Articles – Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

MSO Retiree Spotlight: Glenn Asch and Mary Terranova

David Jensen — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 22:07:28 +0000

Two retirees from the Milwaukee Symphony’s second violin section this year have new musical adventures awaiting them. The season-ending concerts in June will conclude the tenures of Glenn Asch, who joined the MSO in 1980, and Mary Terranova, who arrived in 1990. For most of his career, Asch has had an active sideline of playing violin in jazz, rock, and bluegrass groups, and he plans to do more…

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Violinist Tai Murray on Telling Musical Stories

David Jensen — Mon, 12 May 2025 13:53:41 +0000

Talk to Tai Murray about playing the violin, and more than once she will mention the importance of telling a story. But how do you tell a story about philosophy? That is a question that any violinist must consider before performing Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, which Murray will play May 30-31 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. But she has a lot of answers for how she…

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Musician Profile: Dietrich Hemann on a Life in Music

David Jensen — Thu, 01 May 2025 14:33:40 +0000

Even though almost every piece Dietrich Hemann plays says “Horn II” at the top, he still has to be versatile. “Being a good second horn player is a state of mind,” said Hemann, who has held that position in the Milwaukee Symphony since 2008. “It’s an attitude of collaboration and deference to what the first horn is doing and helping the first horn and section sound better.

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Yaniv Dinur Returns for Tchaikovsky’s Fourth

David Jensen — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 14:18:47 +0000

For eight years, Yaniv Dinur was the popular resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, leading dozens of concerts every year and reaching audiences of all ages with his dry humor. Later this month, he will return as a full-fledged guest conductor, leading the orchestra in a subscription program of music by Barber, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. But he won’t have to travel far.

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WATCH: Supporter Spotlight: George Forish

David Jensen — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:02:15 +0000

“Music is our society’s DNA,” says Mr. George Forish, a dedicated supporter who has been attending Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concerts for an impressive 50 seasons. Hear him share, in his own words, why the MSO is a valuable thread in Milwaukee’s rich artistic fabric.

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Marimba Superstar Ji Su Jung Champions Puts Concerto

David Jensen — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 19:12:03 +0000

As an aspiring young marimba player, Ji Su Jung did not have many role models. “If you play violin or piano, you know as a child that you can grow up to be a soloist,” Jung said recently, before visiting Milwaukee to perform Kevin Puts’s Marimba Concerto on April 4-5 on a program that also includes works by Beethoven and Copland. “I wish that I had known it was possible. But if I can be the one…

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A Conversation with Adam Birnbaum

David Jensen — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:39:07 +0000

As part of the Milwaukee Symphony’s second annual Bach Festival, the Adam Birnbaum Trio will present jazz arrangements of Bach’s preludes from his landmark keyboard collection The Well-Tempered Clavier in Allen-Bradley Hall on Wednesday, March 19. Birnbaum will perform on piano, accompanied by bassist David Wong and percussionist Keita Ogawa. He recently spoke with MSO Backstage writer David…

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First Stage Teams Up with the MSO for Frederick’s Fables

David Jensen — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 21:00:15 +0000

The Milwaukee Symphony’s upcoming family concert represents both its first-ever collaboration with First Stage and an original fusion of words, music, and images. On Sunday, March 16, “Frederick’s Fables” will present stories by children’s author Leo Lionni, with orchestral music by composer Michael Abels. The narration will be performed by an adult actor and four young actors from First Stage…

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Principal Clarinet Todd Levy on Danielpour’s Clarinet Concerto

David Jensen — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 19:18:15 +0000

Todd Levy prepared for his upcoming solo with the Milwaukee Symphony by listening to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There’s a good reason. Levy, the orchestra’s principal clarinet, is performing From the Mountaintop by Richard Danielpour, a piece written in honor of the civil rights leader’s memory. “The clarinet plays the preacher, and the orchestra is like a gospel choir, call and response…

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Sculpture Milwaukee Brings Fine Art to the Bradley Symphony Center

David Jensen — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 20:41:56 +0000

The Milwaukee Symphony and Sculpture Milwaukee have developed a symbiotic relationship. Sculpture Milwaukee’s mission is to provide a rotating collection of outdoor art along Wisconsin Avenue and elsewhere downtown. And the Bradley Symphony Center’s glassed-in atrium, fronting directly on the sidewalk, is an ideal place to exhibit a sculpture that is too delicate to be exposed to the elements.

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