Basketball And Bell

Andrew and I are very much looking forward to the weekend, because this has been a very busy week at work for both of us.

Tonight I think we will do some serious food shopping for the coming week, and turn in early.

Tomorrow is a big day.

Tomorrow afternoon Andrew and I will take Andrew’s father to Williams Arena to see Minnesota play Iowa. This will probably be our last basketball game of the season. Over the last month, we have already seen the Golden Gophers take on Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan State and Wisconsin, and tomorrow will be our fifth game within a short period of time. I think this is enough for us for one season—but we may change our minds before the season is over.

Tomorrow night we will all go to Saint Paul to hear Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk in recital at The Ordway Center. The recital is sponsored by The Schubert Club.

The Bell-Denk recital is sold out, as are most concerts sponsored by The Schubert Club. Next month’s recital with Lang Lang is already sold out, too.

To me, a native of Oklahoma, it is somewhat surprising how much musical activity there is in the Twin Cities, and how often concerts sell out.

Not only does The Schubert Club sell out most of its concerts, but the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra sells out a large portion of its concerts as well.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul area holds the distinction of being the only metropolitan area in the United States with two full-time professional orchestras.

On most weekends, both orchestras play three concerts, often on the same nights, and yet ticket sales are robust.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra plays at The Ordway Center, which seats 1900 persons, and more often than not its concerts sell out well in advance. The Minnesota Orchestra plays at Orchestra Hall, which seats 2500 persons, and it plays to 70 per cent capacity, on average, in its hall.

This signifies that there are a lot of music lovers in the Twin Cities, and that these music lovers loyally support the local ensembles and local music events.

This is remarkable, given that the Twin Cities is a theater mecca, too. The Guthrie Theater, with three stages, performs year-round, and the work of the Guthrie is supplemented with several other professional theater companies that also perform year-round, as well as numerous semi-professional and amateur companies. Attendance at local theater events is superb, almost to the point of disbelief.

Minneapolis-Saint Paul is not an enormously populous area. It is dwarfed in population by many other U.S. metropolitan areas, and yet it offers entertainment and cultural opportunities available, as a general rule, only in cities with three times the population.

In only two disciplines does Minneapolis-Saint Paul come up short: ballet and opera. Ballet has simply never taken root here—apparently numerous dance companies have come and gone over the last forty years—while Minnesota Opera is a small, regional company, presenting only five works each season. Andrew’s mother says that this is because Minneapolis is a music town, a theater town and a museum town, but that Minneapolis is not an opera town or a dance town, and that it probably never will be.

Andrew and I do not have anything planned for Sunday. After church, we will probably go over to Andrew’s parents’ house and eat and play with the dog and hang out—not a bad way to spend a quiet Sunday afternoon and evening.

The following weekend, Presidents’ Day Weekend, we will all be in New York.