The MSO’s Principal Oboe Katherine Young Steele takes center stage with Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, one of the most treasured showpieces for the instrument. Opening this celebration of Mozart’s genius is his staggeringly inventive “Haffner” Symphony; later, composer Max Reger plays expressive musical games with the opening theme of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11.

The MSO is delighted to welcome Mexican conductor Iván López-Reynoso for his U.S. symphonic debut! López-Reynoso conducts Ravel’s orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky’s impressionistic Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, featuring López-Reynoso’s compatriot and “an imaginative interpreter with a powerful technique” (The New York Times), pianist Jorge Federico Osorio. The program … Continued

Stewart Goodyear, “one of the best pianists of his generation” (Philadelphia Inquirer), performs two works by Liszt, beginning with his dazzling and dramatic First Piano Concerto. Next is Liszt’s Totentanz, or “Dance of Death,” whose phantasmagoric music provides an excellent transition to Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, a musical hallucination full of dark revels, unrequited love, and … Continued

“One felt we were hearing the score exactly as Mozart wanted us to hear it,” says The Globe and Mail of esteemed conductor Bernard Labadie, who leads the MSO in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, an urgent masterpiece which celebrates the trials and triumph of the human spirit. The MSO’s own Principal Trumpet Matthew Ernst plays … Continued

Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday celebration continues as harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and Baroque violinist Rachell Ellen Wong lead the Milwaukee Symphony in favorite Bach masterpieces. This second of two programs culminates with Bach’s Magnificat, which celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2023. The Milwaukee Symphony Chorus lends its power to Magnificat’s story, in which Mary first discovers … Continued

Acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman, “a marvel of digital dexterity, warmly romantic sentiment, and jaw-dropping bravura” (Chicago Tribune) joins the MSO for Brahms’s commanding First Piano Concerto. This program begins with the potent Prayer for the Ukraine, a yearning expression of solidarity and resistance by Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silverstrov, and ends with Stravinsky’s energetic Petrushka, which … Continued

“My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere,” said Gershwin of his rowdy An American in Paris. Jader Bignamini, Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducts this perennial audience favorite along … Continued

Music Director Ken-David Masur opens the season with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, “the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man” (E.M. Forster). This unforgettable program, co-curated by the MSO’s 2023.24 Artistic Partner, bass-baritone Dashon Burton, includes Daniel Kidane’s mid-pandemic reflection on the quiet of passing time, Be Still; Eleanor Alberga’s song … Continued

Mendelssohn could not shake a particularly stunning melody until he wrote it down; this unforgettable music opens his unforgettable Violin Concerto. Violinist and 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Randall Goosby, who “plays like an angel with nothing to prove” (L.A. Times) tackles this masterpiece. Conductor Christian Reif, “a remarkable talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), also … Continued