After 19 years, Osmo Vänskä will step down as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra this summer. But he's not done with the band.
The orchestra announced this month that Vänskä will become conductor laureate in September.
The new role "honors the great musical heights to which he has led the orchestra," board chairperson Joseph T. Green said in a statement, "and recognizes the ongoing friendship and loyalty that will endure between him, this orchestra and our community."
It's a position that former music director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who also led the orchestra for 19 years, held until his death in 2017.
Like Skrowaczewski, Vänskä will return annually to the podium.
