Minnesota Orchestra Honors Recent Shooting Victims

Conductor Thomas Søndergård led Elgar's "Nimrod" in tribute to Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman

The Minnesota Orchestra has paid tribute to three high-profile politicians, who were the victims of an ideologically motivated shooting on the night of Saturday, June 14, 2025.

Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park home, while state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman survived the assassin’s attack, though both were hospitalized.

To honor the Hortmans, the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Thomas Søndergård opened their concert with "Nimrod," from Elgar's Enigma Variations. There was no applause for the conductor or the concertmaster, and the performance was followed by a moment of silence.

Then, the concert unfolded as usual, and the program comprised Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

"Tonight, we perform our scheduled concert with heavy hearts," the orchestra wrote in a statement. "We join our community in grieving as we all struggle with how to make sense of a world in which dedicated public servants can be shot in their homes in the middle of the night by someone pretending to be a police officer."

"There are really no words we can offer to express our profound sorrow over their loss," added the orchestra's interim president, Brent Assick. "So, as words fail us we offer this musical homage in their honor and in the hope that we may collectively find our way to a space of peace and civility."