Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announces Music Director Ken-David Masur’s final season with the MSO

MILWAUKEE, WIS. October 25, 2024– The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announced today that the 2025-26 season will conclude Ken-David Masur‘s seven-year tenure as the orchestra’s music director. Masur’s time at the MSO, which began during the 2019-20 season, has been marked by exceptional artistry, vibrant and innovative programming, a deepening of the orchestra’s engagement with the community, and more than 20 new hires of orchestra personnel.

“It has been an immense joy and privilege to collaborate with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra—an exceptional ensemble made of world-class musicians deeply committed to conveying the soul and spirit of the music,” said Music Director Ken-David Masur. “I arrived at this orchestra with great anticipation shortly before the pandemic and am so proud of how we continued to dream together and work creatively to keep making music for the city through 2020. Because of their inherent capacity to console, inspire, and reveal the best of who we are, I believe music and the arts to be essential in creating space for probing dialogue and building thriving communities. Each one of the programs and projects the orchestra and I continue to explore together celebrates our common humanity through life’s greatest joys and most devastating challenges. For years, people around the world and in the international music scene have taken note of this fantastic orchestra, and now all people of Milwaukee must know how exciting a time it is to be experiencing live music performed by our orchestra in one of the best concert halls in North America today. I will leave with so much gratitude towards these musicians and those who have welcomed me and my family to this great city.”

“Throughout his tenure, Ken has been a thoughtful leader, crafting programs that have inspired and engaged Milwaukee audiences,” said Susan Martin, MSO board chair. “Ken has been a collaborative and creative partner to the board and the administration, from working closely with us during the pandemic, to engaging deeply in the orchestra’s efforts in fostering an inclusive experience for our community, as well as developing new programs that create opportunities for connections to a broad range of organizations in Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin. Ken is also passionate about our education programs, leading the return of the Teen Choral Partners program and working directly with Wisconsin high school student choirs. We are greatly looking forward to celebrating Ken and his tenure with the MSO throughout the remainder of this season and next.”

“Ken’s passion for our orchestra and the Milwaukee community has been evident since day one,” said Mark Niehaus, MSO president and executive director. “It was unfortunate that his first season was cut short in 2019-20 when the global pandemic canceled concerts for months. However, Ken’s creativity and drive to pivot to the Reimagined Season showed his commitment to Milwaukee, the music, and the artistry of our orchestra. We were able to continue to deliver on our mission due to Ken’s leadership in that moment. In addition to the wonderful programming that Ken has added to our seasons, his passion for performing the works of new composers and for bringing new artists to Milwaukee has brought Midwest and American premieres as well as new artistic partnerships to the MSO in both Aaron Diehl and Dashon Burton, who have delivered exceptional experiences to our audiences. Next season will be the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus’s 50th anniversary, and who better to lead them through this milestone than someone passionate and committed to choral music. We are looking forward to exceptional performances with Ken throughout this season and 2025-26.”

Highlights of Masur’s tenure:

• Masur developed unique and diverse programming for the orchestra’s first-ever virtual season, coinciding with the orchestra’s January 2021 move into their new home, the Bradley Symphony Center, through which both the space and the musicians could be celebrated in repertoire that traced the evolution of the modern-day symphony orchestra. Since then, Masur has worked to expand the orchestra’s repertoire and offerings, spanning Bach to living composers, including women, AAPI, and BIPOC artists and composers. In his first six seasons with the orchestra, up to and including this season, Masur will have overseen the introduction of more than 100 works to the orchestra, the majority of which he will have led from the podium and 33 of which are works by living composers.
• In September 2021, Masur launched the orchestra’s exciting and noted inaugural season in its new home, the Bradley Symphony Center. The opening concert in Allen-Bradley Hall was broadcast live on Milwaukee PBS and was later broadcast nationally in December 2021.
• Masur established the MSO Artistic Partner program to invite noteworthy musicians for special collaborations with the orchestra. Jazz pianist Aaron Diehl served as the inaugural artistic partner and helped open the 2021-22 orchestra season. Today, bass-baritone Dashon Burton is the current artistic partner.
• Masur’s tenure has included a 1930s Festival, which celebrated the time period in which the Warner Theater—the former name for the Bradley Symphony Center—was built. The much-acclaimed Water Festival involved community partners such as UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences to highlight Milwaukee’s unique connection to water.
• In March 2024, under Masur’s leadership, the MSO presented its first annual Bach Festivala week-long, city-wide celebration of J.S.Bach’s music and legacy that involved City Hall, schools, local churches and organists, students, choirs, and coffee shops. The Baroque violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and the Persian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani served as the festival’s artists in residence.
• By the end of this season, Masur will have introduced 33 works by living composers to Milwaukee audiences, including an MSO commission from Eric Nathan and co-commissions from Jessie Montgomery and Wynton Marsalis; a world premiere by Jacob Beranek; U.S. premieres by James B. Wilson and Dobrinka Tabakova; and MSO first performances by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Gabriela Lena Frank, Misato Mochizuki, Iman Habibi, Sebastian Currier, Adolphus Hailstork, David Ludwig, Helen Grime, Daniel Kidane, Eleanor Alberga, Valentin Silvestrov, Aldo López-Gavilán, Carlos Simon, Tan Dun, and Clarice Assad, among others; and the Midwest premiere of Mary Lou Williams’ complete Zodiac Suite for orchestra, featuring Aaron Diehl and his trio.
• Noted for his passion for the great symphonic vocal masterpieces, Masur’s tenure has included critically acclaimed performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy,” Orff’s Carmina Burana, and upcoming performances of the Brahms German Requiem, as well as a program of Wagner, Mozart, and Verdi.
• In addition, he led the staged, multilingual world premiere of a full-length original adaptation of Grieg’s Peer Gynt, created together with director Bill Barclay.  He also arranged a new version for chorus and orchestra of Brahms’s “Academic Festival” Overture, featuring a choral medley of the original student songs Brahms quotes in his piece.
• Masur has been instrumental in the appointments of both the new concertmaster, Jinwoo Lee, and the assistant conductor, Ryan Tani. Masur has also hired over 20 new MSO musicians since his tenure began in 2019.
• Education has been of paramount importance to Masur, and he has worked with local music departments such as the UW Peck School of Music orchestra and Concordia University. He also convened pre-concert conversations with guest soloists, composers, and artistic partners; led the inaugural Concerts for Schools performances at the Bradley Symphony Center; and was the first MSO music director to take an active role in the orchestra’s Teen Choral program, conducting their annual concert as well as visiting each participating choral program in their schools throughout Wisconsin.
• Since inaugurating the Pops series in the new hall in 2021, Masur has appeared in and conducted pops programming, including performances featuring video conversations with composer John Williams taped exclusively for MSO audiences at Amblin Entertainment Studios in Hollywood.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Masur worked to keep the orchestra active and connected to the community via the following initiatives:
  • Through 26 episodes of the Musical Journeys podcast, Masur featured special guest artists including musicians from the orchestra, Milwaukee and Wisconsin personalities as well as distinguished international artists and composers such as Yo-Yo Ma, Augustin Hadelich, Matthias Pintscher, Augusta Read Thomas, Emanuel Ax, conductor Nicholas McGegan, and MSO Music Director Laureate Edo de Waart.

