Welcome to our 71st Season!
Our next performance...
Join us at 3:00 PM on Sunday, May 19, 2024 for the final concert of our 2023 -24 season - Gustav Mahler Symphony #5.
This concert includes some remarkable pieces - Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music opens the program. Its title reflects this season's overarching theme and features our concertmaster, Carol Margolis, as the violin soloist. We'll follow that with another piece featuring a solo violin. The winner of this year's MacPhail Center for Music Concerto Competition, Vladimir Tsiper, will bring energy and fire to the first movement of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto #2. Though he is still in high school, this young man's playing is breathtaking and not to be missed.
We will conclude the concert and our season with Gustav Mahler's epic Symphony #5. Performing this symphony is for many players a once in lifetime, bucket list type of opportunity and as an ensemble we are beyond excited to present this piece and present it well. This magnificent piece is also a fitting conclusion to Cary John Franklin's tenure as the music director of the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis and a testament to the artistic growth and excellence the orchestra has experienced under his leadership. Please join as we celebrate Mahler's grand and moving symphony along with Maestro Franklin's long and fruitful partnership with the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis.
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
4801 France Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN
Like all of our concerts, this one is FREE and open to the public. However, seating is limited and first-come, first-serve. Arriving 15-20 minutes before the concert will help ensure you are comfortably seated for the program.
Find more details on our concert page.
Writing a new chapter...
As our current director, Cary John Franklin, notes in his welcoming remarks below, he is retiring after 30 years of leading the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis. Cary has provided three decades of strong leadership and helped the orchestra grow in size, technique, and artistry, for which we are grateful. But now we're writing the next chapter of the orchestra's story.
The Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis recently began a search for a new music director, and there is exciting progress to report. Applications were recently closed, and the search drew many well-qualified candidates. The search committee has reviewed complete applications and is in the process of scheduling interviews to identify finalists for the position, each of whom will lead a program during the 2024 - 25 season. Stay tuned for the announcement of the list of finalists and our 2024 - 25 concert season later this spring.
From our music director...
The 2023-2024 concert season marks my 30th season as Music Director of the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, and it will be my final season. I hope you will join us for my Farewell Season.
In planning the season, I thought of honoring music of all kinds – beloved classics, neglected masterpieces, and new music – A Salute to Music. My first concert 30 years ago included Brahms' Symphony No. 3, along with music by Aaron Copland and Joan Tower. To remember that first concert, we will be revisiting the Brahms symphony. We’ll also perform the full orchestra version of Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Michael Torke’s Bright Blue Music.
December’s concert, titled Remembrance and Reflection, will feature British classics and will including readings from Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales. During Black History Month we will be performing the too-long neglected Symphony No. 1 by Florence Price. When the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered Price’s symphony in 1933, it was the first time a symphony by a Black woman was performed by a major American orchestra.
The Family Concert in April will be all fun. Its concert program is called Nature and Music, and the concert will feature an interactive instrumental “petting zoo” with instrument demos in stations scattered around the performance hall. The season will conclude with a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which opened the Civic Orchestra’s inaugural season over 70 years ago.
Please join us as we celebrate Music!
Cary John Franklin
© 2023 Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis • PO Box 50604, Minneapolis, MN 55405-0604 • The Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization