By Amanda Dyslin

Free Press Features Editor

MANKATO — It’s pretty rare for musicians of this caliber to perform in Mankato, said Mankato Symphony Orchestra general manager Michelle Behsman.

But with Kenneth Freed as director, it’s not so strange that violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen agreed to be guest artists in the Sunday concert, “Brahms and the Gypsies,” which will include pieces such as “Double Concerto” in A Minor, Op. 102, by Brahms, “Dances of Galanta,” by Kodaly, and Hungarian Rhapsody,” Op. 68, by Popper.

“The (soloists) are old, old friends of mine,” Freed said. “I was actually their counselor at summer camp, and now they play on Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road (Ensemble).”

The concert focuses on gypsies being the outcasts in Europe, yet they became mainstreamed musically, Freed said. Brahms worked early in his career with a gypsy violinist and never lost his fascination with the “wandering Roma and the untamed side of his soul,” Behsman wrote in a press release.

“The gypsy music is the combination of really fiery and also really sad — heartbreakingly sad — music,” Freed said.

Colin Jacobsen is a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient who first played to critical acclaim at the age of 14, collaborating with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic in a performance that was hailed by The New York Times.

In the fall of 2003, Eric Jacobsen appeared with Renee Fleming at the opening of Zankel Hall, at Carnegie Hall and on the Late Show with David Letterman. He organizes the chamber ensemble, The Knights, which performs as a chamber orchestra and smaller ensembles. The Knights recently presented a series of concerts at New York 's Bargemusic, in collaboration with flutist Paula Robison.

“They’re just wonderful people, they’re wonderful artists, and we’re really lucky to have them here,” Freed said.

If you go

“Brahms and the Gypsies,” featuring violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen

When

3 p.m. Sunday, May 11, at Mankato West High School Auditorium