Planning your Fourth weekend? If you’re sticking around the Cities, put this at the top of your list for Monday night: the Minnesota Orchestra’s free Symphony for the Cities concert at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis. The music starts at 8:30 p.m., the annualRed, White and Boom! Fireworks at 10 along the river (thank you, Minneapolis Park and Rec).
The program includes “The Star-Spangled Banner”; some Verdi, Smetana, Wagner, and Rossini crowd-pleasers; Sousa’s “Foshay Tower Washington Memorial March”; music from John Williams’ scores for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”; the “Armed Forces Salute” and the rousing finale, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” Roderick Cox leads the band in a concert that lasts about an hour. Cox, BTW, who joined the Orchestra in April 2015, is one of only two black conductors on staff at major U.S. symphony orchestras. (The other is Joseph Young at the Atlanta Symphony.)Thanks to Graydon Royce for that interesting fact.
Icing on the cake: This year’s fireworks will be choreographed to a mix of Prince music curated by the Current. Tune in on air (89.3 FM in the Cities), at the website or the MPR Radio app. CORRECTION: The Current will be choreographing Prince and a special mix of music to a portion of the fireworks at Red, White and Boom.