The Minnesota Orchestra announced Thursday that Danish conductor Thomas Sondergard will be its next music director, following the resignation of a longtime leader who led the ensemble during one of the most turbulent times in its history.
Sondergaard, who has conducted several orchestras over the past year, now leads and will continue to conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In Minnesota, he will succeed his Osmo Vänskä, who has led the group for about 19 years. This includes during his lockout, one of the most violent labor disputes in the classical music world in recent years.
Former Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Sondergard conducted the Minnesota Orchestra for the first time in December, conducting Richard Strauss’ poem “Ein Heldenleben” and more.
Sondergaard, 52, said in an interview, “My first encounter with the ensemble was beautiful, open-minded, warm and intriguing.
Sondergard brings an anti-authoritarian ethos to an orchestra that is perhaps most focused on a democratic approach after a period of dispute between musicians and orchestra leaders nearly a decade ago. In Scotland, he said he tries to encourage a collaborative spirit among musicians by rehearsing without a conductor for a week out of the year and sometimes asking musicians to play. Instead, the concertmaster steps in when a leader is needed.
“Musicians have been educated for a long time and have a lot of ideas about how to make music,” says Sondergard. “They are not dolls.”
In a news release announcing the appointment, the principal trombone of the orchestra, R. Douglas Wright, said that in his performance of “Ein Heldenleben”, Sondergard “has given us great freedom in the way musicians give us.” I trust you to do the job,” he said.
The chairman of the orchestra’s board of directors, Joseph T. Green, said he believed Sondergaard would be a “strong advocate” for musicians.
A timpanist who joined the Royal Danish Orchestra in 1992, Sondergard has been a guest conductor with ensembles around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the London Philharmonic and the Seattle Symphony. In April Sondergard returned to the Minnesota Orchestra to conduct Debussy’s Sea and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements.
Sondergard will begin the 2022-23 season as music director and will officially take over in the fall of 2023. He will help the company weather the ongoing effects of the pandemic’s shutdown and adopt the group’s mission, which includes diversifying the ranks of both the orchestra and the composers of the music it plays.