Full-length concerts, and violinist Joshua Bell, return for the 2022-23 St. Paul Chamber Orchestra season

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

A pair of new artistic partners, the return of full-length concerts and violinist Joshua Bell are on tap for the newly announced 2022-23 St. Paul Chamber Orchestra season.

Season ticket packages are on sale now by phone at 651-291-1144 or via thespco.org. Season ticket packages start at $12 per concert for adults and are free for children and students. Individual tickets, priced from $50 to $12, go on sale in August.

“We are thrilled at the abundance of exciting artistic news that we have to announce with our 2022-23 season programming and cannot wait to share all of this great music with our community,” said artistic director and principal violin Kyu-Young Kim in a news release. “The creativity of our own musicians as well as our artistic partners, Sandbox composers and incredible guest artists will be on full display throughout this celebratory season.”

The upcoming season, the SPCO’s 64th, will see a return to programs featuring the full orchestra at St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall and in venues across the metro. The abridged 2021-22 season focused on smaller ensembles and chamber music repertoire to limit ensemble size and allow for distancing of musicians on stage. Concerts were also limited to 75 minutes with no intermission. The SPCO will continue to occasionally offer the shortened performances, dubbed express concerts, throughout the upcoming season.

Two new artistic partners will join returning partners Jonathan Cohen, Richard Egarr and Rob Kapilow. They are South African cellist, singer and composer Abel Selaocoe and internationally-renowned German violist Tabea Zimmermann.

A wide range of guest artists, SPCO musicians and artistic partners will be featured as soloists and directors. Highlights include concert pianist Conrad Tao (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), Minnesota-based choral ensemble Border CrosSing (Nov. 3-6), former artistic partner Joshua Bell (Nov. 10-13), pianist Jonathan Biss (Feb. 10-12), concertmaster Steven Copes (April 28-30) and pianist Yeol Eum Son (May 19-21).

The season will also see the launch of the SPCO’s Sandbox composer residency program featuring three composers – Viet Cuong, Clarice Assad and Gabriela Lena Frank – participating in multi-week residencies with the orchestra to create new music.

“The exciting thing about this model is that we, the musicians and audience, get to experience the story of creation behind each piece, and the person behind the story,” said principal horn James Ferree. “Rather than composers being some invisible far-away music factory, this is classical music’s version of farm-to-table where we can develop meaningful relationships with the composers who write for us, perform the music according to the composer’s truest intent and even participate in the journey of creation.”

For full details on the season, see thespco.org.

Related Articles