Name: EXPRESS CONCERT: Cassie Pilgrim Plays Bach’s Oboe d’Amore Concerto
Start: 2025-06-08T14:00:00
Location: University of Minnesota

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's 2025 season promises a rich tapestry of orchestral experiences, featuring an array of distinguished conductors and performers. From the resounding rhythms of Haydn's Drum Roll Symphony to the evocative notes of Mozart's Prague Symphony, this season offers something for every classical music aficionado. Highlights include performances by Richard Egarr, Tabea Zimmermann, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Jasmine Choi, and more, each bringing their unique artistry to renowned venues across Minnesota. Join us as we delve into the captivating line-up set to enchant audiences this season.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Dazzling 2025 Lineup: A Journey Through Orchestral Masterpieces

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s 2025 season is set to be a captivating journey through time and sound, featuring a rich tapestry of orchestral masterpieces. From the vibrant beats of Haydn’s Drum Roll Symphony to the serene notes of Mozart’s Prague Symphony, this season offers something for every classical music enthusiast. With renowned performers like Richard Egarr, Tabea Zimmermann, and Jasmine Choi gracing the stage, each concert promises a unique auditory experience that celebrates both timeless classics and contemporary compositions.

A Symphony of Seasons: An In-Depth Look at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's 2025 Lineup

From Mozart's timeless symphonies to Prokofiev's evocative sonatas, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra presents an extraordinary lineup of performances, featuring esteemed conductors and soloists. With events spanning from April through June 2025, audiences are invited to experience the rich tapestry of orchestral music at various venues across Minnesota. This season promises performances of both classical masterpieces and innovative premieres, making it a must-attend series for music aficionados.

Captivating Melodies: A Season of Orchestral Excellence with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra invites you to an orchestral journey across a symphony of seasons, featuring a line-up of diverse and enthralling performances. With maestros and musicians like William Eddins, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Thomas Zehetmair, the spectacular events capture the essence of music ranging from classical masterpieces to contemporary compositions. Experience an array of orchestrations as iconic pieces by Mozart, Bach, and other legendary composers breathe life into venues across Minnesota. Each concert promises a unique musical narrative that transcends time and genre.

A Symphony of Seasons: Captivating Concerts by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Julie Albers

Cassie Pilgrim

James Ferree

Sang Yoon Kim

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Haunted, spiritual works for voice and orchestra. This collaboration with Liquid Music offers meditations on the liminal space between life and death with music by American composers, including multiple premiere performances and the SPCO debut of Roomful of Teeth vocalist Eliza Bagg. Experience the Ordway in a new light on the threshold of All Hallows Eve.

Hexentanz and Threshold were commissioned by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Liquid Music with generous support from Tim and Calli Sullivan, Dr. Tom von Sternberg and Eve Parker. Begin was commissioned by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and first premiered in California in 2019.

Life After Death

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Hang on tight for a fast-paced program full of intricate, syncopated rhythms and melodies that overlap and intertwine. Though you'll hear various groupings of musicians — bassoon and strings, violin and winds, string orchestra — every piece is connected, in some way, to the idea of musical puzzles. It's easy to lose yourself in the winding journey — through spiraling harmonies and a circling bassoon as Demetra Alikakos stars in her first solo performance since joining the orchestra in 2024.

Bach’s Fifth Partita

Eden Prairie Campus

Saint Andrew's Lutheran Church

Capri Theater

Step into the SPCO Sandbox for the world premiere of an imaginative fairytale in the form of a concerto for double bass! Developed over the course of two seasons for his Sandbox Composer Residency, Jon Deak's newest work, Under a Spell, invites listeners on a whimsical journey performed by Principal Bass Zachary Cohen and guided by narrator Bill Gordh. As the former Associate Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic and "a composer-performer who has learned to make stringed instruments ‘talk’" (The Washington Post), Deak brings a lifelong familiarity of the instrument to his music and teachings.

Zachary Cohen Premieres Deak’s Bass Concerto

Grammy Award-winning conductor-composer Teddy Abrams leads this star-studded exploration of two American masterworks in a nod to our country's 250th anniversary. With roots in American folk and jazz traditions, there's an undeniable groove in the rhythms and orchestration of Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite, edited here for chamber orchestra by Aaron Diehl. His jazz trio is joined by multi-disciplinary vocalist Mikaela Bennett for the song cycle Honey and Rue, set to the poetry of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. Trust us when we say: you will not want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration with the SPCO.

