The Minnesota Orchestra announced on Thursday that Danish conductor Thomas Sondergard will be the next music director after the long-standing leader of the ensemble, which has gone through the most turbulent times in history, has left.
Sondergard, who has conducted the orchestra several times over the past year, now leads the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and will continue to do so. In Minnesota, he is the successor to Osmo Vänskä, who has led the group for about 19 years. This includes during lockout, which was one of the most intense labor disputes in classical music in recent history.
Former Principal Conductor of the BBC Wales National Orchestra and the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra, Sondergard first conducted the Minnesota Orchestra in December, including Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem “Ein Heldenleben”.
“It was the first beautiful, open-minded, warm and intriguing encounter with the ensemble,” 52-year-old Sondergard said in an interview. “I immediately felt that there was a connection.”
Sondergard brings a spirit of anti-authority to orchestras, perhaps more than most of the time, after a period of controversy between musicians and orchestra leaders about a decade ago. He said that in Scotland, he seeks to encourage the spirit of collaboration between musicians by rehearsing without a conductor and sometimes asking them to perform for a week of the year. Instead, the concertmaster intervenes when the leader needs it.
“Musicians have a long education and lots of ideas about how music production can be done,” said Sondergard. “They are not dolls.”
In a news release announcing his appointment, R. Douglas Wright, the orchestra’s main trombone, played “Ein Heldenleben,” and Sonderguard said, “Our work in a way that gives musicians great freedom. I trusted you to do it. “
Joseph T. Green, chairman of the orchestra’s board of directors, said he believed that Sonderguard would prove to be a “strong defender” for musicians.
Timpani Sondergard, who joined the Royal Danish Orchestra in 1992, has been a guest conductor of ensembles around the world, including the Berlin Philharmoniker Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmoniker Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. rice field. In April, Sondergard returned to the Minnesota Orchestra, conducting Debussy’s “La Mer” and Stravinsky’s “Symphony in Three Movements”.
Sondergard began as nominated by the music director in the 2022-23 season and officially took up its position in the fall of 2023. He adopts the group’s mission, including helping the company survive the ongoing effects of a pandemic shutdown and diversifying the ranks of both the orchestra and the composer who plays the music it plays. ..
