The day after the Minnesota Orchestra announced the pending departure of its president, who had become something of a lightning rod during a bruising labor battle with its musicians, many orchestra fans in the Twin Cities wondered on Friday if the move might pave the way for the return of the ensemble’s former music director, Osmo Vanska.

The announcement late Thursday that the orchestra’s president, Michael Henson, would step down at the end of August prompted a flurry of speculation about what might be next for the ensemble, which returned to work last month after a bitter 16-month lockout. Mr. Vanska, who resigned in frustration last year as the lockout dragged on, let it be known after the lockout ended that he believed that for the orchestra to heal, Mr. Henson would have to leave.

The musicians, many fans and some critics have been clamoring for the return of Mr. Vanska, the Finnish conductor who led the orchestra to new artistic heights and won a Grammy Award with it in January for a recording of Sibelius symphonies.

Fans who organized themselves during the lockout as a group called Save Our Symphony Minnesota are organizing a “Finnish It!” campaign when Mr. Vanska returns to conduct the orchestra next week. They are urging people to wear blue and white, the colors of the Finnish flag, to send the message that they want him to return. “We are calling on the board to ‘finish’ the task by reinstating our beloved ‘Finnish’ music director!” its website said.