There’s much to celebrate about what’s been bursting forth from the stages of Minneapolis and St Paul concert halls so far this year. We’ve had a plethora of pianists demonstrating their brilliance to local audiences – among them Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Richard Goode and Yefim Bronfman – and, in July, 7000 singers and 122 choirs converged upon the south end of downtown Minneapolis for 50 concerts in five days as part of the GALA Choruses Festival.

Coming a fortnight after the Minnesota Orchestra’s season-closing Pride concerts of music by LGBTQ composers, the world’s largest gathering of LGBTQ singers felt like an apt celebration of the Twin Cities’ history as a place of welcoming for those communities.

But, while our orchestras, chief opera company and presenters of chamber music and recitals by major artists continue to make this a great place to be a classical music lover, there’s an unease bubbling beneath the surface.

The root cause is the changing nature of corporate philanthropy. One reason the Twin Cities emerged as an artistic centre in the 20th century’s second half – more theatre seats per capita than any American metropolis outside New York, two major art museums and orchestras – is that locally headquartered corporations funnelled a significant portion of their profits into artistic endeavours within the cities.

This sense of pride in our creative climate wasn’t just among the wealthy, as Minnesotans voted to have their taxes raised to create a dedicated fund for artists and presenters. It’s been meting out annual grants for 15 years and is slated to continue through 2034.

But we’ve entered an anxious era in arts organisations’ offices and boardrooms, due to a major drop in corporate and foundation giving. A treasured professional orchestra known for educational programming and free concerts, the Minnesota Sinfonia, will fold this winter. Our longest-tenured modern dance companies have ceased performing. The crown jewel of our theatre scene, the Guthrie, announced a $3.8 million deficit. And programming cuts, red ink and the drawing down of endowments are common topics among artistic leaders.

Discussions of how to proceed have grown testy in some quarters. One of the few full-time professional chamber orchestras in the US, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has been reporting strong financials for the last several years, even balancing its budget during the pandemic. But management seems to be growing pessimistic about future fundraising, for the SPCO announced that it would be eliminating three suburban venues from its Neighborhood Series and reducing the number of concerts in its 2024-25 season.

In May violinist and artistic director Kyu-Young Kim – one of the rare musician-leaders in the orchestral business – resigned from the artistic director position. He’ll continue playing with the SPCO but won’t be among the bosses. Then the orchestra’s president and managing director received a ‘no confidence’ vote from the musicians.

All of this came amid negotiations for a new musicians’ contract. Having endured a six-month management lockout in 2012 and ’13 that began at roughly the same time as a 16-month Minnesota Orchestra lockout, audiences are understandably concerned.

Yet once they’re inside the concert hall, listeners can leave the labour strife behind, because the orchestra just keeps on getting better. And that’s saying something for this consistently excellent ensemble.

Among the highlights have been Anne-Marie McDermott premiering a captivating new piano concerto by American composer Chris Rogerson; Richard Egarr leading a stirring Schubert Ninth; Richard Goode insightfully interpreting two Mozart piano concertos; and Gábor Takács-Nagy concluding the season by conducting the most moving Eroica I’ve ever encountered and being named the orchestra’s newest artistic partner soon thereafter.

Across the Mississippi, Thomas Søndergård wrapped up his first season as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, but guests often delivered the most memorable moments at Orchestra Hall, such as pianist Yuja Wang’s three encores, violinist Christian Tetzlaff’s deeply absorbing interpretation of the Brahms Concerto and Yefim Bronfman’s subtly spectacular take on Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

Other visiting soloists left their mark via the more intimate setting of a recital, most notably a breathtaking Chopin Society offering from pianist Daniil Trifonov and a Schubert Club concert from soprano Golda Schultz that left the impression she’s destined for stardom. The Schubert Club also hosted a varied, whirlwind five-concerts-in-four-days residency with violinist Daniel Hope.

And Minnesota Opera proved equally skilled, with repertoire both intimate – an expertly executed double bill of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Christopher Weiss’s Service Provider – and expansive, with the best La bohème among the many it’s presented in recent decades.

Yet philanthropic issues shaped that company’s season, too: annual corporate giving was down from pre-Covid levels by about the cost of one production. Hence, the company’s season was one show shorter.

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