MSO 2026.27 Classics Season Brochure

JOIN US FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE 2026.27 SEASON

CLASSICS AT THE BRADLEY SYMPHONY CENTER

BEFORE THE MUSIC BEGINS, WE GATHER.

The room settles. Lights dim and the orchestra tunes. The conductor lifts the baton. In that shared breath before the first note, we’re ready — we lean in, to listen, to feel. These moments begin with you.

You, the longtime listener who knows the comfort of a favorite melody. The first-timer, unsure of what to expect, but open to something real. Anyone who has ever turned to music for joy, inspiration, or a sense of belonging.

Just as many voices join to become one orchestra, each concert brings people together, sharing the same sound in an experience that can’t be repeated, only remembered.

This is our hometown orchestra. These are our stories, told in sound. And every time the music begins, one thing is clear: YOU BELONG HERE.

RENEW

SAVE UP TO 25% WITH PRIORITY SEATING

Take advantage of discounted package pricing — up to 25% off regular single tickets. Plus, subscribers access the best seats before they become available to the general public.

ADDITIONAL 20% DISCOUNT

Enjoy the best pricing when you purchase additional concerts throughout the season.

MOVE TO THE HEAD OF THE LINE

When new concert dates are announced, subscribers receive advance notice for the best seats with 20% VIP savings.

FREE, UNLIMITED EXCHANGES

Customize your package by exchanging any of your subscription dates with other MSO concerts — including Classics, Pops, Film with Orchestra, and more. Exchange tickets up to 24 hours before a performance by simply calling the MSO Box Office or logging into your account at mso.org

KIRILL KARABITS

2026.27 SEASON ARTISTIC PARTNER DAVID ROBERTSON

Artistic Partner David Robertson is a highly acclaimed American conductor, widely sought-after in the worlds of opera, orchestral music, and new music. Robertson is celebrated worldwide as a champion of contemporary composers, an ingenious and adventurous programmer, and a masterful communicator.

He uses his vast and diverse knowledge of musical genres to lead the MSO in three contrasting programs this season: Movement & Melody (Oct 23-24), Guitar Celebration: From Rodrigo to Zappa (Jan 22-23), and our all-Strauss program, Four Last Songs (June 18-19).

SEASON OPENING FANFARE

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8A | 10A | 20 FRI SEP 18 , 2026 7:30 PM | SAT SEP 19 , 2026 7:30 PM

The 2026-27 season opens with bravura to the tune of Copland’s patriotic Fanfare for the Common Man . Brahms’s double concerto for violin and cello follows, with the MSO’s own Concertmaster Jinwoo Lee and Principal Cello Susan Babini collaborating on this unusual and impassioned combination.

MICHAEL SANDERLING conductor

JINWOO LEE violin

SUSAN BABINI cello

COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man BRAHMS Concerto for Violin and Cello

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

MICHAEL SANDERLING

JINWOO LEE

SUSAN BABINI

STEWART GOODYEAR

MADE IN AMERICA: KORNGOLD & RACHMANINOFF

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8B | 10B | 20

FRI OCT 9, 2026 11:15 AM | SAT OCT 10, 2026 7:30 PM

MSO Associate Conductor Ryan Tani takes the podium for Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, a symphonic work full of ghostly waltzes, jazzy inflections, and more. Violinist Julian Rhee performs Korngold’s “Hollywood concerto,” which draws material from his lushest cinematic themes.

