Top 10 classical music events in the Twin Cities in 2023

This year made me much more excited about the future of classical music, thanks to lots of imaginative boundary breaking, and grateful that we have so many brilliant veteran performers still sharing their tremendous musical wisdom.

Here are the most memorable classical performances of 2023.

1. Abel Selaocoe and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, April 20 and Oct. 13: This South African cellist is a force of liberation, changing the classical concert experience through improvisation, singalongs, beautifully blended influences and a disarmingly open-hearted presentation style. We're fortunate to have him as an SPCO artistic partner.

2. The Minnesota Orchestra premieres Carlos Simon's "brea(d)th," May 19: The orchestra moved beyond lip service to the cause of equality by commissioning composer Simon and librettist/spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph to create a powerful work that involved listening to the people of the city where George Floyd was murdered and helping them heal.

3. Minnesota Opera's "Cruzar la Cara de la Luna," Nov. 4: José "Pepe" Martínez's moving mariachi opera proved a triumphant synthesis of two emotion-packed art forms, and disarmingly prescient in its story of immigration and a family divided.

4. Beatrice Rana's Schubert Club recital, April 16: At 30, she's the hottest pianist of her generation, one who offered remarkably fluid and flawless interpretations of J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy and Beethoven's daunting "Hammerklavier" Sonata.

5. Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, June 27: One of the world's greatest violinists pushed the wow meter into the red zone on Niccolo Paganini's First Violin Concerto, then joined the London-based chamber orchestra for a passionately intense interpretation of Robert Schumann's stormy Second Symphony.

7. Gabriela Montero and the Minnesota Orchestra, Feb. 3: Montero's "Latin" Piano Concerto is at turns invigorating, haunting, sorrowful and thrilling. Her gripping performance with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the orchestra made a strong case that she might become classical music's next great composer/pianist.

8. Minnesota Opera's "The Daughter of the Regiment," Feb. 4: If COVID-19 left you craving comedy, then this hilarious, heartfelt and splendidly sung production of Gaetano Donizetti's opera was the ideal prescription. It was the most fun I've had at an opera in years.

9. Gábor Takács-Nagy and the SPCO, June 9: The orchestra seems willing to put its move toward conductor-less concerts on hold if the baton is being wielded by this charismatic and deeply insightful Hungarian conductor. He brought interpretive imagination to Debussy, Edvard Grieg and, most astonishingly, the best version of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony I've ever experienced.

10. Farewell, Emerson String Quartet, Feb. 12: What an honor to enjoy one of the final concerts of a legendary musical partnership in an intimate venue like the St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, where they brought heart to Haydn, fire to Dvorak, and made Shostakovich spine-tingling.