About the Orchestra

The Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra (CVRO) was founded in 1979 by conductor Paul Niemisto as a program of the Northfield Arts Guild. CVRO is a diverse group of volunteer musicians performing symphonic music, drawn together by our love of rehearsing and performing this fine repertoire. Anyone with talent, experience, and motivation is welcome to join us, from exceptional twelve-year-olds to octogenarians.

CVRO players come from twenty-two communities: Apple Valley, Blaine, Bloomington, Cannon Falls, Dundas, Eagan, Faribault, Farmington, Lake City, Lonsdale, Montgomery, Nerstrand, New Prague, Northfield, Owatonna, Prior Lake, Red Wing, St. Paul, Stanton, Warsaw, Webster, West Concord. If you are interested in joining the group and have not participated before, please email paul.niemisto@gmail.com for more information. Past participants are always welcome to play with the group. We are grateful for your support.

Mission: The CVRO was founded to help create and promote orchestral music culture in the Cannon Valley communities of Southeast Minnesota.

Are you interested in being a CVRO concert or season sponsor, contact michael@northfieldartsguild.org

Interested in joining the orchestra?  The CVRO are always looking for new musician members! Please contact conductor Paul Niemisto at paul.niemisto@gmail.com if interested in joining.

About the Conductor

Paul Niemisto, CVRO founder and conductor, retired from the St. Olaf College music faculty in 2016. In spring 2017 he was a Fulbright scholar in Finland studying the historical brass band music of Finland’s independence in 1917. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received additional conducting training at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Institute. While in Canada during the 1970s he was a conductor of the Prince Edward Island Symphony and the South Shore Orchestra and was a playing member of the CBC Halifax Orchestra. He holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

Paul has been a regular summer traveler to Finland where he teaches courses in conducting, performs in brass festivals, and conducts bands and orchestras. Since 1991 he has directed a Finnish-American brass ensemble, “Boys of America,” which has traveled widely and made recordings in the U.S. and Scandinavia. In 1999 Niemisto was a Fulbright Senior Scholar for research, and continued brass history Fulbright research in 2017. In summer 2006, he began the Vintage Band Festival, held in Northfield.