The Score | Milwaukee Bound

Ken-David Masur is the next music director of the Milwaukee Symphony, succeeding Edo De Waart, who led the orchestra from 2009 to 2017. Masur’s appointment is effective with the 2019-20 season and runs through 2022-23, during which period the orchestra plans to move to the new Milwaukee Symphony Center, in the former Warner Grand Theatre. As music director designate, Masur is already involved with planning the upcoming season. Masur is currently associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of Germany’s Munich Symphony, and, with his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur, co-artistic director of New York City’s Chelsea Music Festival. The son of the late conductor Kurt Masur and soprano Tomoko Sakurai, Ken-David Masur graduated from Columbia University, studied voice in addition to conducting, and has worked with multiple choruses. At Columbia, he founded and served as music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus. Current U.S. guest conducting appearances include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia, Louisville Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra, plus the National Philharmonic of Russia, Collegium Musicum Basel, Norway’s Stavanger Symphony, and Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra in France.