The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård—who is serving as music director designate during the 2022-23 season—is recognized for distinguished performances around the world, award-winning recordings and broadcasts, educational engagement programs, and commitment to building the orchestral repertoire of the future. Founded in 1903, the Orchestra has an extensive history of touring throughout Minnesota, nationally and abroad, including high-profile visits in recent years to Cuba, Europe and South Africa. Recording projects undertaken in the past two decades include complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Sibelius and Mahler, all recorded under Osmo Vänskä, who is now the Orchestra’s conductor laureate.

Sarah Hicks is the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall, a role in which she oversees planning for and conducts many concerts in the broad-spectrum series of popular music, jazz, Broadway classics, movie scores and other genres. She also conducted the Inside the Classics and Sam & Sarah series for ten seasons.

Hicks’ career has seen collaborations with a diverse range of artists, from Hilary Hahn and Dmitri Hvorostovsky to Rufus Wainwright, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson. She has been an artistic leader in concerts featuring artists from Minnesota’s internationally-renowned popular music scene—including shows with The New Standards, multiple sold-out performances with Dessa and a live-in-concert recording released on Doomtree Records, and collaborations with indie band Cloud Cult. A specialist in film music and the film in concert genre, she is passionate about creating concert experiences which combine sight and sound, and that welcome new audiences to the orchestral genre.

Trumpeter Charles Lazarus, a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2000, has charted a unique course during his tenure with the Orchestra. As a soloist, composer and bandleader, Lazarus has created and starred in four original orchestral shows featuring his jazz ensemble: “A Night in the Tropics,” “American Riffs,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and "Our Love is Here to Stay," a collaboration with The Steeles and Prince's former keyboardist Tommy Barbarella. "Merry & Bright,” his concert of fresh takes on holiday favorites, is the newest addition to the Orchestra's annual holiday fare. 

In 2015, Lazarus premiered Steve Heitzeg's concerto American Nomad, commissioned by Paul Grangaard. Lazarus and the Orchestra recently reprised this work, and a live video recording of the performance was released online in 2019. His composition A Perfect Square, paired with Michael Hall's book of the same name, was recently made into a children's animated short film.