Power of Music.” Based in Minneapolis, the nine-member men’s vocal ensemble is a treasure. This event will be more concert than presentation; after the performance, pianist and former radio host Stephanie Wendt will facilitate a talk with Cantus members on the power of music to heal, transform, and celebrate the human spirit. 7 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Free and open to the public. Arrive early to get a good seat and to hear choral groups from the high schools of St. Michael-Albertville and Andover starting at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday at the Mall of America: If you can’t attend Minneapolis Comic Con this weekend, you can still eyeball the Hulk (Lou Ferrigno), Tommy Oliver of “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” (Jason David Frank) and Merle Dixon, the much-lamented redneck of “The Walking Dead” (Michael Rooker) in person. They’ll be at the Mall for Q&A sessions and on-site giveaways for photo ops and tickets. 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Rotunda.

Thursday at Subtext: Gerald Vizenor. An enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the award-winning novelist, screenwriter and poet will read from his new novel, “Blue Ravens,” about Native American soldiers in World War I. He’ll also dip into his new collection of haiku written over the past 40 years, “Favor of Crows.” 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Thursday at the Walker: “Free Verse: Michael McClure.” Poet, playwright, songwriter and novelist McClure was one of five poets (including Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder) who read at the San Francisco Six Gallery in 1955, an event later immortalized in Jack Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums.” Like Snyder, who read for Plymouth Congregational’s Literary Witnesses series in 2011, McClure is a Beat who writes about nature. 7 p.m. in the Walker Cinema. Free and open to the public.

Thursday through Sunday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Art in Bloom. After an endless winter and days of rain, there’s no such thing as too many fresh flowers. Thousands will be on display at Art in Bloom, presented by Friends of the Institute and now in its 31st year. Get in free, then enjoy more than 150 floral displays inspired by works of art in the MIA’s collection.

Courtesy of Frank Theatre

The cast of “The Threepenny Opera” at the Southern

Thursday through Sunday at the Southern: “The Threepenny Opera” presented by Frank Theatre. “Who is the bigger criminal, the man who robs a bank or the man who founds a bank?” Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill asked that question in 1928. We’re still asking it today. Starring Bradley Greenwald as Macheath, with Janis Hardy, Gary Briggle, and Vern Sutton as the street singer, Frank’s take on this timeless satire is winning raves. If you ever wondered where the song “Mack the Knife” came from, here’s your answer. Directed by Wendy Knox, musical direction by Sonja Thompson, choreography by Wynn Fricke. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. FMI, video, and link to tickets here ($23-$25).

Friday through Sunday at the Cowles: James Sewell Ballet’s “Inferno.” Amber Tritabaugh of Theoroi, a young professionals’ group sponsored by the Schubert Club, wrote this preview for MinnPost: “The ‘Inferno’ is a ballet? Isn’t it a 14th-century epic Italian poem? Yes and yes. A tour of hell seems like an unusual choice for a ballet. Yet the story is not only a landmark cultural reference, but universal: a man in the middle of life is shown what it all means. City Pages described the James Sewell production as ‘dark, funny and thought provoking.’ Humor will be welcome in a travelogue that greets visitors with ‘Abandon All Hope, You Who Enter Here.’ City Pages also said viewers should expect an ‘immersive video environment.’ ... I look forward to seeing this old story in a new setting.” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. FMI and tickets ($30/$36). Please note that “Inferno” is rated R because of graphic depictions of sex and violence. It is Hell, after all.

When the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra took the stage at Northrop on Friday for “Echoes of History,” the crowd went wild. When freshly reinstated Music Director Osmo Vänskä followed shortly after, walking briskly to the podium, the applause would have gone on and on, except Vänskä wouldn’t allow it. After a big smile and a brief bow, he turned, raised his baton, and went to work.

Past, present and future met in a glorious concert in a splendid new space. The program was the same as the then-Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra played when Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium first opened in 1929: Wagner’s Prelude to “Die Meistersinger,” the Largo from Dvorák’s “New World” symphony, Liszt’s “Les Preludes,” Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture. All warhorses now, but still mighty, and well suited to an event conceived in desperate circumstances. When “Echoes of History” was announced last November, the musicians were locked out, Vänskä had resigned in frustration, and the musicians were producing their own concerts. With the lockout over and Vänskä officially returned as of May 1, most of the drama was back where it belongs: in the music, not behind the scenes. There’s still a lot to be done and not much time before the current contracts end (the musicians’ in Feb. 2017, Vänskä’s in May 2016), but there is reason to hope that the orchestra can rebuild and the audience can grow.

A big part of the newly revitalized Northrop is the state-of-the-art acoustics. So, how did the concert sound? We were especially taken by the quietest parts of the Dvorák – moments of radiant, limpid beauty, hushed and quivering – and the (digital) cannon booms in the Tchaikovsky. And the U of M choirs and marching band. And the fact that we could hear all the sections of the orchestra, and single notes from William Wolfram’s piano during the Liszt piano concerto, even when there were a lot of notes pouring out of it (this was Liszt, after all). To our ears, it sounded great. But what do we know? We turned to the real expert behind the Northrop’s sound, acoustician Joshua Cushner of Arup, the global company behind the Sydney Opera House, the Beijing Olympics, the Concert for Diana and concert halls around the world. 

