The Minnesota Orchestral Association has announced that Osmo Vänskäwill serve as Music Director and Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons.

During his previous tenure as Music Director, from 2003 to 2013, the Vänskä/​Minnesota partnership came to be synonymous with world-class musical excellence – recognised especially for the intensity, commitment and uncompromising quality of its musicianship. As well as performing a full programme of concerts at home and nationally, Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra were invited for four major European tours which included enthusiastically received performances across such cultural capitals as London, Amsterdam, Vienna and Berlin. Meanwhile their recordings for the BIS label have won the highest international plaudits – including the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for their album of Sibelius Symphonies 1 and 4.

Following the disruption caused by a protracted labour dispute, Vänskä now looks forward to working with the Minnesota Orchestra to rebuild its artistic excellence and reputation, and to launch a new era of music-making at Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall and beyond.