The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra season continues in January and February with the music of artists from Mozart to Coldplay

MILWAUKEE, WIS. 1/11/2024 – The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra continues the 2023.24 season in January and February with works by Beethoven, Mozart, Mussorgsky, and the music of Coldplay and Peggy Lee.

The next five performance weekends at the Bradley Symphony Center feature MSO Music Director Ken-David Masur; MSO Principal Trumpet Matthew Ernst and Principal Oboe Katherine Young Steele; pianist Jorge Federico Osorio; vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway, Casey Breves, Gregory Fletcher, and Malia Civetz; and guest conductors Steve Hackman, Bernard Labadie, and Stuart Chafetz, as well as Mexican conductor Iván López-Reynoso, who will be making his U.S. symphonic debut with the MSO.

All performances take place in Allen-Bradley Hall at the Bradley Symphony Center at 212 W. Wisconsin Avenue, and tickets can be purchased at mso.org, by calling 414-291-7605, or in person at the Box Office on Wisconsin Avenue.

Steve Hackman’s Beethoven X Coldplay
January 20, 2024 at 7:30 PM

A merging of musical giants, Beethoven X Coldplay pairs two composer/artists that deal with universal and humanist themes in their music, and asks the musical question—would Beethoven have found meaning in the music of Coldplay? That notion, perhaps odd-sounding at first, becomes much more compelling when considering the events surrounding Beethoven’s creation of the “Eroica” Symphony—an artist desperate to solidify his position as the reigning musical genius in Vienna, but yet still misunderstood and criticized, and a young man in his thirties faced with the reality that he would indeed soon be completely deaf. How, then, would Beethoven have reacted to the Coldplay lyrics “Nobody said it was easy?” or “When you lose something you can’t replace … could it be worse?”

Beethoven X Coldplay transforms the “Eroica” into an oratorio, weaving the melodies and lyrics of Coldplay into the original Beethoven, pairing them together based on content and context. It is the alternate “Eroica,” Beethoven may have created had he known the music of Coldplay at the time. World-class vocalists, Casey Breves, Gregory Fletcher, and Malia Civetz, join the full orchestra, and conductor/composer Steve Hackman alternates between conducting the orchestra and playing the piano. Many of Coldplay’s most well-known songs are interpolated, including “Yellow,” “Viva La Vida,” “Clocks,” and “The Scientist.”

Labadie Conducts Mozart
January 26, 2024 at 7:30 PM
January 27, 2024 at 7:30 PM

“One felt we were hearing the score exactly as Mozart wanted us to hear it,” says The Globe and Mail of esteemed conductor Bernard Labadie, who leads the MSO in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, an urgent masterpiece which celebrates the trials and triumph of the human spirit. The MSO’s own Principal Trumpet Matthew Ernst plays Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto, composed to demonstrate the instrument’s versatility and range and riddled with influence from Hummel’s own teacher, Mozart. Performed far too rarely, Rigel’s distinctive Fourth Symphony opens the program with drama.

Mozart Oboe & Symphony
February 2, 2024 at 7:30 PM
February 3, 2024 at 7:30 PM

The MSO’s Principal Oboe Katherine Young Steele takes center stage with Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, one of the most treasured showpieces for the instrument. Music Director Ken-David Masur opens this celebration of Mozart’s genius with his staggeringly inventive “Haffner” Symphony; later, composer Max Reger plays expressive musical games with the opening theme of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11.

Beethoven Piano & Pictures at an Exhibition
February 9, 2024 at 7:30 PM
February 10, 2024 at 7:30 PM

The MSO is delighted to welcome Mexican conductor Iván López-Reynoso for his U.S. symphonic debut! López-Reynoso conducts Ravel’s orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky’s impressionistic Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, featuring López-Reynoso’s compatriot and “an imaginative interpreter with a powerful technique” (The New York Times), pianist Jorge Federico Osorio. The program opens with a suite from the 1936 film Redes (“Nets”) by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.

Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration
February 16, 2024 at 7:30 PM
February 17, 2024 at 7:30 PM
February 18, 2024 at 2:30 PM

Tony Award nominee, songwriter, and pop/jazz vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway presents an engaging night of songs and stories to celebrate one of America’s most beloved artists, the iconic Peggy Lee. Over a career spanning seven decades, Lee was a trailblazer for female songwriters and was dubbed the “Queen of American pop music” and “the female Frank Sinatra.” Her sultry tone and incredible span of recordings are showcased by Callaway and the full orchestral power of the MSO. Former MSO Resident Conductor Stuart Chafetz returns to lead the orchestra for the first time in Allen-Bradley Hall at the Bradley Symphony Center.

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, and Matthias Pintscher, as well as garnered national recognition as the first American orchestra to offer live recordings on iTunes. Now in its 52nd season, the orchestra’s nationally syndicated radio broadcast series, the longest consecutive-running series of any U.S. orchestra, is heard annually by more than two million listeners. The MSO’s standard of excellence extends beyond the concert hall and into the community, reaching more than 70,000 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. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.