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The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra travels to Puerto Rico to play a special concert this Tuesday as part of the prestigious Casals Festival.

The orchestra will present the same repertoire that it played at concerts in St. Paul, Northfield and Minneapolis over the weekend. 

Artistic director Kyu-Young Kim said it's an honor to be invited to play at the Casals Festival.

"They don't often bring a guest orchestra down there," he said. "But I think they had the opportunity to do it and we were able to ... on late notice, squeeze it into our season. And so it's a great opportunity for us to share our music with the people down in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and bring a beautiful program — sort of typical SPCO program — with a wonderful pianist and conductor."

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The concert will feature former SPCO artistic partner Christian Zacharias both conducting and playing the piano. It includes works by Beethoven, Bruckner, Widman and Mozart.

The orchestra is encouraging its patrons and audience members to contribute to relief efforts as the island continues to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.  

"We realize how fortunate we are to be able to come down and play for them. That's a real honor for us," he said. "So we wanted to pair that with this idea of providing some relief that's even non-musical. They need certain things just as much as they need great music."

Celebrated cellist and conductor Pablo Casals created the festival that bears his name in 1957. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will return after the Tuesday concert for performances in the Twin Cities beginning Thursday.

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Euan Kerr

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The musicians are using the opportunity to raise funds for hurricane relief.

The SPCO onstage at the Ordway's Concert Hall

SPCO to perform at Puerto Rican festival this week

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