We Speak Arts
Minnesota Ballet Marks 20th Annual Celebrity Dance Challenge in Duluth
Local celebrities and their professional partners from the Minnesota Ballet have taken the stage in Duluth for the company’s 20th Annual Celebrity Dance Challenge, a fundraising battle featuring all types of dance.
The beloved fundraiser pairs local personalities with Minnesota Ballet professionals in a friendly competition, with audience members voting for their favorites. The evening begins with a social hour at 5:30 p.m. before the 7 p.m. performance in the Depot Theatre at the company’s home, 506 W. Michigan Street in Duluth. Proceeds from the Celebrity Dance Challenge support the Minnesota Ballet’s educational programs and its professional dance company.
The Challenge is a highlight of a milestone year for the company, which is celebrating 60 years of dance in Duluth. The Minnesota Ballet’s 2026-27 season also includes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, running October 30–November 1 at the Marshall Performing Arts Center, and The Nutcracker: A Duluth Tale — performed with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra playing live — along with Coppélia and The Mighty Casey.
Based in Duluth, the Minnesota Ballet works as both a professional company and a school, presenting new versions of classic works, faithful stagings of masterpieces and newly commissioned pieces under the motto that dance is for all.
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WQXR and Carnegie Hall have announced the lineup for the 2026–27 season of Carnegie Hall Live, the broadcast series that brings performances from the legendary New York venue to audiences nationwide and around the world. Now in its 16th season, the series airs live on WQXR-FM and streams at WQXR.org and CarnegieHall.org, with broadcasts also distributed to public radio stations across the country.
The season opened on October 9 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, joined by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a program of Brahms and Strauss — part of the orchestra’s four-concert Carnegie Hall residency that launched the Hall’s 2026–27 season.
Among the season’s highlights, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performs an all-Berlioz program on November 5, 2026, led by Louis Langrée and starring tenor Benjamin Bernheim in a rare New York appearance, pairing Les nuits d’été with the Symphonie fantastique. On January 19, 2027, Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, with soloists Golda Schultz, Taylor Raven, Julian Prégardien, and Anthony Robin Schneider.
The series also carries performances by the Vienna Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra as part of Carnegie Hall’s season-long Mahler symphony cycle led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, alongside chamber music programs spotlighting Beethoven and Brahms.
Carnegie Hall Live is hosted by WNYC and WQXR’s John Schaefer, with guest hosts Elliott Forrest and Paul Cavalconte. The series is produced by WQXR in partnership with Carnegie Hall and American Public Media. For the full broadcast schedule, visit carnegiehall.org.
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