Music Director Ken-David Masur conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Jonathan Kirn
“Ken-David Masur … the Milwaukee Symphony music director … would much rather talk about how music can bring people together and enrich their lives,” writes Jim Higgins in Friday’s (4/2) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But in a time when Asian Americans are being verbally and physically attacked, he feels the imperative to speak up. ‘The time of putting your head down and being in denial of who you are and what you’re being discriminated or bullied for should be over,’ he said. Discussing his own journey as a multi-ethnic person [he is the son of German conductor Kurt Masur and Japanese soprano Tomoko Sakurai], Masur said … he responded to bullying and putdowns the way people have for centuries: ‘Put your head down and just continue doing the work as best as you can.’ … As part of his vision for the MSO, ‘we want diversity to become normal in both our programming’ and who you see in the orchestra, Masur said…. Masur also counsels not being afraid to confront [racist] talk. People who verbally attack Asians, or any ethnic group, ‘have made the decision to find the easy way to make themselves feel better,’ to overcome their own low self-worth at the expense of someone else, he said.”
