If orchestras are analogous to grocery stores, then perhaps the Minnesota Orchestra is an elegant, upper-class market with lots of gourmet offerings like an olive bar and sushi prepared onsite. And the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is a great neighborhood co-op with all sorts of high-quality stuff you can't get anywhere else. And the workers own the place.
That cooperative model became even more pronounced during the pandemic. Granted, the SPCO has worked mainly without a conductor for a few seasons, and one of its violinists, Kyu-Young Kim, is also artistic director. But when designing the 2021-22 season announced Thursday, its Zoom rooms grew.
"We have this artistic vision committee that's overseen programming for many years," Kim said this week. "But we expanded it during the pandemic, opening it up to anyone who wanted to participate. ... We've had as many as 15 musicians participating in those calls … deepening that sense of ownership."
In the season they constructed together, 25 distinct concert programs will be presented at St. Paul's Ordway Concert Hall between Sept. 10 and June 12, 2022. There will be plenty of J.S. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, but also a healthy complement of 21st-century music.
"This season has a lot more women composers, a lot more composers of color," Kim said. "It comes from a lot of research by our musicians, listening to a lot of different composers and figuring out who are doing the most interesting things."
Each concert will be a little over an hour long and performed without intermission. The hall will likely start at about 50% of capacity and gradually grow.
In addition, the SPCO is planning a multivenue Neighborhood Series that starts in January but won't be announced until September.
Here are some standouts among the programs announced Thursday:
