Interior of the renovated Bradley Symphony Center, a former movie palace that is home to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra “is planning for full houses in the recently renovated and still-sparkling Bradley Symphony Center” writes Jim Higgins in a preview of the orchestra’s 2021-22 season in Friday’s (5/7) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI). “The MSO plans a free community day of music on Sept. 26 [and] the return of guest stars [including] cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will play a recital April 29, 2022, with pianist Kathryn Stott. The Bradley Symphony Center opened in 1931 as a movie palace [and] music director Ken-David Masur has programmed several concerts featuring music of the 1930s…. Pianist Aaron Diehl … will be an official artistic partner … in 2021-’22.… In a consortium with eight other orchestras, the MSO has commissioned a new piano concerto by Jessie Montgomery, which pianist Awadagin Pratt will perform here… Masur will conduct the orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Chorus in a staged adaptation of Edvard Grieg’s music for [Ibsen’s play] ‘Peer Gynt.’ … Masur will lead an unusual Pops program … featuring music associated with Prohibition, including Josephine Baker, Kurt Weill and King Oliver. The staging will include projected visual imagery.… Masur, orchestra and chorus will close the next classical season with Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9.”