• • Throughout the summer and fall of 2020, Masur and his wife opened their home for MSO musicians to perform together outdoors for the community. “Sounds from the Porch” also raised awareness and funds for local Milwaukee charities and organizations.

2024.25 Season Highlights

• Masur’s 2024-25 season is an exploration of the beauty and power of words, storytelling, and music, which includes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and Respighi’s Pines of Rome, among many others. The season also highlights living composers, including Dobrinka Tabakova, Clarice Assad, Anna Clyne, Richard Danielpour, Tania León, and Aaron Jay Kernis.
• For the first time on a subscription series, the MSO and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, led by Masur, will perform Bach’s complete Christmas Oratorio parts I-III to kick off the holiday season in November.
• The Bach Festival returns in the community this season with a week-long celebration of the composer’s music. Dashon Burton, MSO artistic partner, will perform Bach’s “Ich habe genug” as part of the festival for the first time.
• Masur will highlight the incredible talents of the MSO musicians with solo performances by Principal Clarinet Todd Levy, Principal Cello Susan Babini, Associate Concertmaster Jeanyi Kim, and Assistant Principal Oboe Kevin Pearl, as well as newly appointed Concertmaster Jinwoo Lee’s MSO concerto debut.
• Masur will finish the season with a night of opera favorites featuring the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus performing the works of Verdi, Wagner, and Mozart.
• Ken-David Masur and the MSO look forward to announcing the 2025-2026 season in March 2025. 

About Ken-David Masur

Hailed as “fearless, bold, and a life-force” (San Diego Union-Tribune) and “a brilliant and commanding conductor with unmistakable charisma” (Leipzig Volkszeitung), Ken-David Masur is celebrating his sixth season as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra. In the summer of 2024, Masur made his debut at the Oregon Bach Festival and returned to the Tanglewood Festival, where he conducted the Boston Symphony both in a John Williams film night and in a program honoring the BSO’s longtime music director Seiji Ozawa. Last month, he made an acclaimed subscription debut with the New York Philharmonic, and this week, he makes his subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony in a program featuring soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, National, and San Francisco symphonies, l’Orchestre National de France, Minnesota Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Norway’s Kristiansand Symphony and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Masur is passionate about contemporary music and has conducted and commissioned dozens of new works, many of which have premiered at the Chelsea Music Festival, an annual summer festival in New York City founded and directed by Masur and his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur. The Festival, which celebrated its 15th Anniversary in 2024, has been praised by The New York Times as a “gem of a series” and by TimeOutNY as an “impressive addition to New York’s cultural ecosystem.”

About the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Ken-David Masur, is among the finest orchestras in the nation and the largest cultural institution in Wisconsin. Since its inception in 1959, the MSO has found innovative ways to give music a home in the region, develop music appreciation and talent among area youth, and raise the national reputation of Milwaukee. The MSO’s 72 full-time professional musicians perform over 135 classics, pops, family, education, and community concerts each season in venues throughout the state. A pioneer among American orchestras, the MSO has performed world and American premieres of works by John Adams, Roberto Sierra, Philip Glass, Geoffrey Gordon, Marc Neikrug, Matthias Pintscher, and Dobrinka Tabakova, as well as garnered national recognition as the first American orchestra to offer live recordings on iTunes. The MSO’s standard of excellence extends beyond the concert hall and into the community, reaching more than 30,000 children and their families through its Arts in Community Education (ACE) program, Youth and Teen concerts, and Family Series.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.