Cushner has been involved with the Northrop redo since 2008, through design and construction. “We provided the acoustics, all the performance sound, video, and communication systems, and some of the architectural lighting design as well,” he explained when we spoke on Saturday. Plus theater consulting, which involves “everything from planning layouts to designing the room form itself for sightlines and technical.”

MinnPost: Where were you sitting on Friday, and how did it sound?

Joshua Cushner: I was sitting in the President’s Box. First balcony, side box on house left. Those seats, as in any hall when you’re in a side box, are cool seats but never acoustically the best seats. I like to be more toward the center. 

I thought the sound was great. You could hear the orchestra over the course of the night getting a sense of the hall. They rehearsed without an audience. A micro-adjustment happens once the hall fills with people. As the show went on, [the musicians] got more and more feel for the room. 

MP: What would you say are the best seats in the new Northrop? 

JC: Some of the acoustically best seats are more toward the center. The orchestra level, the lowest level, is great. Any of the balconies in the center are fantastic. I personally think the best for a performance like this is probably the second balcony. It’s sort of a sweet spot in the room between getting the blended sound from the orchestra and what the room is acoustically producing. If you’re going to pick seats for their acoustics, those would be the premium seats in my book. But different people like different flavors of steak. 

MP: What were you listening for?

JC: One of the key things I listen for is the togetherness of the entire orchestra, that you’re not hearing anything disparate, but the sound as the full organism. After that, you’re looking for some sense of envelopment, the sound that’s surrounding you. That’s the characteristic of a good hall. But you can have too much envelopment, where you lose clarity and it gets too reverberant. That’s definitely not a characteristic of Northrop.

What we tried to do is strike a balance between having an enveloping hall and still having clarity. A lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far is that people have really enjoyed the clarity of being able to hear all the instruments, all the melodies while still getting that enveloping sound. That’s one of the reasons to put down your iPod and phone and come to a live show. You feel the three-dimensional character of the sound, as well as some intimacy with the folks performing.

MP: What can we expect at other performances, with other kinds of music?

JC: The most transformative part of the audience chamber is there’s two fundamental modes of the room. One is for natural acoustics. That’s when the orchestra shell is in place. Then there’s the amplified mode of the room, for amplified music and spoken word. Rock bands don’t want to play into a lot of reverb. So there the shell goes away, and we have acoustic banners that run down the side walls. They’re hidden in the ceiling. If you look at the side walls of the seating area, there are pilasters – columns – and recesses in the walls. The banners fill those recesses and look like part of the architecture of the room. Anytime there’s an amplified show, the banners will come down.

There’s nothing you can’t do [in the new Northrop]. We’ve tried to make it the best multi-purpose venue. That’s a pejorative term in a lot of people’s minds, but it doesn’t have to be. I think in many ways it’s the best venue you can do almost anything in.

Note: You’ll have a chance to check out the rock side of Northrop when the Moody Blues perform there on Aug. 26. FMI and tickets ($55-$125).

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Photo by Craig VanDerSchaegen

Nicholas Freeman as Buddy Holly in
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Four of the five plays in History Theatre’s 2014-15 season, announced today, are world premieres, including Garrison Keillor’s first full-length play, “Radio Man.” Celebrating the 40th anniversary of  “A Prairie Home Companion,” drawing on Keillor’s personal memories of the show, it will feature singing groups, the private eye Guy Noir, the cowboys Dusty and Lefty, and residents of Lake Wobegon. Pearce Bunting (“Boardwalk Empire”) has been cast as the host. Starts Sept. 27. In February 2015, we’ll see the new play by Presbyterian pastor and former Star Tribune op-ed contributor Kristine Holmgren,“God Girl,” about women who broke through the stained-glass ceiling within the Protestant church. March brings “The Debutante’s Ball” by Eric “Pogi” Sumangil, a look into Minnesota’s annual Filipino-American celebration and a co-production with Mu Performing Arts. In May, Joe Minjares’ “River Road Boogie: The Augie Garcia Story” tells the tale of the Mexican-American quintet that opened for Elvis Presley at the St. Paul Auditorium in 1956. The only non-world-premiere on the roster is a bring-back in November of History Theatre’s popular “Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story” written by Alan Janes. Season passes go on sale today.

Twin Cities author William Kent Krueger has won the Edgar Award for “Ordinary Grace,” a stand-alone novel (not part of his hugely popular Cork O’Connor series) set in a small town in the Minnesota River Valley in 1961. Krueger told MPR’s Kathy Wurzer that the Edgar is “kind of the Oscar of our business.” And that “it looks like … a ceramic bust of Edgar Allan Poe.” The New York Times best-selling author is currently visiting libraries in greater Minnesota. Here’s his schedule if you want to go meet him. (He’s in Ortonville tonight, Benson and Appleton on Wednesday.) Last month, Krueger won his fifth Minnesota Book Award. Cork O’Connor fans, no worries; you can expect a new one in August.

