The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) is a full-time professional
chamber orchestra
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...
based in
Saint Paul, Minnesota. In collaboration with five Artistic Partners, the orchestra's musicians present more than 130 concerts and educational programs each year in over 14 venues throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. They are regularly heard on
American Public Media's nationally syndicated radio programs "
Performance Today" and
SymphonyCast.
The orchestra's recording of
Aaron Copland's ''
Appalachian Spring
''Appalachian Spring'' is a musical composition by Aaron Copland that was premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The music, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon ...
'' at
Sound 80 studios was one of the earliest
digital audio
Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, sa ...
recordings to see commercial release.
Beginning with the 2004–05 season, the SPCO adopted a new artistic model by eliminating the position of music director and creating positions for several Artistic Partners, prominent established musicians. Under this model the SPCO musicians have a much higher degree of artistic control.
Launched in 1995, the SPCO's CONNECT education program reaches 6,000 students annually in 16
Minneapolis and
Saint Paul Public Schools. The orchestra's activities are supported by the
Friends of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Artistic partners
*
Joshua Bell (2004–07)
*
Stephen Prutsman
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...
(2004–07)
*
Nicholas McGegan (2004–09)
*
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (2006–09)
*
Douglas Boyd (2003–09)
*
Dawn Upshaw (2007–13)
*
Edo de Waart (2010–14)
*
Roberto Abbado (2005–15)
*
Christian Zacharias (2009–16)
*
Thomas Zehetmair (2010–17)
*
Jeremy Denk (2014–present)
*
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (2014–present)
*
Martin Fröst (2014–present)
*
Pekka Kuusisto (2016–present)
*
Jonathan Cohen (2016–present)
Artistic leadership
*
Leopold Sipe (Music Director, 1959–71)
*
Dennis Russell Davies (Music Director, 1972–80)
*
Pinchas Zukerman (Music Director, 1980–87)
*
Stanisław Skrowaczewski (Interim Music Advisor, 1987–88)
*
Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood (10 September 194124 September 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist. Founder of the early music ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music, he was an authority on historically info ...
(Music Director, 1988–92)
*
Hugh Wolff (Principal Conductor, 1988–92; Music Director, 1992–2000)
*
Bobby McFerrin (Creative Chair, 1994–99)
*
Andreas Delfs (Music Director, 2001–04)
*Kyu-Young Kim (Artistic Director, 2016–present)
Awards and recognitions
*
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Dennis Russell Davies (conductor) & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for ''
Copland:
Appalachian Spring
''Appalachian Spring'' is a musical composition by Aaron Copland that was premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite. The music, scored for a thirteen-member chamber orchestra, was created upon ...
'' (
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
)
*
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
awards for Programming of Contemporary Music, including 2011 and 2014
2012-2013 lockout
In October 2012, after months of negotiations between orchestra musicians and management, the SPCO locked out its union musicians. Six months later, musicians approved a three-year labor agreement that cut their pay by $15,000 per year, reduced the SPCO from 34 to 28 players and offered buyouts to musicians 55 years and older.
See also
*
Bill McGlaughlin
*
Compositions by Bill McGlaughlin
*
Friends of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Notes
References
*Kenney, Dave. ''50 Years of Music: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra''. Nodin Press, 2009.
External links
The Saint Paul Chamber OrchestraMusicians of SPCO
{{Authority control
Orchestras based in Minnesota
Chamber orchestras
Arts organizations based in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Culture of Saint Paul, Minnesota
Musical groups established in 1959
1959 establishments in Minnesota