[ Orchestra tuning ] [ Fireworks whistling, popping ] [ Orchestra tuning ] -Good evening, I'm Portia Young, and tonight the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra begins its next chapter as they premiere their newly renovated Allen-Bradley concert hall, inside the new and exquisite Bradley Symphony Center.
I'm here in the choir loft in this gorgeous building, and this weekend will be the first time that the orchestra has played in front of a full house in their new home.
We're waiting for Concertmaster Ilana Setapen to enter the stage.
The symphony's program will open with a piece commissioned specially for this weekend, and is aptly titled "Opening."
It was composed by 38 year old Eric Nathan, who has written a wide repertoire of music in his young career, and is also an associate professor at Brown University.
[ Applause ] Nathan has discussed how he draws inspiration from historic spaces and the collected energies of those who have been in them before.
[ Tuning ] We're ready to begin -- here's the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's music director and tonight's conductor, Ken-David Masur.
[ Applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] Coming up next is "The Green Fuse," a work of another young composer, Great Britain's James B. Wilson.
It was first performed at the 2017 in the Chineke!
Orchestra, Europe's first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra and based in the UK.
Here is the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ken-David Masur.
[ Applause ] [ Applause ] -Tonight's guest pianist, Aaron Diehl, was recently named as the MSO's artistic partner.
He'll be the soloist on Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," and Ellington's "New World A-Comin'," as tonight's concert continues.
[ Applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] [ Renewed cheering ] [ Cheering ] We're about to begin the second half of our program which will end with Igor Stravinsky's classic suite from "The Firebird."
But first, Aaron Diehl returns with Duke Ellington's "New World A-Comin'," which Ellington premiered in 1943 at Carnegie Hall.
[ Applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] Well, the symphony is going to close tonight's concert with Russian-born Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite."
Stravinsky was a student of the great Rimsky-Korsakov, and "The Firebird," a ballet featuring many folkloric Russian characters, was initially performed in Paris to critical acclaim in 1915.
It was rewritten in 1919 as a five-movement concert suite and it will conclude this magical evening here at the Bradley Symphony Center.
[ Applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] And so we reach the end of this delightful evening.
We've inaugurated the new Bradley Symphony Center in downtown Milwaukee, and the old movie palace breathes new life again.
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did -- from our entire crew and the Milwaukee Symphony, I'm Portia Young, good night.
[ Applause ]
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