Earl Lee makes Minnesota Orchestra debut with Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Fresh from his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last week, Korean-American conductor Earl Lee jumps in with the Minnesota Orchestra this week for three performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, replacing conductor Eun Sun Kim. 

The program also features the Minnesota premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Pachamama Meets an Ode as well as Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido with soprano Meigui Zhang.

Lee last conducted Beethoven 9 at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony in August 2025, where he also replaced the originally scheduled conductor, Zubin Mehta. About that performance, the Boston Globe wrote “Under [Lee’s] baton, the Ninth was an unhurried, momentous ritual… and the finale was nothing short of spectacular.”

Read more here