Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for over a decade, Osmo Vänskä has led the Orchestra on five European tours, as well as an historic trip to Cuba. Under his baton, the orchestra has 15 recordings, winning a Grammy Award in 2014 for ‘Best Orchestral Performance’. In great demand as a guest conductor, in 2017/18 he debuts with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, SWR Sinfonieorchester, Toronto and National Taiwan symphony orchestras, and returns to Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony, and the Seoul and Helsinki philharmonic orchestras. Further concerts include appearances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, following his appointment as its Honorary Conductor in 2017. Last season, Vänskä embarked on a tour of Europe with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, visiting nine cities in eighteen days. With soloists drawn from the ranks of Curtis graduates. Vänskä studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon Competition. He began his career as a clarinetist, occupying, amongst others, the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and in recent years has enjoyed a return to the clarinet, including on a 2012 recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works. Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University. He was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year.