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UWM Symphony Orchestra
The UWM Symphony Orchestra is comprised of graduate and undergraduate
music majors as well as students from other academic disciplines.
Membership is by audition. The ensemble rehearses six hours a week
and performs eight to twelve concerts each season. Orchestra members
are introduced to the world’s great orchestra literature,
and their training prepares them for careers as professional musicians
and music educators.
Since 1984, conductor Margery Deutsch has brought forth extraordinary
results from the eighty member ensemble. Milwaukee Journal critic
Tom Strini remarked, “The UWM Symphony Orchestra is not your
usual student symphony. Responding to the precise, expressive baton
of Margery Deutsch, the student musicians played with vigor, attention,
even passion and joy.”
In addition to a five concert subscription series, the Orchestra
also presents a Children’s Concert and the Grand Viennese Ball,
an elegant evening in support of the Music Scholarship Fund. They
perform every year with the UWM Choirs and have collaborated with
UWM’s Opera Theater program and Professional Theater Training
Program. In 2007 as recipient of a Vilas Foundation grant, the UWM
Chamber Orchestra performed at St. James Cathedral in Chicago and
had a master class with conductor Nicholas McGegan. In 2006, the
Orchestra participated in master classes with composer Stella Sung
and conductor Andrew Massey and performed a side-by-side concert
with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Some of the composers they
have collaborated with include John Corigliano, Crawford Gates, Roberto
Sierra, Tomas Svoboda and Chen Yi. They have commissioned several
works and performed numerous world premieres.
Each year, the UWM Symphony holds a Concerto Competition, with the
winners performing concerti with the Orchestra. Since 1987, they
have hosted the UWM High School Honors Orchestra Festival, which
brings together more than 100 outstanding high school musicians from
throughout the state of Wisconsin for a weekend of rehearsals, master
classes, performances, and a concert. Since 1991, the Orchestra has
sponsored a Young Artist Competition for high school instrumentalists.
The winner performs with the UWM Symphony in February.
The UWM Orchestras have performed at Chicago Symphony Center, in
Madison at the Wisconsin Music Educators Association State Conference,
for the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Wisconsin Alliance
for Composers, and throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. The orchestra
has participated in eight Vilas Foundation grants. They have received
funding from the Artist Series at the Pabst, Bradley Foundation,
Marquette Electronics Foundation, Davidson and Harley Foundation,
Pabst Theater and the NEA, as well as numerous corporations and individuals.
They have performed at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Children’s
Hospital, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Graduates of the orchestra program are playing in orchestras throughout
the world and working as music educators throughout the country.
For further information
UWM Ochestra Office
[414] 229-4609
symphony@uwm.edu
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