Edo de Waart presents De Waart Conducts Strauss

Fri, Feb 27 - Sat, Feb 28  2015

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Edo de Waart present de Waart Conducts Strauss on February 27-28, 2015 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. The performances feature Strauss’s Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings, Oboe Concerto in D major, and Don Quixote, Op. 35. Featured soloists include the MSO’s Principal Oboe Katherine Young Steele, Principal Cello Susan Babini, and Principal Viola Robert Levine.

Both concerts include Meet the Music, a free, interactive pre-concert discussion held one hour prior to concert start time, in Uihlein Hall at 10:15 a.m. on Friday and in Anello Atrium at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.

About the artist

Edo de Waart enters his sixth season as the sixth music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2014.15. He also serves as chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and conductor laureate of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Regular guest conducting appearances include the ChicagoSymphony, NHK Symphony, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras as well as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra where, as with the San Francisco Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic, he has previously held a post. At the end of the 2013.14 season, he returned to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

As an opera conductor, 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, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera de Bastille, Santa Fe Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera. His most recent appearance at The Met received rave reviews for Der Rosenkavalier, and he will return to the house in future seasons. In addition to semi-staged and concert opera performances with his orchestras in the United States, he regularly conducts opera with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s Zaterdag Matinee series, most recently Richard Strauss’s Salome.

Edo de Waart’s extensive catalogue encompasses releases for Philips, Virgin, EMI, Telarc, and RCA. His most recent recording is with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 was released in April 2013. Future releases include Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: Nachtgesang und Isoldes Liebestod (arr. Henk de Vlieger) with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontiuswith the Royal Flemish Philharmonic.

At the age of 23, de Waart won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York which resulted in his appointment as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. On his return to Holland, he was appointed assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1967, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him guest conductor and, six years later, chief conductor and artistic director. Since then, he has also been music director of the San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony, and chief conductor of De Nederlandse Opera.

On February 12th The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has announced that Music Director Edo de Waart will become its conductor laureate in September 2017. De Waart has led the orchestra since the 2009.10 season and has raised the artistic profile of the MSO to the highest levels. 
“Since the beginning of my tenure as music director, it has been a tremendous privilege to lead this remarkable group of musicians. I cherish the relationship we share and the artistic results we have achieved,” said de Waart. “I am gratified and honored to assume the role of conductor laureate, and look forward to continuing to work with the MSO in the future.”