SPCO Highlights: Ordway-opening music

On Saturday, April 6, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott returned to lead and perform alongside the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in a program featuring music by Chausson and Poulenc, and the world premiere of a piece by Rogerson. Listen to the concert now!

Join Steve Seel for an Easter celebration with the complete performance of Handel's sacred oratorio Messiah, performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, conductor and countertenor Dmitry Sinkovsky, an all-star roster of vocal soloists, and the Singers, led by Matthew Culloton. Listen to the concert now!

Listen to the 64th season finale of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, an event that features Beethoven’s timeless ‘Pastoral Symphony,’ a masterwork inspired by the natural world and performed under the baton of conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy. Enjoy on-demand audio of the concert now!

On Easter, YourClassical MPR broadcasted the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s performance of George Frideric Handel’s ‘Messiah.’ Guest conductor Paul McCreesh and the orchestra were joined by a roster of vocal soloists and vocal ensemble the Singers. Listen to the on-demand audio now!

On Saturday, Nov. 12, violinist Joshua Bell returned as a special guest with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and led the orchestra from the concertmaster chair in symphonies by Mozart and Bizet. Listen to the concert now!

On May 21, 2022, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra artistic partner, violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto returned to the Ordway Center for a program featuring music by Cindy Cox, Louise Farrenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Listen to the concert now!

Richard Egarr returns to lead the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in a delightful program of works from London, including pieces by Henry Purcell, William Lawes and Franz Joseph Haydn. Join host Steve Seel for YourClassical MPR’s live broadcast of the concert at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Composer and bassist Xavier Foley made his SPCO debut with a program that included his work ‘For Justice and Peace,’ a double concerto for violin and bass that marks 400 years since the arrival of the White Lion, the first ship that brought enslaved Africans to Virginia. Listen now.

Listen to YourClassical MPR’s broadcast of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Oct. 30 concert, featuring pianist Jeremy Denk. The program included pieces by Mozart and a fiendishly difficult and zany string quartet by Sky Macklay.

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is responding to a recent reckoning in classical music by diversifying its programming with more music by underrepresented composers and composers of color. This weekend’s concerts — which you can hear live at 8 p.m. Saturday on YourClassical MPR — include pieces by 18th-century dynamo Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and contemporary composer Valerie Coleman.