For The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra's 20th Anniversary Gala Concert, William Schrickel is joined on the podium at Central Lutheran Church (the place where the MSO was born) by all three previous MSO Music Directors. Steven Amundson, the MSO's first Music Director, conducts Brahms' celebratory and witty Academic Festival Overture as well as his own Sola Gratia. William Intriligator returns with Beethoven's powerfully dramatic Leonore Overture No. 3. Manny Laureano leads Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice. (Remember Mickey Mouse and all those brooms carrying pails of water?!) Schrickel ends the program with Christopher Brubeck's Convergence, an energetic, rhythmically compelling showpiece written for Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops in 2001 and receiving its Midwest Premiere on this concert. Throw in Stravinsky's witty version of 'Happy Birthday' for an opener, and you have an anniversary party you won't want to miss!

Steven Amundson, Manny Laureano, William Intriligator, William Schrickel, conductors in conjunction with the Music at Central Series

Igor Stravinsky ­ Greeting Prelude
Johannes Brahms ­ Academic Festival Overture, op. 80
Steven Amundson ­ Sola Gratia
Ludwig van Beethoven ­ Leonore Overture No. 3, op. 72a
Paul Dukas ­ The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Christopher Brubeck ­ Convergence (Concerto for Orchestra)

Central Lutheran Church 333 South 12th Street, Minneapolis