Minnesota Orchestra in South Africa

A week ago today, the Minnesota Orchestra was in South Africa, preparing to play the most anticipated concert of its five-city tour of the country in Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg. Now, as the Minnesotans return home, musicians, staff, and audience are considering the visit's impact.

The Minnesota Orchestra played the most anticipated concert of its South African tour Friday in the historic Regina Mundi church in Soweto.

Regina Mundi Catholic Church played a central role in the organizing and the protests that led to the end of apartheid. On Friday, the Minnesota Orchestra will play the centerpiece concert of its two-week South African tour just in front of the church's altar.

The Minnesota Orchestra will be the first major U.S. orchestra to play in Soweto, South Africa. The orchestra's tour of the country grew out of its conductor's work with youth orchestras there.

It was the young musicians of the South African National Youth Orchestra who inspired the Minnesota Orchestra's tour of their country this month. On Wednesday, the groups rehearsed side by side.

The Minnesota Chorale and the Gauteng Choristers rehearsed Monday for what is likely to be a historic concert at the end of the week.

The Minnesota Orchestra's tour of South Africa continued Sunday with a concert and musical outreach in Durban.

It may have been Saturday morning, but hundreds of students, teachers and parents crammed into the Eurocon Primary School just outside Cape Town, South Africa, to welcome members of the Minnesota Orchestra.

The Minnesota Orchestra played the first concert of their five-city tour in Cape Town, South Africa Friday to a sold-out crowd.

The Minnesota Orchestra began its two-week, five-city tour of South Africa Wednesday, as part of a yearlong celebration of the centennial of Nelson Mandela's birth. Nearly a third of the orchestra's musicians visited the prison where the country's apartheid government imprisoned Mandela for 18 years.