Halloween with Ben Folds at Orchestra Hall

Posted at 9:52 AM on November 3, 2009 by Ward Jacobson
Filed under: Concerts, Musician stories

In the previous blog, my colleague Alison Young talked about dressing as an SPCO musician wannabe Halloween night in St. Paul. Down I-94 in Minneapolis that night, Orchestra Hall was handing out fake eye-glasses to patrons (many in costume) attending the Minnesota Orchestra pops concert featuring Ben Folds, who's known (among other things) for his horn-rimmed specs.

Nice touch for a night full of fun music.

Special kudos to Pops conductor Sara Hicks who seemed to have as much fun as anyone, including coming out for the second half of the concert as Cher, along with Folds' Sonny.

Being a big fan of Folds, I was really curious to hear how this collaboration would work - and for the most part, it worked quite well. Most importantly though, the hall was packed - and I'm guessing a good portion of those in attendance had not been there before and were hearing the Minnesota Orchestra for the first time. Hopefully, they'll be back.