With failing health and his own end on his mind, Shostakovich peppered his final symphony with references to ideas he loved, sampling his own motifs, music by beloved composers such as Rossini and Wagner, and other nods so subtle that musicologists are still discovering them over 50 years later. Guest conductor Andris Poga conducts Shostakovich’s … Continued

Has a tune ever stuck in your head and refused to leave? When this happened to composer Edward Elgar, his beloved wife encouraged him to put the tune to paper. After a good deal of play and exploration, that music became the “Enigma” variations, an inventive 14-piece suite that Elgar is best known for even … Continued

MSO Associate Conductor Ryan Tani takes the podium for a charismatic program beginning with Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, a passionate climax from Barber’s ballet about the murderous Medea. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances also began as ballet music, but evolved into the composer’s most important symphonic work, full of ghostly waltzes, jazzy inflections, and more. Violinist Julian … Continued

Containing the final notes that Mozart ever composed, his requiem is considered one of the most sublime pieces of music ever written. Guest conductor Jaime Martín takes the podium as the MSO and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus breathe life into this staggering work of tenderness, intensity, and beauty. At the top of the program: each … Continued

Cześć from Poland! Guest conductor and La Maestra competition winner Anna Sułkowska-Migoń leads the MSO through a series of musical postcards from her home country, beginning with a frenetic overture by Grażyna Bacewicz. Gold medalist of the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Aristo Sham, a musician with “a nobility rarely heard from any pianist” … Continued

Guest conductor Iván López Reynoso returns to the MSO to conduct Brahms’s second symphony, a serene and light-filled work that nevertheless carries a tinge of Brahms’s signature melancholy. Pianist Joyce Yang, also no stranger to the Bradley Symphony Center, brings her “agility, balance and velocity” (Washington Post) to Gershwin’s ambitious and jazzy Concerto in F. … Continued

Let’s have a little fanfare, shall we? Handel composed his Music for the Royal Fireworks for a monumental occasion: the celebration of the end of an eight-year war and the signing of a treaty of peace. Per King George II, this triumphant music should have “no fidles,” so Handel wrote his festive Fireworks for a … Continued

“I conceived of it as glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit . . . praising the free and happy man,” said Prokofiev of his uplifting fifth symphony, composed against the backdrop of World War II; guest conductor Delyana Lazarova, who specializes in Eastern European and Russian repertoire, conducts this masterwork. Pianist Simon Trpčeski, whom … Continued

Zlatomir Fung, the youngest cellist to win first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, takes the stage with Shostakovich’s first cello concerto, one of the finest pieces in all of the cello repertoire. Shostakovich dedicated his chamber symphony (originally his eighth string quartet, performed here with Rudolf Barshai’s orchestration for strings) “in memory of victims … Continued

The 2026-27 season opens with bravura to the tune of Copland’s stirring Fanfare for the Common Man. Since returning to the stage in 2024, violinist Hyun Jae Lim has captivated audiences and made waves the world over; in her hands, Barber’s fiercely expressive concerto becomes a thing of wonder. Guest conductor Michael Sanderling concludes this … Continued