2023 Mid-Season Report
My very best greetings, and I am happy to report that we have just finished another very successful winter season, and are looking forward to a fun and exciting summer. Because of your continuing support…
• Our Winter Concert Season was a smashing success. Cellist Dmitri Kouzov, trumpeter Rodney Marsalis, pianist Inna Falicks and Chinese Pipa player Gao Hong were the soloists, and they were fantastic! Added to the mix were terrific performances of symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, and Louise Ferranc, and stellar works by lesser-known composers (African English) Samuel Coleridge Taylor and (African South American) José Nunes Garcia. I can honestly say that I think this was some of the best playing we have ever done. And the audiences must have agreed, because they awarded our musicians and soloists with immediate and enthusiastic standing ovations. And there is more…
• After a COVID-caused three-year hiatus, finally we were able to go back into the schools and work with students in twelve Minneapolis and St. Paul Public schools. The receptions from the students and teachers were amazing. The students cheered, and the teachers lavished praise through our anonymous surveys. One teacher wrote:
The resources you shared were excellent! I used the provided background information about the music to create a Google Slides presentation that I used in class with my students. I added pictures of the composers, links to their countries of origin, and short sentences that my students read aloud. They really enjoyed learning about the composers and listening to the music. We used Venn diagrams to compare and contrast different pieces of music. Students also enjoyed sharing how the music made them feel.
The rehearsals with Jay ahead of the Minnesota Sinfonia visit were wonderful. My students really benefited from the amazing opportunity to get to work with you Jay!
• Thanks to a very generous grant from the FS Foundation, we were able to create and produce a full-length in-studio video production of our current Music in the Schools program, Water – Our Most Precious Resource. We are now in the middle of the final editing, and we will have a completed version ready for distribution sometime this summer – just in time to send it to schools across the state (over 1,000 of them), for the beginning of the new year. Oh, did I mention? Again, because of the generous support from FS, we can offer the video, and the accompanying curriculum guide without charge. Are you curious what the video and the curriculum guide are like? Please look at our first video production (from last year) – The Magical Mysteries of Math and Music. As you probably surmised, these are the same programs that we take live into the public schools.
• The summer is almost upon us, and we have a great series of both classical and lighter-fare programs set to begin in the middle of June and run through the end of July. View the schedule here, and do plan to join us and bring your families and friends. And yes, we are already scheduling next year! Rodney and Inna will be back – and will be joined by audience favorites, cellist Amit Peled and violinist Yevgeny Kutik.
Thank you again. We could not have done this without you! As we say in the trade, “Stay tuned,” and I hope to see you soon.
Jay Fishman
Artistic Director