Message from the president of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Dear Board, Staff and Musicians –
I am so very sorry to share with you that violist Ken Freed passed away unexpectedly earlier today while participating in a triathlon in White Bear Lake. This is shocking news, and our hearts go out to Ken’s wife, Gwen, and their children, Zachary, Eleanor and Jonah.
Ken joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1998, after having played second violin in the acclaimed Manhattan String Quartet for five years. While in Minnesota, he inhabited many roles, including serving for 12 seasons as music director of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and for a season as a Minnesota Orchestra assistant conductor. He was founder of Learning Through Music Consulting Group, a music education nonprofit that used music as a teaching tool to improve children’s learning outcomes and featured partnerships with the Minneapolis Public Schools, the University of Minnesota, the MacPhail Center for Music and the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.
As anyone who spent a moment in Ken’s presence knows, he was warm, outgoing, big-hearted, endlessly full of life and very, very funny. In a QA we shared last season, Ken wrote that “Violists inhabit sort of a parallel universe from the rest of the Orchestra…Philosophically, we develop a sense of humor almost as a necessity. Personally, I just find it a lot of fun to make people laugh.”
We understand that his family intends to hold a memorial service at Temple Israel, and we will share more details when they are available. Gwen Freed shared that “there are no words to describe Ken’s boundless love for all of you in the Orchestra.” Likewise, there are certainly no words to express all that Ken means to the Minnesota Orchestra.
Please hold Gwen and their children in your hearts and prayers.
Brent Assink
Kenneth Howard Freed was 64. His life will be celebrated at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 6, at Temple Israel, 2323 Fremont Ave S, Minneapolis.
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-14.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "10th anniversary: Fantasia Orchestra celebrates with a busy summer featuring a return to the BBC Proms")
