The Minnesota Orchestra will once again make music with Osmo Vanska.

The orchestra’s board of directors on Thursday gave Vanska a two-year contract that will have him lead at least 10 weeks of concerts for each of the next two seasons.

The 61-year-old native of Finland resigned in October after a decade as the orchestra’s music director — and a year into a lockout of the musicians during bitter contract negotiations.

But when the 16-month lockout ended in January, rumors of Vanska’s return began circulating. And during its first post-lockout performances in February, the orchestra was greeted with shouts from the audience of “Bring back Osmo.”

Meanwhile, Vanska had said he would like to come back if orchestra president and CEO Michael Henson stepped down. Last month, Henson said he would do just that, announcing he would resign in August — a decision that led to the resignations of several other board members, too.

RTWT