Williams’ Zodiac Suite with the Aaron Diehl Trio

Exquisite, timeless, virtuosic. Every December, we have a special tradition of performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s most cherished set of orchestral works, the Brandenburg Concertos. Written for varying groups of strings, winds and harpsichord, these masterworks have stood the test of time since the composer first compiled them in 1721. Now three centuries later, the Brandenburgs have earned a well-deserved reputation as hallmarks of the Baroque era, rich with intricate harmonies and spirit. Experience five of the six concertos this holiday season, when SPCO musicians sparkle as bright as the charming holiday lights of downtown Saint Paul.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

Celebrate the holidays with one of classical music’s most beloved traditions. Bring the whole family to our extremely popular annual performances of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah — an iconic masterpiece for orchestra and choir that has captured the hearts of listeners worldwide. As the director of Dunedin Consort, Scotland’s Baroque Ensemble, John Butt brings a lifetime of expertise leading Messiah. It's an event like no other, complete with full orchestra, a roster of renowned vocal soloists, and the local choir The Singers. Experience the magic of Messiah this holiday season!

Holiday Concerts: Handel’s Messiah

Ring in the new year with a charming concert marked by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's characteristic humor and wit, curated by Principal Oboe Cassie Pilgrim. There's a surprise around every turn of phrase, and just when you think you know what's coming, your expectations get flipped! Themes from Mozart's popular and lighthearted Eine Kleine Nachtmusik are mirrored and remixed in P.D.Q. Bach’s Eine Kleine Nichtmusik, and you'll hear similarities echoed in the program's titular Bassoon Concerto.

Andrew Brady Plays Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto

The Capri turns 100! In addition to this momentous centennial, our 2026.27 season also marks 17 years of partnership with our longtime friends on the Northside. It's with this celebratory spirit that we share a program of music from America and Minneapolis in a genre-bending concert featuring local jazz and funk artists.

Celebrating 100 Years of the Capri

In an SPCO first, we welcome the "dazzling" (New York Classical Review) Radu Ratoi for a program that melds orchestra with accordion. Praised worldwide for his originality, versatility and virtuosity, Radu describes the accordion — an instrument with a storied foundation in European folk and popular music — as capable of "almost unlimited possibilities." On the second half of this program, he explores music inspired by Baroque and folk traditions.

Radu Ratoi Plays Enescu and Bach

Shepherd of The Valley Lutheran Church

Experience the culmination of a multi-year collaboration with Sandbox Composer-in-Residence Gabriela Lena Frank, the SPCO and The Great Northern. As a composer, Frank’s body of work centers climate change, community, and the role of the artist in stewarding change in the face of a heating planet.

Her Sandbox premiere is similarly ecologically fixated, ruminating on the legacy of John James Audubon, the French American writer and ornithologist who inspired the modern conservation movement. In collaboration with poet and librettist J. Drew Lanham, whose essay “What Do We Do About John James Audubon?” inspired this project, Frank grapples with the idea of complicated legacies, the “consequences of entangled histories,” and how they shape the present. In this new song cycle for baritone and chamber orchestra, Ballad of John James Audubon and the Runaway: An American Tragedy Ignored and Retold, Frank and Lanham tell the lesser-known story of Audubon and his legacy of racism.

Frank’s Sandbox Premiere with Mei-Ann Chen

University of Minnesota

When Tabea Zimmermann comes to town, you're in for something truly special. She's a musical giant — a legend amongst violists and often cited alongside the great William Primrose, both for her musical prowess and for her commitment to teaching. Despite her near-transcendent status, Tabea is incredibly grounded and a generous collaborator — qualities that shine in her performances. Through wordless communication, she becomes one with the orchestra, leading expressively whether she's seated in the viola section or standing center stage for a concerto. Experience the full depth of the viola in all its warmth and richness of sound, played by one of the all-time greats.

Mozart’s Linz Symphony with Tabea Zimmermann

In her first performances as an SPCO Artistic Partner, violinist Alina Ibragimova returns to the Ordway to helm a program featuring two composers known for leaning into drama: Felix Mendelssohn and Ludwig van Beethoven. With nimble fingers, Alina practically dances through intricate runs that span the entire fingerboard, expertly coaxing a wide range of sound from her instrument with impressive ease. From soaring, sweet melodies in the violin's highest registers to fiery passages capable of snapping some bow hairs, Alina is able to “collapse any sense of distance between performer and listener” (The Guardian), bringing you along for a ride you won't want to miss.

EXPRESS CONCERT: Cassie Pilgrim Plays Bach’s Oboe d’Amore Concerto

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