Minnesota Orchestra is one of the United States' top symphonic ensembles

The Minnesota Orchestra is one of America's top symphonic ensembles. The orchestra has performed in Minnesota and around the world, have won many awards for their recordings; they participate in educational outreach programs and are committed to building the repertoire of the orchestra for tomorrow.

The orchestra was founded as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and gave their first performance on November 5m 1903, just after the World Series of baseball began and six weeks before the Wright brothers made their first airplane flight. Their first regional tour was in 1907 and their debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1912. The Orchestra has also played Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. In 1968 the orchestra was renamed as the Minnesota Orchestra.

There are 98 members of the orchestra and they present almost 200 programs per year. Majority of these performances are held at their home venue, Orchestra Hall, which is located in downtown Minneapolis. Over 400,000 people attend performances by the orchestra each year. The Minnesota Public Radio broadcasts the orchestra's Friday night performances live to the regions and many of their other performances are featured on American Public Media's national programs such as SymphonyCast and Performance Today.

The orchestra was one of the first to be broadcast on the radio and to feature on recordings. Their landmark recordings were the Mercury Living Presence LP's from the 1950s and 60s when they were under direction of music directors Antal Dorati and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and were reissued on compact disc to great success.

Under the direction of Director Osmo Vanska the orchestra completed a five-year, five-disk initiative to record the complete symphonies of Beethoven with label BIS. The recordings have received rave reviews from The New York Times and the Financial Times of London. The orchestra received a Grammy nomination in 2008 in the `Best Orchestral Performance' category for their recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

The orchestra not only does traditional concerts, they hold educational programs for music lovers each year such as Young People's Concerts and Target Free Family Concerts. Over 500,000 students have experienced the orchestra's Young People's Concerts. They also participate in other initiatives such as Adopt-A-School program, Side-by-Side rehearsals and concerts with young musicians from the area. Another program of the orchestra is the Upbeat program where multi-year relationships are made with communities through the Twin Cities and the state.

During the year the orchestra hosts many pop concerts where contemporary pop performers are presented in such genres such as rock, jazz, country and world music. The Jazz at Orchestra Hall was established in 2008 and has featured top performers from around America. During summer the orchestra hosts Sommerfest music festival.

Although the orchestra has a history of commissioning and performing new music the orchestra aims to continue to nourish contemporary composers. Over 300 compositions have been premiered or commissioned by the orchestra since 1903. The orchestra has received many awards over time including the 18 from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for adventuresome programming and the John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music.