Osmo Vänskä, who in 2003 became the Minnesota Orchestra’s tenth music director, is renowned for his compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires. During his Minnesota tenure he has drawn acclaim at home and abroad, leading the Orchestra on four major European tours to venues including London’s Barbican Hall, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vienna Musikverein and the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as numerous performances throughout Minnesota.

Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra are currently recording two cycles for the Swedish label BIS: the complete Sibelius symphonies and, with Yevgeny Sudbin, the complete Beethoven piano concertos. Notable among earlier projects have been a two-CD set on the Hyperion label of live, in-concert recordings of Tchaikovsky’s piano concertos and Concert Fantasia, with Stephen Hough as soloist; and a five-CD cycle of the complete Beethoven symphonies for BIS, with each album drawing superlative praise worldwide, and two—one of the Ninth Symphony and one of the Second and Seventh—receiving Grammy and Classic FM Gramophone award nominations, respectively.

As a guest conductor, Vänskä has led all the major American orchestras as well as European and Asian ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Vänskä began his music career as a clarinetist, holding major posts with orchestras in his native Finland. For two decades he was music director of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which he transformed into one of Finland’s flagship orchestras, attracting worldwide attention for performances and for award-winning Sibelius recordings on the BIS label. By 2008, when he was named Lahti’s conductor laureate, he had also completed a five-year tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra of Glasgow.

Since arriving in Minnesota he has again taken up his original instrument, performing as a clarinetist 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, where he also conducts each summer. Vänskä has extended his tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra through 2015.

*(Photo by Ann Marsden.)