The Minnesota Orchestra announced the schedule today for its 2019-20 Symphonic Adventures for High Schools program, beginning this week with a concert led by Associate Conductor Akiko Fujimoto. This season the program brings the entire Orchestra to four metro-area high schools for dynamic, one-hour concerts designed for secondary students. Each Symphonic Adventures program is hosted by Orchestra violist Sam Bergman, who will introduce students to the music, musicians and key concepts before the symphonic work is performed.

Fujimoto leads three of the four Symphonic Adventures performances this season, including the first on September 11 at Wayzata High School, conducting Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony. On September 24, Music Director Osmo Vänskä conducts Elgar’s Enigma Variations and A Requiem in Our Time by Einojuhani Rautavaara at Eden Prairie High School. Fujimoto returns to the podium on March 10, 2020, at North Community High School in Minneapolis, and again on April 28, 2020, at Blaine High School.

“Our students, families and district personnel in attendance enjoyed the music immensely, and the chosen repertoire with its background and history was both timely and inspirational,” said Jeff Levine of Jefferson High School in Bloomington, where the Orchestra performed in February 2019. “Sam did a terrific job as host and related the important topics to the students in a way in which they will carry forward for the rest of their lives.”

The Symphonic Adventures program was originally created and implemented by Minnesota Orchestra musicians in 2013 and was later adopted by the Minnesota Orchestra as a key companion to Young People’s Concerts, which are designed primarily to introduce elementary-aged students to classical music via field trips to Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. The project is partially funded through The Bellwether Fund, a fund established by the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra to help support education and community programming.

See the complete schedule below. Teachers and educators who would like to request a Symphonic Adventures concert: please visit minnesotaorchestra.org.


Minnesota Orchestra
Symphonic Adventures 2019-20 Season



WAYZATA HIGH SCHOOL
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Minnesota Orchestra
Akiko Fujimoto, conductor

DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7

EDEN PRAIRIE HIGH SCHOOL
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time, for Brass and Percussion
ELGAR Enigma Variations

NORTH COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Minnesota Orchestra
Akiko Fujimoto, conductor

PROGRAM TO BE ANNOUNCED

BLAINE HIGH SCHOOL
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Minnesota Orchestra
Akiko Fujimoto, conductor
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4


EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: These concerts are not open to the public.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Minnesota Orchestra Symphonic Adventures concerts are partially funded through The Bellwether Fund for Musician Designated Initiatives.

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