Milwaukee Ballet Artistic Director Michael Pink has often said that the company's winter and spring programs of contemporary one-act ballets are designed to provide the dancers with exciting challenges. Freed to be themselves...

Featured at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's all-Rachmaninoff program will be the Russian composer's Symphony No. 1 in D minor, a slow, painful endeavor that became a stunning success, and his Concerto No. 2 in C minor for Piano and Orchestra...

Instead of the catcalls and raised fists that confronted The Rite of Spring at its 1913 premiere, the audience for the Jan. 27 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) concert rose in a standing ovation. Stravinsky's once revolutionary ballet...

Long considered one of classical music's most addictive guilty pleasures, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana may not command the respect of more prestigious choral works, but its rollicking hedonistic decadence seems in tune with the moral indifference...

With each concert the string section of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra seems to acquire greater dynamic precision and an increasingly subtle refinement, which brought a warm sense of repose to guest conductor Evan Rogister's beautiful performance...

For the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra's “Founders Concert,” the Senior Symphony, the flagship ensemble comprised of high school age students, will feature a guest artist, Jeannie Yu, on piano. The program includes the overture from Dmitry...

It must have been a treat for Kevin Stalheim, Present Music's founding artistic director, to nominate a slew of works that excited him and let the audience choose its favorites. “It's power-to-the-people time,” Stalheim declared at the start of...

George Frideric Handel's timeless Messiah is a December inevitability. Last week the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra presented five performances of its annual Messiah in three locations. I heard the oratorio on Saturday evening at the Cathedral...

I've never enjoyed The Nutcracker as much as at the matinee opening of Michael Pink's Milwaukee Ballet production last Saturday. I found it funnier and more poignant this year, my third annual viewing. The dances and the story they...

The art of collaboration between humans is a continuing life lesson. Sometimes when individuals come together, even with shared ideals, things can go south. Other times people work together in a happy and rich process, and remarkable...

The Florentine Opera Studio Artists and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra...

Early Music Now presents the young British choral ensemble Stile Antico for a performance of Thomas Tallis' 16th-century Christmas mass, Missa Puer natus est. The concert also will feature works by other British Renaissance songwriters...

Albert Einstein stated about music, “I never like a work if I cannot intuitively grasp its inner unity.” Architectural unity came to mind listening to J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations at Frankly Music last week. A soulful aria theme is taken through...

Now that December is upon us, Milwaukee can look forward to superb holiday music. One such delightful option is the MSO Pops' “Holiday Pops Spectacular” under conductor Jeff Tyzik, a Grammy winner considered one of the nation...

I was working in Europe for the past nine weeks, and experienced many performances in several cities. In the time-honored expatriate tradition, a renewed perspective on our classical scene in Milwaukee emerged from an ocean away...

Bach's Goldberg Variations, published in 1741, were originally performed on the harpsichord before evolving into the modern iteration for violin, viola, cello and piano. The history of the variations hinges on Goldberg's desire to receive musical...

Present Music's Thanksgiving concert was like alphabet soup, a little bit of avant-garde chanting, some classical strings and a hint of dance. It was all about the experience of being thankful, to anything and everything; thankful to God, thankful...

Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong will lead the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in “Bach and More,” the second concert of this season's Basilica Series. The program will begin with Bach's great Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, arguably the most popular...

“I am Maria, Maria tango, slum Maria, Maria night, Maria fatal passion, Maria love of Buenos Aires, that's me.” The opera tango Maria de Buenos Aires is a rich story of dance, death and desire...

The Chamber Orchestra of the Theatre of Early Music, under artistic director/countertenor Daniel Taylor, will fill Wisconsin Lutheran College with the beautiful music of George Frideric Handel—specifically, operatic arias and duets from...

The Florentine Opera's stunning production of Puccini's final masterpiece, Turandot, was a crowd pleaser even for those unfamiliar with this idiosyncratic work. Some eyebrows were raised among the sold-out house on Friday night as a pajama...

Fortune has returned to Milwaukee in the form of Joyce Yang, who will be performing a one-evening concert of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO...

Michael Pink makes fine use of ballet traditions to expose the heart of Bram Stoker's late-Romantic masterpiece, Dracula. The opening-night performance, with a wonderful score by Philip Feeney and first-rate designs by Lez Brotherston and Paul Pyant...

The Basilica of St. Josaphat is a splendid setting for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concert, “The Eight Seasons.” The program will span the 18th to 20th centuries and include Vivaldi's immortal The Four Seasons, Argentine...

This weekend the Racine Symphony Orchestra (RSP) marks the opening of its 80th season. The RSO is led by maestro Pasquale Laurino, a guest conductor...