After a terrific close to its 2013-14 season – an April 26 concert featuring Puerto Rican musician and composer Miguel Zenon, one of the world’s great alto saxophonists – JazzMN Orchestra has announced a strong 2014-15 season, its 15th as Minnesota’s premiere big band. On October 11, drummer Dave Weckl will be JazzMN’s guest. November 22 is a program of music by little big bands – larger than a combo but smaller than a big band. On March 14, 2015, JazzMN will welcome bebop tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb, formerly of the Tonight Show Band led by Doc Severinsen. And on April 25, Yellowjacket Bob Mintzer will join the band. Season tickets go on sale June 1, singles later this summer.

Closes May 11: “Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take” at the Walker. Closes May 18: “Matisse: Masterworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art.” MIA will extend viewing hours starting May 9. Now at the Museum of Russian Art: “The Art of Collecting,” with 55 paintings from the Raymond and Susan Johnson collection of 20th-century Russian art – the largest, most comprehensive such collection outside of Russia. Opens June 6 at the Weinstein: “Robert Mapplethorpe.” The first dedicated show of Mapplethorpe’s work in Minneapolis in four years.

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In Gallery 306 on the third floor of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, there’s a portrait of a lady who looks like a dude. Painted around 1763, John Singleton Copley’s “Portrait of Sarah Allen, née Sargent (1729-1791)” was the unlikely inspiration for Freshwater Theatre’s new play,“Mrs. Charles.” Playwright Ruth Virkus imagined that Allen really was a man living as a woman, then delivered a sensitive, touching and beautifully written LGBT historical romance set in Minneapolis in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Rising young executive Walter (Nathan Tylutki) and schoolteacher Charlie (Neil Schneider) are lovers in Philadelphia who see each other clandestinely. When Walter is offered a job managing a mill in Minneapolis, Charlie comes up with an outrageous plan: he’ll join him there – as his wife. He’ll live a lie in crinolines and corsets in order to tell the truth.

Although there are funny moments throughout the play – particularly in the characters of overly enthusiastic Quaker activist Margery (Katie Starks) and socially inept Clyde (Matthew Cawley) – “Mrs. Charles” is neither comedy nor joke. Imaginatively staged, rich in historical references and mannerisms, it’s a powerful love story with a strong thread of suspense: Will Walter and Charlie be outed? Schneider is brilliant in the title role, going from slender, attractive young man to proper Victorian lady and maintaining that illusion for almost three hours.

See this play if you can. Then be glad we live in different times. Through May 18 at Nimbus Theatre. FMI and tickets ($15/$13). 

Our picks for the week

Wednesday at Once Upon a Crime: John Sandford. The New York Times best-selling author talks about his latest, “Field of Prey,” answers questions, and signs books. 7 p.m., free and open to the public. (On Thursday at noon, he’ll do a signing at the Barnes & Noble on Nicollet Mall.)

Wednesday at the Dakota: Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge. Two important young guitarists share the Dakota stage. Lage has been touring with Gary Burton; he also recorded an album with Fred Hersch. Eldridge is a member of the Grammy-nominated Punch Brothers with mandolinist Chris Thile. So one is mostly jazz, the other is mostly bluegrass, but fewer and fewer people (including many musicians) seem to care about such distinctions anymore. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($25).

Wednesday at Northrop’s Best Buy Theater: Sacabuche! Playing music for voices, sackbuts and violins, the early music ensemble shows how Italian music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries spread throughout the courts and musical life of Europe, especially Poland. If this sounds a bit brainiac, get used to it; this concert is being presented by the U’s Institute for Advanced Study, who will (let’s hope) bring us more smarty-pants events. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($35 general admission, $10 U of M student).

Thursday through Saturday at the Lab Theater: “Some Assembly Required.” Part of Theater Latté Da’s “Next: New Musicals in the Making” series, this improvised musical will work with audience suggestions to create a brand-new musical in real time. Come for one evening to be entertained, or all three to watch a new show take shape. With artists from Comedy Sportz and Huge Improv and musical direction by Todd Price. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($30 three-show passes, $12 single tickets).

Courtesy of Bob Briscoe and the Minnesota Potters

Covered jar by Bob Briscoe, part of the 22nd Annual St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour

Friday-Sunday: The 22nd Annual St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. This is the big one, the tour pottery fans and collectors look forward to each year – and people fly in from other states to see. Seven potters who live and work in the St. Croix valley open their studios and invite guests from near and far; this year’s tour features 51 potters from Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oregon, Montana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, New York, and other states. Buy a mug, buy a plate, mix-and-match a set of dinnerware, or just look around and learn. Friday, 10-6; Saturday, 10-6; Sunday, 10-5. Free, with refreshments along the way. FMI. P.S. Accordion guy Dan Turpening will be making music at Connee Mayeron’s studio in Shafer.