Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, who became the Minnesota Orchestra’s tenth music director in September 2003, is renowned for his compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires.

Throughout his first seven seasons in Minnesota, he has drawn acclaim for performances both at home and abroad. In August 2010 he led the Orchestra, guest violinist Gil Shaham and guest cellist Alisa Weilerstein on a tour to European festivals, including two appearances as the only American orchestra at the BBC Proms as well as concerts at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In February and March of 2009 he led an eight-city European tour that featured the Orchestra and guest violinist Joshua Bell and included performances at such venues as London’s Barbican Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Vienna Musikverein. In addition, he conducts the Orchestra in annual concerts at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center in New York, as well as regular performances in communities around Minnesota.

Among the highlights of Vänskä’s eighth season in Minnesota are world premieres of newly commissioned works by Einojuhani Rautavaara and James MacMillan; a Midwinter Mozart festival in January, culminating in semi-staged performances of The Magic Flute; and Carl Orff’s monumental Carmina burana in May. In addition, Vänskä conducts Messiah this December, his first time leading these annual Minnesota Orchestra concerts. Also this year, Vänskä and the Orchestra welcome the release of an album by the Swedish-based BIS Records featuring Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos and continue the five-year initiative of recording all five Beethoven piano concertos with Yevgeny Sudbin as soloist.

New Vänskä-Minnesota Orchestra releases last season included a pair of Hyperion discs offering live, in-concert recordings of Tchaikovsky’s piano concertos and Concert Fantasia with Stephen Hough, a project concluded just last year; and a BIS album of Bruckner’s Fourth (Romantic) Symphony. Completed earlier was a five-year, five-disc project of recording the complete Beethoven symphonies for BIS, with each album in the five-disc project receiving superlative praise nationally and internationally. Two albums have drawn particular attention: the recording of the Ninth Symphony was nominated for a Grammy Award, while that of the Second and Seventh received a Classic FM Gramophone Award nomination.

As a guest conductor, Vänskä has led all the major American and European orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., in this country. Abroad he has appeared with such eminent ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, London’s BBC Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. This season, in addition to returning to many of the above, he travels to the Far East to conduct the China Philharmonic in Beijing and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

For two decades Vänskä was music director of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which he transformed into one of Finland’s flagship orchestras. Under his leadership, the Lahti Symphony has received international attention through its collection of innovative Sibelius recordings on the BIS label and its international performances in London, Birmingham and New York. In May 2008 he became that ensemble’s conductor laureate.

Vänskä has recorded extensively on the BIS and Hyperion labels. His Sibelius albums with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for BIS have amassed numerous awards, including a 1996 Gramophone Award and Cannes Classical Award for the original version of the Fifth Symphony. His first-ever complete recording of The Tempest won the 1993 Prix Académie Charles Cros, and his disc of the original version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos won 1991 Gramophone Awards for Record of the Year and Best Concerto Recording.

Vänskä, who began his music career as a clarinetist, held the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic (1977-82) and the principal chair of the Turku Philharmonic (1971-76). Following conducting studies under Jorma Panula at Finland’s Sibelius Academy, he was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon International Young Conductor’s Competition. Three years later he began his tenure with the Lahti Symphony as principal guest conductor, while also serving as music director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. In addition, Vänskä served as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra of Glasgow (1997-2002).

Since returning to the clarinet at the Orchestra’s 2005 Sommerfest, Vänskä has performed in chamber ensembles at Orchestra Hall, other Twin Cities venues, Napa Valley’s Music in the Vineyards, the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. In concerts with Minnesota Orchestra colleagues this season, he is featured in a Mozart quintet for piano and winds as part of the Midwinter Mozart Festival and in the Aho Clarinet Trio on the Orchestra’s Chamber Music at MacPhail series.

During his time in Minnesota, Vänskä has explored an interest in composition. The Orchestra performed his first orchestral work, Here!…Beyond? in October 2006, and his second work, The Bridge—a response to Minnesota’s I-35W bridge collapse—was heard at a concert in September 2008.

The many honors and distinctions awarded to Vänskä include an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow, a privilege given in recognition of his tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony. In May 2002 he was honored with a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for his outstanding contribution to classical music during 2001. In December 2004 Musical America named Vänskä 2005 Conductor of the Year, and in 2008 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Minnesota as well as a Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum.

Vänskä has extended his tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra through 2015.