Conductor Bios

KEN-DAVID MASUR, MUSIC DIRECTOR

Hailed as “fearless, bold, and a life-force” (San Diego UnionTribune) and “a brilliant and commanding conductor with unmistakable charisma” (Leipzig Volkszeitung), Ken-David Masur is music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 2022.23, Masur leads a range of programs with the Milwaukee Symphony, where his programming throughout the season explores the natural world and its relationship to humanity. He also continues the second year of an MSO artistic partnership with pianist Aaron Diehl and leads choral and symphonic works including Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. As principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Masur leads concerts throughout the season, including an annual Bach Marathon. Other engagements include subscription weeks with Photo by Adam DeTour the Nashville and Omaha symphony orchestras, and a return to Poland’s Wroclaw Philharmonic. In 2021.22, Masur made debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and led performances with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. Following the gala opening of the Bradley Symphony Center, highlights of the MSO season included a semi-staged production of Peer Gynt. In the summer of 2022, Masur debuted at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, leading three programs with the Festival Orchestra, including members of the Berlin and Vienna philharmonics, and another concert with the Sapporo Symphony. He debuted at Classical Tahoe in three programs that were broadcast on PBS; and led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Branford Marsalis, and James Taylor at Tanglewood in a celebration of the composer John Williams. Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National de France, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the National Philharmonic of Russia, and orchestras throughout the United States, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, and Scandinavia. Previously Masur was associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he led numerous concerts, at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood, of new and standard works featuring guest artists such as Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Joshua Bell, Louis Lortie, Kirill Gerstein, Nikolaj Lugansky, and others. For eight years, Masur served as principal guest conductor of the Munich Symphony, and has also served as associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony and as resident conductor of the San Antonio Symphony. Music education and working with the next generation of young artists are of major importance to Masur. In addition to his work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he has led orchestras and masterclasses at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Chamber Orchestra, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, New England Conservatory, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and at other leading universities and conservatories throughout the world. Masur is passionate about the growth, encouragement and application of contemporary music and has conducted and commissioned dozens of new works, many of which have premiered at the Chelsea Music Festival, an annual summer music festival in New York City founded and directed by Masur and his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur. The Festival seeks to engage audiences with its ground-breaking collaborations between the performing, visual and culinary arts, and has been praised by The New York Times as a “gem of a series.”

EDO DE WAART, MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE

Throughout his long and illustrious career, renowned Dutch conductor Edo de Waart has held a multitude of posts with orchestras around the world, including music directorships with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and a chief conductorship with De Nederlandse Opera and Santa Fe Opera. Edo de Waart is principal guest conductor of San Diego Symphony, conductor laureate of both Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and music director laureate of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Jesse Willems Edo de Waart kicks off the 2022.23 season by returning to Sydney Symphony Orchestra with three performances in the newly renovated Sydney Opera House. Further engagements include Milwaukee, San Diego, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Antwerp symphony orchestras, and a special recording project of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Grieg’s Concerto for Piano with Royal Scottish National Orchestra and regular collaborator Joyce Yang. As an opera conductor, Edo de Waart has enjoyed success in a large and varied repertoire in many of the world’s greatest opera houses. He has conducted at Bayreuth, Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra Bastille, Santa Fe Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. With the aim of bringing opera to broader audiences where concert halls prevent full staging, he has, as music director in Milwaukee, Antwerp, and Hong Kong, often conducted semi-staged and opera in concert performances. A renowned orchestral trainer, he has been involved with projects working with talented young players at the Juilliard and Colburn schools and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Edo de Waart’s extensive catalogue encompasses releases for Philips, Virgin, EMI, Telarc, and RCA. Recent recordings include Henderickx’s Symphony No. 1 and Oboe Concerto, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, all with Royal Flemish Philharmonic. Beginning his career as an assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at New York Philharmonic, Edo de Waart then returned to Holland where he was appointed assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Edo de Waart has received a number of awards for his musical achievements, including becoming a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion and an Honorary Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia. He is also an honorary fellow of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

YANIV DINUR, RESIDENT CONDUCTOR

Winner of the 2019 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Fellow Award, Yaniv Dinur is the resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and music director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. He is lauded for his insightful interpretations and unique ability to connect with concertgoers of all ages and backgrounds, from season subscribers to symphony newcomers. Dinur conducts more than 50 concerts per season with the Milwaukee Symphony and was named by the Milwaukee Business Journal as one of the city’s most impressive young leaders currently making a positive difference in Milwaukee. In New Bedford, he has brought star soloists such as Yefim Photo by Erin Kavanaugh Bronfman, Pinchas Zukerman, Karen Gomyo, and Vadim Gluzman to play with the orchestra. Under his leadership, the New Bedford Symphony has been nationally recognized for its bold, engaging programming and artistic quality, leading to the League of American Orchestras selecting the orchestra to perform at the 2021 League Conference. Dinur’s recent and upcoming guest conducting highlights include subscription debuts with the symphonies of San Diego, Edmonton, Tulsa, Sarasota, Fort Worth, and Orchestra Haydn in Italy. He made his conducting debut at the age of 19 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, which led to multiple return engagements. Since then, he has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Houston Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New World Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Portugal Symphony, Sofia Festival Orchestra/Bulgaria, State Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Torino Philharmonic, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. An accomplished pianist, Dinur made his concerto debut with the Milwaukee Symphony in 2019, playing and conducting Mozart’s D Minor Concerto. He received critical acclaim for his “fluid, beautifully executed piano passages” and “deeply musical playing” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Born in Jerusalem, Dinur began studying the piano at the age of six with his aunt, Olga Shachar, and later with Prof. Alexander Tamir, Tatiana Alexanderov, Mark Dukelsky, and Edna Golandsky. He studied conducing in Israel with Dr. Evgeny Zirlin and Prof. Mendi Rodan, and holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he was a student of Prof. Kenneth Kiesler.