RYAN TANI conductor

JULIAN RHEE violin

BARBER Medea’s Dance of Vengeance

KORNGOLD Violin Concerto RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

MOVEMENT & MELODY

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 10B | 20 | 8M

FRI OCT 23, 2026 7:30 PM | SAT OCT 24, 2026 7:30 PM SUN OCT 25, 2026 2:30 PM

Artistic Partner David Roberston leads a rhythmic program full of music created expressly for movement and dance. First up are two pieces by Chopin — a Parisian-style waltz and a graceful nocturne — arranged by the dance-minded Stravinsky for Diaghilev’s ballet Les Sylphides

DAVID ROBERTSON conductor

MILWAUKEE

SYMPHONY CHORUS

CHERYL FRAZES HILL director

CHOPIN/ORCH. STRAVINSKY Grand valse brillante

CHOPIN/ORCH. STRAVINSKY Nocturne in A-flat major

DEBUSSY Jeux

RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé

BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI OCT 30, 2026 11:15 AM

SAT OCT 31, 2026 7:30 PM

In Beethoven’s first piano concerto, we begin to hear the composer step away from imitation and into his own true voice. Conductor Kristiina Poska — “an iron baton in a velvet hand” (Diapason) — opens this program with music from fellow Estonian Ülo Krigul.

KRISTIINA POSKA conductor

ORLI SHAHAM piano

ÜLO KRIGUL Proteus Pulse

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1

SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”

BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO. 2

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI NOV 20, 2026 11:15 AM | SAT NOV 21, 2026 7:30 PM

Guest conductor Iván López Reynoso returns to the MSO to conduct Brahms’s second symphony, a serene and light-filled work that nevertheless carries a tinge of Brahms’s signature melancholy. Pianist Joyce Yang brings her “agility, balance and velocity” (Washington Post) to Gershwin’s ambitious and jazzy Concerto in F.

IVÁN LÓPEZ REYNOSO conductor

JOYCE YANG piano

BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide

GERSHWIN Concerto in F

ROYAL FIREWORKS

SERIES TYPE: 8B | 10B | 20 | 8M

SAT NOV 14, 2026

SUN NOV 15, 2026

Handel wrote Music for the Royal Fireworks to celebrate the end of an eight-year war and a peace treaty. Guest conductor Matthew Halls leads this 18th-century program, opening with a breezy orchestral suite from Rameau’s opera.

MATTHEW HALLS conductor

KATHERINE YOUNG STEELE oboe d’amore

RAMEAU Suite from Les Boréades

BACH Oboe d’amore Concerto

MUFFAT Sonata No. 5 from Armonico tributo HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks

GUITAR CELEBRATION: FROM RODRIGO TO ZAPPA

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI JAN 22, 2027 7:30 PM | SAT JAN 23, 2027 7:30 PM

DAVID ROBERTSON conductor

ANOTHER NIGHT ON EARTH

STEVE MACKEY, JOE GORE, GRETCHEN MENN , HEIKO OSSIG, DANIELE GOTTARDO, JIJI KIM, JAMES MOORE guitar

ROBERTSON Opening work

GORE/ROBERTSON Falling Through Time Suite for Electric Guitar

MACKEY Aluminum Flowers

GOTTARDO Concertino for Guitar and Orchestra

RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez

ZAPPA G-Spot Tornado

GRETCHEN MENN

The MSO celebrates the rhythms and range of the guitar as Artistic Partner David Robertson invites the world’s finest crossover guitarists to bring its scintillating repertoire to life. These concerts span genres from classical to rock, with music specifically written for guitar by composers from Joaquín Rodrigo to Frank Zappa.

BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTH SYMPHONY

SERIES TYPE: 8B | 10B | 20 | 8M SAT JAN 30, 2027 7:30 PM | SUN JAN 31, 2027 2:30 PM

PAOLO BORTOLAMEOLLI conductor

DAVID FRAY piano

MILHAUD La Création du monde

RAVEL Piano Concerto

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

A critic once said of Beethoven’s seventh symphony that it has a “certain secret magic.” Driving that secret magic is guest conductor Paolo Bortolameolli, whom the Los Angeles Times has praised for his “crisp, dynamic performance.” Versatile pianist David Fray also joins the MSO this week to perform Ravel’s piano concerto.

MOZART & SHOSTAKOVICH

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI FEB 12, 2027 11:15 AM | SAT FEB 13, 2027 7:30 PM

Zlatomir Fung takes the stage with Shostakovich’s first cello concerto, one of the finest pieces in all of cello repertoire. Former MSO Resident Conductor Yaniv Danur leads these concerts, bookended with music by Mozart, beginning with the overture to his gossipy opera

The Marriage of Figaro and ending with his inventive “Linz” symphony.

