OSMO VÄNSKÄ AND MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CLASSICAL MOVEMENTS, TO EMBARK ON TOUR TO VIETNAM
June 21 – July 3, 2020

Orchestra’s performance at Hanoi Opera House to be featured as a cornerstone of celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of normalization of bilateral relations between the U.S. and Vietnam

Classical Movements is proud to announce their partnership in developing the Minnesota Orchestra and Music Director Osmo Vänskä’s June/July 2020 tour to Vietnam. As the Orchestra’s long-time international tour partner, Classical Movements will serve as Creative Advisor for the Vietnam tour, a role it played in the Orchestra’s previous tours to South Africa and Cuba.

“On this momentous anniversary, it is a great pleasure to work again with the intrepid and generous musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, with whom we share a vision of music as a force that transcends historic and cultural differences,” said Classical Movements President Neeta Helms. “Having now worked in Vietnam for nearly 25 years and admired the varied musical traditions represented in the country, I know that this is the moment to celebrate the diplomatic power of music.”

At the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, Vänskä and the Orchestra will perform in Hanoi on June 26 at the iconic Hanoi Opera House as a central part of a weekend of events to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam. This large-scale celebration will also include a “Thought Leaders” conference and celebratory gala.

“We are humbled to have received this invitation from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam and thrilled at the prospect of performing in Vietnam to help represent musically the coming together of our nations over the last 25 years,” said Minnesota Orchestra President and CEO Michelle Miller Burns.

“I believe that music has the extraordinary capacity to bring cultures together and to create understanding between people,” said Vänskä. “Our tours to Cuba and South Africa have been a very meaningful part of my tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra–and now once more we have the opportunity help build goodwill between countries through music.”

Classical Movements will arrange additional performances across Vietnam, including at the Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi, in Ho Chi Minh City and in a comprehensive range of musical exchanges and collaborations with community members, artists and students at the Vietnam National Academy of Music and the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City, among others. The musical program, which will include both Western and Vietnamese composers, will be announced this winter.

Classical Movements is working closely with the Vietnamese government on multiple levels to arrange all aspects of the tour, including concerts and musical exchanges. Having worked in Vietnam since 1995, Classical Movements has deep cultural knowledge and expertise along with relationships with local partners.

Vietnam is home to extraordinary new concert halls as well as a mix of vibrant culture and ancient history. This tour will advance the spirit of musical diplomacy that Classical Movements and the Minnesota Orchestra pioneered with the Orchestra’s recent headline-grabbing tours to South Africa (2018) and Cuba (2015). Through artistic and cultural exchange, this tour will deepen goodwill between people and nations and demonstrate music’s remarkable ability to cross borders, to foster unity and to change lives.

 

Minnesota Orchestra Touring History
During his tenure, Osmo Vänskä has led the Orchestra on five European tours, as well as an August 2018 visit to London’s BBC Proms, and on historic tours to Cuba in 2015 and South Africa in 2018, both of which were created in partnership with Classical Movements. The Cuba tour was the first by an American orchestra following the 2014 thaw in Cuban-U.S. diplomatic relations, while the South Africa tour—the culmination of a Music for Mandela celebration of Nelson Mandela’s centennial—was the first-ever visit to the country by a professional U.S. orchestra. Both tour experiences came to define the Orchestra’s commitment to “musical diplomacy”: sharing music, cultural exchange and goodwill across international borders and in Minnesota. These modern-day visits carry on a touring legacy for the organization that dates back its first Cuba tour in 1929, as well as a historic 1957 State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle East that featured performances in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. The Orchestra’s 2020 tour, which also includes an engagement in Seoul, South Korea, marks its first-ever visits to South Korea and Vietnam.

About Classical Movements
The premier concert tour company for the world’s great orchestras and choirs, Classical Movements creates meaningful cultural experiences through music in 145 countries. An industry leader for over a quarter-century, Classical Movements organizes more than 60 tours every year, producing some 200 concerts every season. Producer of two international choral festivals—Ihlombe! in South Africa and Serenade! in Washington, D.C.—and the Prague Summer Nights: Young Artists Music Festival, in addition,Classical Movements’ Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program has commissioned over 70 works from Grammy, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. Winner of Americans for the Arts’ BCA10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts Award, since its founding in 1992, as a truly global company,Classical Movements remains committed to facilitating cultural diplomacy across the world—promoting peace through the medium of music.