John Williams is the preeminent composer of the modern Western world, creating a soundscape to our culture with scores for Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter. He’s also a longtime mentor and friend of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conductor Ken-David Masur. Williams. Now, Masur will present “The Movie Music of John Williams” at a series of MSO concerts in May.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Masur grew up in East Germany, in Leipzig, where American cultural output was scarce. Around the time of reunification (1989-91), his sister invited him to a West Berlin theater where he saw E.T. years after its release. That was the time I heard and saw a Steven Spielberg and John Williams collaboration and heard the music of John Williams. That to me is still the most moving experience.” As reunification unfolded, E.T. left an impression on Masur with its alien theme, “a metaphor for connecting with a world that you don’t know,” he says.
Masur’s family moved to New York with the appointment of his father, legendary German conductor Kurt Masur, as director of the New York Philharmonic. Masur heard Williams’ music live for the first time there in 1995 as the orchestra debuted The Five Sacred Trees, a concerto for bassoon and orchestra.
Masur met Williams when he bumped into him on the stairs of the allegedly haunted Highwood Manor House, on the grounds of Boston University’s music training Tanglewood Institute. Williams was conductor of the Boston Pops. “He was so kind and he asked, ‘Oh, you’re a young composer here. What are you writing right now?’ The fact that he had this interest in what I was doing – and of course I thought: What I’m doing is not so important, but what are you writing, John Williams?
“He and I had such a wonderful relationship since then, because I became assistant and then associate conductor for the Boston Symphony.”
Masur has shared the stage with Williams on several occasions recently, including in August 2022 when Masur conducted the Boston Symphony for Williams’ 90th birthday gala at Tanglewood. James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma and Branford Marsalis were on hand. Masur welcomed Spielberg onto the stage. “It was wonderful to see how sensitive Steven Spielberg was to the music and sound and even little things like that his stand where his notes were was making noise that he felt might disrupt John’s music. Very sensitive to that. And John was giving Steven pointers as to how to speak to the audience.”
Masur is planning another endeavor with Williams, he says, as he pursues a host of projects including the Chelsea Music Festival, an annual summer event in New York that Ken and Melinda founded and direct.
Masur cites a Williams connection to Milwaukee: Williams’ former music publisher, Hal Leonard, is headquartered here. When MSO’s new concert venue, the Bradley Symphony Center, opened in 2021, “I really wanted him to be part of the first season in the hall. And when that couldn’t happen due to COVID, he was kind enough to be part of our first concert in video form. Being part of that and sending us a message was very special to us,” says Masur.
Songs of the Prairie
MAY 9 | OCONOMOWOC ARTS CENTER
Composer Jacob Beranek, an Oconomowoc native, returns home for this Wisconsin Philharmonic concert. Also on the program is Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor featuring Chicago native and acclaimed young cellist Gabriel Cabezas. The orchestra will also present music of Aaron Copland as arranged by Alexander Platt, the philharmonic’s conductor.
María De Buenos Aires
MAY 17 AND 19 | TURNER HALL
Florentine Opera says its rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s tango operita, performed amidst “the fading beauty” of Turner Hall, will move you. A poor girl, born “one day when God was drunk,” drifts into the city and is pulled into a life of prostitution by the sound of the tango.
Gregorian Pure Chants Tour
MAY 19 | SOUTH MILWAUKEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
German producer Frank Peterson was behind the ultra-European 1990s act Enigma and their hit album MCMXC a.D. He followed that up with the group Gregorian, whose repertoire includes classical music, pop standards and contemporary rock tracks of the last four decades. The singers perform in monks’ robes in front of decorative light and fire effects.
Rehearsal for Murder
MAY 30 – JUNE 16 | SUNSET PLAYHOUSE
One year after an aspiring Broadway star’s death on the night of a debut performance, her playwright fiance stages a script reading with the surviving cast. As the play within the play continues, tensions rise and the fiance’s true intentions are revealed: He believes she was murdered by one of the cast members. This theater-themed whodunit promises thrills and satisfying “aha” moments.
