It was announced earlier this week via Facebook that Minnesota Orchestra music director, Osmo Vänskä, and concertmaster Erin Keefe are engaged. An office romance indeed.
The Minnesota Orchestra announced on Thursday evening that controversial President and CEO Michael Henson will step down at the end of the current season, on August 31.
On Monday, several Minnesota Orchestra board members said that the board had voted in favor of keeping Michael Henson as president. They also said that Osmo Vänskä might be asked to take on a more limited role with the orchestra, such as principal guest conductor.
Conductor Osmo Vänskä talked with Brian Newhouse of Classical Minnesota Public Radio this weekend about what might prompt him to return to the orchestra as music director. Vänskä said, “For any healing to begin at the orchestra, Michael Henson must go.”
Financial results at the troubled Minnesota Orchestra are much stronger than might have been expected, say upbeat board. Hits, yes, but lots of relatively good news on which to build.
A recording has emerged of one of the most devastating speeches from a concert hall--Osmo Vänskä's farewell to the Minnesota Orchestra, ravaged by industrial dispute.
Composer Aaron Jay Kernis resigned on Tuesday after 15 years as the director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
More from the turmoil at the Minnesota Orchestra. A press release has gone out announcing a fourth contract proposal for musicians from management. They--both sides presumably--will be earnestly hoping that this gets them back to work. But that will all depend on the detail where, as the saying goes, the devil is often to be found.
Politicians weigh their words very carefully. So, given the current volatile climate, so must American orchestra chiefs. None more so, though, than Michael Henson, boss of the Minnesota Orchestra, which has become a flashpoint for the strained negotiations between players and management hitting so many bands across the U.S.