Thursdays at 9:00 pm
Maestro Ken-David Masur, Music Director and Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (Photo: Adam DeTour)
Hear the country’s longest-running national classical radio series.
Since its founding in 1959, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has continued to be one of the country’s most artistically vibrant and innovative orchestras. Millions nationwide have experienced the MSO since 1971 through its radio series – the country’s longest-running national classical radio series. Led by Ken-David Masur, who was appointed music director in 2018, the MSO’s virtuosic musicians excite listeners with over 140 live concerts across Wisconsin each season. A selection of concerts is featured in the broadcast series along with exclusive, behind-the-scenes conversations with musicians.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra programs are part of the WFMT Orchestra Series.
There are no upcoming broadcasts at the moment.
Matthias Pintscher and Javier Perianes
December 19, 2019
Conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a performance of works by Pintscher himself, plus Debussy, Saint-Saëns, and Scriabin.
Jeffrey Kahane conducts Mozart, Schubert, and Strauss
December 12, 2019
Maestro Kahane leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from the piano and from the podium in a performance of beloved repertoire by Mozart, Schubert, and Strauss.
Edo de Waart conducts Mahler 9
December 5, 2019
Music director laureate Edo de Waart leads the MSO in Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 9 in D Major.
Music of Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk
November 21, 2019
Finnish-Russian conductor Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in an all-Russian program of works by Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff featuring pianist Simon Trpčeski.
Conductor Alexander Shelley and violinist Blake Pouliot
November 14, 2019
Guest conductor Alexander Shelley and violinist Blake Pouliot take the Milwaukee Symphony Center stage for this performance of works by Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Walton.
Pianist Orli Shaham and conductor Joshua Weilerstein
November 7, 2019
Acclaimed pianist Orli Shaham joins guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Carlos Kalmar leads works of Strauss, Bartók, and Dvořák
October 31, 2019
Carlos Kalmar, artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster Frank Almond in a program of works by Strauss, Bartók, and Dvořák.
Johannes Debus conducts music by Wagner, Mozart, and Saint-Saëns
October 24, 2019
Pianist Louis Lortie and guest conductor Johannes Debus join the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for a program of works by Wagner, Mozart, and Saint-Saëns.
Vadim Gluzman plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
October 17, 2019
Under the baton of Yaniv Dinur, violinist Vadim Gluzman performs Tchaikovksy's Violin Concerto. Also featured in this program are works by living Israeli composer Menachem Wiesenberg and a Shostakovich symphony.
Karina Canellakis and Jader Bignamini
October 10, 2019
Two rising conductors, Karina Canellakis and Jader Bignamini, share conducting duties in this Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra broadcast. Canellakis starts the program with music by Lilli Boulanger and Stravinsky, and Bignamini concludes the evening with works by Tchaikovksy and Respighi.
Ken-David Masur conducts Rachmaninoff and Brahms
October 3, 2019
Ken-David Masur, the newly-appointed music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, leads the MSO in a performance of Rachmaninoff's beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring soloist Boris Giltburg. Masur also conducts a performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 2.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
December 27, 2018
Jun Märkl conducts a performance that culminates in Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 9. Also featured, Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Ken-David Masur leads a performance of Augusta Read Thomas’s Radiant Circles. This is the final broadcast in this series for 2018.
Sensuous Ravel
December 20, 2018
Enjoy a mixed program as Ken-David Masur leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of works by Copland, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, and Brahms.
Dvořák’s New World Symphony
December 13, 2018
Hans Graf conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a program of works by Barber, Prokofiev, and Dvořák. Truls Mørk is the cellist for Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante for Cello and Orchestra.
Asher Fisch conducts Mahler
December 6, 2018
Asher Fisch leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring music from Britten, late MSO music director Lukas Foss, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erd (The Song of the Earth). The program features Bella Hristova, violin; Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; and Stuart Skelton, tenor.
Prokofiev Triumphant
November 29, 2018
Yaniv Dinur conducts the MSO in a program featuring Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with pianist Drew Peterson. This program also includes the MSO premiere of a work by Emily Cooley, a Milwaukeean composer.
Andreas Delfs Returns
November 22, 2018
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s conductor laureate, Andreas Delfs, returns to lead a program featuring music by Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams, and living American composer Pierre Jalbert.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
November 15, 2018
Stefan Asbury conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. Plus, violinist Augustin Hadelich appears to perform Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto
November 8, 2018
Fabien Gabel leads the MSO and pianist Louis Schwizgebel in an evening of varied music by Beethoven, Bernstein, Schmitt, and Ravel.
American Classics
November 1, 2018
Teddy Abrams conducts the MSO and guest Susanna Phillips, soprano, in a program of American works, featuring Bernstein’s Divertimento and Copland’s Symphony No. 3.