Following last season’s successful celebration of one of history’s greatest composers, Music Director Ken-David Masur and Artistic Partner Dashon Burton return with a fresh program of Bach favorites. To begin, the MSO’s own Jeanyi Kim and Kevin Pearl take center stage for Bach’s Concerto for Violin & Oboe, respectively. This concert also includes the church … Continued

“A wayfaring craftsman, who has had a great sorrow, goes out into the world and wanders aimlessly,” said Mahler of his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (“Songs of a Wayfarer”); returning Artistic Partner Dashon Burton gives voice to this wistful cycle of four Lieder which hint at Mahler’s own experience with unrequited love. In honor of … Continued

Musical pictures abound in this imaginative program, led by Music Director Ken-David Masur, which begins with Rossini’s galloping William Tell overture and Richard Strauss’s tone poem delighting in the pranks of a jokester named Till Eulenspiegel. An ácana is a distinctive Cuban tree revered for its strength, which composer Tania León brings to life with … Continued

Poulenc’s Gloria, with its unexpected blend of secular and sacred sounds, fascinated (and scandalized) audiences from its first performances. “While writing it I had in mind those Crozzoli frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues,” the composer remarked. Lili Boulanger’s impressionistic “Of a Spring Morning” introduces the program with a bright festivity. Jean-Marie Zeitouni, a … Continued

Completing this season’s three-part exploration of tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet is Leonard Bernstein’s suite of Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, overflowing with familiar tunes such as “Somewhere,” “Cool,” and “Maria.” Bernstein opens the program as well when violinist Tai Murray takes the stage with his Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), which the composer referred … Continued

Music director Ken-David Masur leads the Milwaukee Symphony and Chorus in a grand season finale. Thrill to favorite selections by master composers Wagner, Mozart, and Verdi.

Though the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant has been awarded to rising star musicians since 1976, its first solo percussionist was only recognized in 2022: marimba extraordinaire Ji Su Jung. Jung appears for the first time in Allen-Bradley Hall to perform a concerto by Kevin Puts, with an exuberant approach  hailed as “dazzling — filled … Continued

Baroque violinist Rachell Ellen Wong, Grand Prize winner of the inaugural J.S. Bach Competition, returns to the MSO to lead one of the most iconic treasures in all of the Baroque repertoire: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Vivaldi provided vivid poems to accompany each of these seasonal concertos — in spring, “the goatherd sleeps next to … Continued

Beethoven’s radiant reimagining of his Violin Concerto is seldom performed; for that reason, pianist Claire Huangci’s rendition is a rare treat. David Danzmayr – “extremely good, concise, clear, incisive and expressive” (The Herald) – returns to conduct this program, which concludes with Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony; just before beginning this stormy and songful symphony, Mendelssohn wrote a letter from Edinburgh claiming, “Everything around is broken and moldering, and the bright sky shines in. I believe I … Continued