Gemma New, “one of the brightest rising stars in the conducting firmament” (St. Louis Post Dispatch), returns to guide the MSO through the adventure of Sibelius’s Second Symphony. Though Sibelius denied any political story behind the Second’s music, patriotic hearts have adopted it anyway — the symphony’s heroic feelings of hope and triumph are impossible … Continued

Music Director Ken-David Masur conducts a powerful program highlighting three generations of American composers. In Aaron Copland’s stirring musical portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the composer begins by suggesting “the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln’s personality” and ends by attempting “to draw a simple but impressive frame about the words of Lincoln himself.” MSO … Continued

When Music Director Ken-David Masur tapped Concertmaster Jinwoo Lee after a four-year search, he praised Lee’s energy, musical curiosity, and “great artistic spontaneity.” Those qualities also describe this kaleidoscopic program, which finds Lee performing Sibelius’s dreamy Violin Concerto following Nielsen’s symphonic poem about the lusty god Pan’s pursuit of a water nymph. Anna Clyne’s deeply-felt … Continued

The MSO’s own principal cellist Susan Babini performs an unforgettable concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, whose expansive and haunting solo cello concerto Colored Field was inspired by a visit to a former WWII concentration camp. Later, Music Director Ken-David Masur conducts Brahms’ First Symphony, whose brilliance helped the composer step out of … Continued

“Fate, that fatal force” is the driving theme of Tchaikovsky’s astounding Fourth Symphony, whose emotional finale builds from darkness to light. “If you cannot discover reasons for happiness in yourself,” the composer wrote, “look at others.” Yaniv Dinur, former resident conductor of the MSO, returns to lead this jubilant masterwork, alongside works by Barber and … Continued

Now considered one of Bach’s most opulent musical achievements, his Christmas Oratorio went unheard for over a century after its first performances, until a resurgence of holiday celebrations brought it back into fashion. Each of its six cantatas was intended for a Christmas high feast day; Music Director Ken-David Masur and the MSO are joined … Continued

“I am completely filled with your Requiem,” wrote Clara Schumann to her friend Johannes Brahms. “It is an immense piece that takes hold of one’s whole being like very little else.” Music Director Ken-David Masur conducts the orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, and Artistic Partner Dashon Burton through Brahms’s personal journey of sorrow and consolation.