Welcome to Milwaukee Musaik

A Consortium of Musicians Dedicated to an Imaginative Concert Experience

 2025-2026 Season

November 18  |  March 30  |  May 18

Special concert January 11  ~ Sharon Lynn Wilson Center for the Arts presents: Milwaukee Musaik and Violins of Hope

Welcome to another wonderful season of concerts with Milwaukee Musaik. The 2025-2026 season is a special season for Milwaukee Musaik as we will be performing two Holocaust related memorial concerts as a community partner to the Violins of Hope Wisconsin residency presented by the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO).

The Milwaukee Musaik Chamber Orchestra opens the season in wonderful acoustics of Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church on November 18, 2025 with Resilience in Silence: Echoes of Memory and Survival. This Holocaust education centered concert brings to light works by Jewish composers who suffered the effects of persecution and oppression. Instruments from the Violins of Hope collection will bring to life the voices of those who sadly were silenced. To continue as a community artistic partner of the Violins of Hope Wisconsin residency, Milwaukee Musaik artists will perform on January 11, 2026 in the Sharon Lynn Wilson Center concert series (click here for details). On March 30, 2026 we will visit the intimate Helen Bader Recital Hall at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music for an eclectic chamber music evening - American Soundscapes: A 250th Celebration. On May 18, 2026, we present a spectacular season closer Innocence and Wonder concert with Milwaukee area soprano Alisa Jordheim and Musaik Chamber Orchestra. Led by conductor Alexander Mandl, the visions of a young boy are depicted in works by Samuel Barber and Gustav Mahler. This is a not-to-be-missed event at the Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church. Distinguished for its unusual programming and stellar musician roster, Milwaukee Musaik juxtaposes timeless classics with the new and unfamiliar. (Please click on concert title links for tickets and detailed info.)

"RESILIENCE IN SILENCE: Echoes of Memory and Survival" - This event is a collaboration between Milwaukee Musaik and “Violins of Hope-Wisconsin” presented by MYSO.

This concert is more than a performance; it is a remembrance, a reflection, and we hope, an act of education. The music you will hear, by Schulhoff, Ligeti, Williams and Weinberg, does not illustrate history in the literal sense. Instead, it refracts it. These works bear the imprint of lives shaped by displacement, persecutions, and survival.

Erwin Schulhoff perished in a Nazi concentration camp; György Ligeti narrowly survived World War II, losing most of his Jewish family to Nazis; Mieczyslaw Weinberg fled the Shoa (Holocaust) only to face terror in Stalin's USSR. Even American film composer John Williams' score to Schindler's List, though composed decades later, is a form of sonic memory; an elegy for a vanished world.

"AMERICAN SOUNDSCAPES: A 250th Celebration"

Join Milwaukee Musaik and its stellar musicians for a journey through 250 years of American music. This program celebrates the evolution of American classical style, beginning with Francis Hopkinson’s elegant colonial-era song and moving through the expressive voices of Amy Beach and Samuel Barber. Audiences will experience Aaron Copland’s intimate string quartet tonal fabric, the hypnotic minimalism of Philip Glass, and the jazz-infused charm of George Gershwin. The evening also features Rudi Heinrich’s playful Suburban Dances and Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay and Mississippi Delta, a modern classic brimming with rhythm and energy. From the earliest American melodies to today’s vibrant sounds, this concert captures examples of the spirit, diversity, and innovation that define the American classical music voice.

"INNOCENCE AND WONDER" - Alisa Jordheim, soprano

Milwaukee Musaik Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Alexander Mandl, invites you to an evening that celebrates music’s ability to capture childlike vision and profound reflection. With Milwaukee area outstanding soprano Alisa Jordheim as soloist, the program pairs Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a nostalgic evocation of childhood memories and summer evenings, with Gustav Mahler’s radiant Symphony No. 4 in Iain Farrington’s chamber arrangement, a work that culminates in a song of heavenly innocence. Together, these masterpieces weave a tapestry of wonder, tenderness, and joy that speaks to the timeless beauty of seeing the world through a child’s eyes.

Thank you for your continued support of Milwaukee Musaik as we continue to bring you closer to the music. Please check our website for season updates.

Sincerely;

The Milwaukee Musaik Artistic Board

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