YANIV DINUR conductor

ZLATOMIR FUNG cello

MOZART Overture to

The Marriage of Figaro

SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No.1

SHOSTAKOVICH Chamber Symphony

MOZART Symphony No. 36, “Linz”

MOZART REQUIEM

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8B | 10B | 20

FRI FEB 19, 2027 7:30 PM | SAT FEB 20, 2027 7:30 PM

Mozart’s final work is considered one of the most sublime pieces of music ever written. Guest conductor Jaime Martín, the MSO, and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus convey its tenderness, intensity, and beauty.

JAIME MARTÍN conductor MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY CHORUS

CHERYL FRAZES HILL director

REGER

Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin

MOZART Requiem

Sleeping Beauty

LABADIE CONDUCTS

| 10A | 20 11:15 AM | SAT MAR 6, 2027 7:30 PM

Baroque and Classical music expert Bernard Labadie returns to the MSO to conduct masterworks from Beethoven and Mozart. Pianist Benedetto Lupo makes his MSO debut with Beethoven’s dramatic third piano concerto.

BERNARD LABADIE conductor

BENEDETTO LUPO piano

Piano Concerto No. 3

Chaconne from Idomeneo Symphony No. 1

SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO. 15

SERIES TYPE: 8B | 10B | 20 | 8M

SAT MAR 20, 2027 7:30 PM | SUN MAR 21, 2027 2:30 PM

With failing health, Shostakovich filled his 15th and final symphony with references to ideas he loved his own motifs, music by composers such as Rossini and Wagner, and nods so subtle that musicologists are still discovering them decades later.

ANDRIS POGA conductor

SIMONE LAMSMA violin

WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 15

HOLST’S THE PLANETS

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8A | 10A | 20 | 8M

FRI APR 2, 2027 7:30 P

SUN APR 4, 2027

Stephanie Childress leads one of classical music’s grandest spectacles: Holst’s The Planets. From the ethereal “Neptune, the Mystic” to the thundering “Mars, the Bringer of War,” this iconic suite soars. The MSO’s own Margaret Butler takes center stage with Ned Rorem’s gleaming English horn concerto.

STEPHANIE CHILDRESS conductor

WOMEN OF THE MILWAUKEE

SYMPHONY CHORUS

MARGARET BUTLER English horn

MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN New work for strings

ROREM English Horn Concerto

HOLST The Planets

DARKNESS INTO DAWN

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 10B | 20

FRI APR 9, 2027 11:15 AM | SAT APR 10, 2027 7:30 PM

Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits makes his MSO debut with Tchaikovsky’s second symphony and Mussorgsky’s haunting Night on Bald Mountain. Ingrid Fliter returns for Beethoven’s gentle and witty second piano concerto.

KIRILL KARABITS conductor

INGRID FLITER piano

KARABITS Concerto Triptych

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2

MUSSORGSKY Night on Bald Mountain

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 2, “Little Russian”

INGRID FILTER

PROKOFIEV’S FIFTH SYMPHONY

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 10A | 20 | 8M FRI APR 16 , 2027 7:30 PM | SAT APR 17, 2027 7:30 PM | SUN APR 18 , 2027 2:30 PM

DELYANA LAZAROVA conductor

SIMON TRPČESKI piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5

“ I conceived of it as glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit ... praising the free and happy man,” said Prokofiev of his uplifting fifth symphony, composed against the backdrop of WWII. Pianist Simon Trp heroic “Emperor” concerto.

MAHLER’S FIFTH SYMPHONY

SERIES TYPE: 8B | 10B | 20 | 8M

SAT MAY 8, 2027 7:30 PM | SUN MAY 9, 2027 2:30 PM

Mahler’s fifth symphony is a dramatic journey through life, death, and everything in between in other words, it’s Mahler at his finest. Guest conductor Jader Bignamini returns to conduct this epic masterpiece, which pairs heartbreaking funeral marches with blinding rays of hope.

