The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra gets a new, first-rate hall to perform in.

By Jacob Stockinger

For a couple of years, the music news coming out of the Twin Cities has been pretty negative. It involved labor strife, personnel strife and economic strife.

But now something welcome and promising, in addition to the resurgence of the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra under Finnish-born conductor Osmo Vanska, has emerged: A new state-of-the-art and unusual hall (below) as the musical home in Ordway Center for the acclaimed St. Paul Chamber Orchestra -– where the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director and the Madison Opera’s Artistic Director John DeMain once served as an associate conductor.

And, of course, a lot of Madison-area residents travel to the Twin Cities to see the sights and maybe hear the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. (In a YouTube video at the bottom, the orchestra performs Johann Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D, with former music director Pinchas Zukerman conducting.)

So important is the new hall as an event that The New York Times sent out a critic to file a review. Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/arts/music/review-st-paul-chamber-orchestra-opens-its-new-concert-hall.html?_r=0