The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Ken-David Masur, and Community Partners Present Second Bach Fest

Milwaukee, Wis. 3/12/2025 – The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and Music Director Ken-David Masur will present the organization’s second Bach Fest from March 17 – March 23 with community partners at the Bradley Symphony Center and throughout the area. The festival, which is sponsored by the We Energies Foundation, will take place in Allen-Bradley Hall, City Hall, churches, and partner arts venues.

Bach Fest will begin with a FREE Opening Ceremony concert at the Bradley Symphony Center on March 17 at 7:00 pm, featuring performances by MSO cellist Adrian Zitoun; organist Simone Gheller; current and past winners of the MSO’s Bach Double Violin Competition; harpists, Mary Keppeler and Tahlia Morris; the Milwaukee Children’s Choir, directed by Dr. John Bragle; members of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Bach Ensemble, directed by Ravenna Helson with vocal coach Roberta Ricci; and the Milwaukee Chamber Choir, conducted by MSO Assistant Conductor Ryan Tani. The evening will also include a Bach sing-along.

The MSO will present several events during the week, including performing Bach’s Coffee Cantata in the Back Room at the Colectivo Café on Prospect on March 18, and the Adam Birnbaum Trio will perform a unique take on Bach’s music in Allen-Bradley Hall on March 19. The week will conclude Mach 21-23 with three performances of the MSO’s Bach Celebration in Allen-Bradley Hall, showcasing hidden treasures and familiar favorites such as Bach’s Concerto for Violin & Oboe with Associate Concertmaster Jeanyi Kim and Assistant Principal Kevin Pearl; his cantata Ich habe genug with Dashon Burton, bass-baritone and MSO Artistic Partner; the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with Concertmaster Jinwoo Lee, Principal Flute Sonora Slocum, and Assistant Principal Flute Heather Zinninger; and his Orchestral Suite No. 4.

There will be pre- and post-concert performances during the weekend of March 21 – 23 and will include the MYSO Bach Ensemble, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the UWM String Academy, and the Milwaukee Choristers.

Additional performances in the community include the Milwaukee Festival Brass at Milwaukee City Hall on March 17 from 3 pm – 4 pm; a Bach Duet program at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa on March 19 at noon; a Bach Birthday Organ Recital on March 21 at 7 pm; and musicians from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music will perform at the Milwaukee Art Museum on March 22 from 1 pm – 3 pm.

Following is a chronological list of events:

Milwaukee Festival Brass at City Hall
Monday, March 17 from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Milwaukee City Hall
200 E Wells St., Milwaukee
Event is free and open to the public.

The Milwaukee Festival Brass Ensemble will perform musical highlights inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach in the rotunda at Milwaukee City Hall as part of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s second community Bach Festival.

Bach Week Opening Ceremony
Monday, March 17 at 7:00 pm
Bradley Symphony Center
212 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee
Event is free, but reservations are required.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra inaugurates our second annual week-long Bach Festival with a spirited tribute to the boundless lyrical imagination of Johann Sebastian Bach. In an evening featuring a diverse variety of performances from local partners, surprise guests, and the splendor of live classical music, the Bradley Symphony Center opens its doors to the public for this free event, inviting our Milwaukee community to join us for our Opening Ceremony as we celebrate the life and music of the Baroque master.

Featured Performers: Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Bach Ensemble, Milwaukee Children’s Choir, The Well-Tempered Harps, Milwaukee Chamber Choir, with Ryan Tani, MSO cellist Adrian Zitoun, organist Simone Gheller, and past MSO Bach Double Competition Winners.

Coffee Cantata at Colectivo
Tuesday, March 18 at 6:30 pm
Colectivo Prospect Back Room
2211 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee
This event is SOLD OUT: www.mso.org/concerts/coffee-cantata-at-colectivo/

Ken-David Masur, conductor; Julia Rottmayer, soprano; Dann Coakwell, tenor; Dashon Burton, brass-baritone; Members of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus

Fashions come and go, but some things never change: join members of the MSO, Music Director Ken-David Masur, and special guests for Bach’s delightfully witty — and highly caffeinated — homage to the delights of the coffee house. Taking a shot at the coffee craze that swept through Leipzig in the 18th century, Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” tells the story of Schlendrian, a father at his wit’s end, as he tries desperately to reason with his coffee-addled daughter, Lieschen. Audience members can indulge in Bach’s miniature musical comedy while sampling several of Colectivo Coffee‘s finest brews, served fresh at Colectivo’s Prospect Avenue café.

Bach Duet Program
Wednesday, March 19 at 12:00 noon
St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church
1615 N. Wauwatosa Ave., Wauwatosa
Free and open to the public with a suggested goodwill offering.

John Paradowski (Organist & Director of Music, St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church) & Curt Sather (Organist & Director of Music, Trinity Episcopal Church)

Adam Birnbaum Trio: Jazz On Stage
Wednesday, March 19 at 7:00 pm
Bradley Symphony Center
212 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee
Tickets: https://www.mso.org/concerts/adam-birnbaum-trio/

Adam Birnbaum, piano; David Wong, bass; Keita Ogawa, percussion

Take your seat onstage in Allen-Bradley Hall and luxuriate in the intimate, genre-bending stylings of the Adam Birnbaum Trio, whose arrangements of Bach’s music “leap across three centuries into a modern jazz setting, with wonderful results” (New York City Jazz Record). Accompanied by David Wong on upright bass and Keita Ogawa on percussion, Birnbaum’s visionary adaptations of Bach’s best-loved preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier cast the music through the prism of the jazz trio, taking improvisatory flights of fancy that feel at once both effortlessly modern and timelessly authentic.

Bach Birthday Organ Recital
Friday, March 21 at 7:00 pm
Trinity Episcopal Church
1717 Church St., Wauwatosa
Free and open to the public with suggested goodwill offering.

Organist Curt Sather performs a selection of Bach’s works for organ.

Bach Celebration with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Friday, March 21 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 22 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 23 at 2:30 pm
Bradley Symphony Center
212 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee
Tickets: https://www.mso.org/concerts/bach-celebration/

Ken-David Masur, conductor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone; Kevin Pearl, oboe; Jeanyi Kim, violin.

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 cantata “Ich habe genug” (“I have enough”), with its famous “slumber aria”; the fourth of Bach’s famed Brandenburg Concertos; and finally his spirited fourth Orchestral Suite.

Pre- and Post-Concert Performances:

March 21: 6:45 pm – 7:15 pm, MYSO Bach Ensemble
March 22: 6:45 pm – 7:15 pm, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
March 23: 1:45 pm – 2:15 pm, UWM String Academy
March 23: immediately following the performance, Milwaukee Choristers

Wisconsin Conservatory of Music at MAM
Saturday, March 22 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N Art Museum Dr, Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra proudly partners with musicians from the WI Conservatory of Music to present a tuneful afternoon of select compositions by Bach, performed live for guests at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

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, Camille Pépin, 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.