Home - Friends of the SPCO

The mission of the Friends of the SPCO is to support The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra through educational, social and fundraising activities.

Greetings from the President!

Welcome to the 2024-25 season with the Friends of the SPCO! Please join me in thanking my recent co-presidents, Lynne Beck and Karen Koepp, and all other Board and committee members who made last year a success. We were thrilled to have many community members join us in supporting and promoting our superb Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and we hope you will be among them this season.

This year will be very busy, with a variety of events that raise funds and share enthusiasm for the SPCO’s music. It all starts with a rousing get-together in October, Barbershop & Brews, and continues with a variety of opportunities to meet our great SPCO musicians socially and show your appreciation for them and all the Orchestra does.

We want you to take special notice, though, of our newest activity – Project Connect, an educational initiative that will bring SPCO musicians to after-school programs at two community centers, and then will bring students as well as their teachers or caregivers to a regularly scheduled concert of the SPCO. Following on the Friends’ many successful years presenting a chamber music competition for highly talented students, we are now thrilled to be piloting Project Connect, which will reach an entirely different – and typically underserved – population. And we are so grateful to those of you who make gifts to support our work in music education!

There’s never been a better time to join the Friends. Come help us work for a thriving SPCO, and be among the first to volunteer for our exciting new Project Connect. This will be a great year – with you!

Inez Bergquist
President, Friends of the SPCO

Upcoming Events

Oct 16, 23, 30, Nov 6 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Fall Freeman Lecture Series

The Restrained Romanticism of Felix Mendelssohn

In these engaging lectures by Dr. Daniel Freeman, you’ll discover beautiful features of Mendelssohn’s beloved works that set him apart from his nineteenth-century Romantic peers: a gentle restraint and a reverence for earlier musical styles. In person at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, 797 Summit Ave., Saint Paul. Wednesday mornings, October 16, 23, 30 and November 6.

Get tickets: $35 – $140

Jan 8, 15, 22, 29 @ 10:30 am to noon

Winter Freeman Lecture Series

Vivaldi’s Other Legacy: His Female Music Students in Venice

Our winter lectures have a fascinating topic: the masterpieces Vivaldi wrote to be performed by young women at an orphanage known for music instruction – which they performed so brilliantly that their concerts were the talk of Venice and sought after by international travelers. Via Zoom. Wednesday mornings from 10:30 am to noon, January 8, 15, 22, 29.

Get tickets: $35- $140

April 2, 9, 16, 23 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Spring Freeman Lecture Series

Rossini’s Beloved Comic Opera: The Barber of Seville

For these talks, Dr. Freeman has chosen music as enchanting as spring – delightful Rossini tunes and operatic vignettes that have charmed audiences for more than two centuries. In person at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, 797 Summit Ave., Saint Paul. Wednesday mornings from 10 am to noon, April 2, 9, 16, 23.

Get tickets: $35- $140