JADER BIGNAMINI conductor

MAHLER Symphony No. 5

JADER BIGNAMINI

POSTCARDS FROM POLAND

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI MAY 21, 2027 11:15 AM | SAT MAY 22, 2027 7:30 PM

Guest conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń leads the MSO through musical postcards from her homeland, opening with a frenetic overture by Grażyna Bacewicz. Aristo Sham performs Chopin’s first piano concerto and Mieczysław Karłowicz’s Eternal Songs traces the humanity of love, longing, and death.

ANNA SUŁKOWSKA-MIGOŃ conductor

ARISTO SHAM piano

BACEWICZ Overture

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1

KILAR Orawa

KARŁOWICZ Eternal Songs

ENIGMA VARIATIONS

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8B | 10B | 20 | 8M

FRI JUN 4 2027 7:30 PM | SAT JUN 5 2027 7:30 PM

WILL LIVERMAN

The “Enigma” variations are a 14-piece suite, each based on a theme by Edward Elgar, dedicated “to my friends within.” William Walton’s Balshazzar’s Feast takes you on a biblical quest with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus.

MICHAEL SANDERLING conductor

WILL LIVERMAN baritone

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY CHORUS

CHERYL FRAZES HILL director

JAMES MACMILLAN Larghetto

ELGAR “Enigma” Variations

WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast

SCHUBERT’S “GREAT” SYMPHONY

SERIES TYPE: PRELUDE | 8A | 10A | 20

FRI JUN 11, 2027 11:15 AM | SAT JUN 12, 2027 7:30 PM

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN

2026 Grammy Award-winning conductor Kwamé Ryan helms the MSO in Schubert’s ninth symphony, “The Great,” honoring Schubert’s idol, Beethoven. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin brings his technique to Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto.

KWAMÉ RYAN conductor

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9, “The Great”

SEASON FINALE

FOUR LAST SONGS

SERIES TYPE: 8 | 8B | 10B | 20 FRI JUN 18 , 2027 7:30 PM | SAT JUN 19, 2027 7:30 PM

Often considered Richard Strauss’s most profound music, his Four Last Songs — all based on poems — are a parting gift to Strauss’s wife… and to the world. Artistic Partner David Robertson leads his sumptuous all-Strauss program, which comprises more of the composer’s most beloved music: his lyrical serenade for wind instruments; his tone poem of heavenly redemption, Death and Transfiguration ; and his funereal elegy for 23 strings, Metamorphosen .

DAVID ROBERTSON conductor

R. STRAUSS Serenade

R. STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration

R. STRAUSS Metamorphosen

R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs

BRADLEY SYMPHONY CENTER: GOOD TO KNOW

PARKING PERKS

Purchase discounted, pre-paid parking at The Avenue, located across the street from the Bradley Symphony Center or enjoy convenient valet parking, available at the marquee entrance on West Wisconsin Avenue.

FOOD & BEVERAGE SERVICE

The Bradley Symphony Center’s exclusive food and beverage partner, Indulge Catering Company - A Bianchini Experience, offers a variety of choices prepared onsite for your convenience. Enjoy libations at multiple bar locations and tasty soups, sandwiches, and quick bites ahead of the concert with Staccato Bites. On select Friday and Saturday evenings, reserve a table for Sound Bites, an elevated meal in the Ellen & Joe Checota Atrium and delight in a delicious selection of appetizers, salads, entrées, sides, and desserts. Located steps away from your evening’s MSO performance, this curated dining option allows for a seamless evening at the Symphony.

BOX OFFICE

Our MSO Box Office is ready to help with any questions. Call 414-291-7605 or email tickets@mso.org. Office hours are Mon – Fri 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, Sat 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm, and 90 minutes before all performances. The Box Office is not open post-performance. We have easy access, street level walk-up windows for in-person service at the Bradley Symphony Center

Visit mso.org for more information.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 2026

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