The mission of Festival City Symphony, the oldest performing symphony orchestra in Milwaukee, is to educate the community and extend the reach of classical music with reasonable pricing and informative formats that embrace people of all ages.
FCS showcases area professional musicians in its two concert series: Symphony Sundays—Classical Music for All Ages and Pajama Jamborees—Classical Pops Concerts for Children and Families. Each season, FCS performs four Symphony Sundays concerts on Sunday afternoons, plus three Pajama Jamborees on select Wednesday evenings. FCS’s casual, family-friendly classical concerts have entertained audiences for more than 80 years! View our full schedule of Symphony Sundays concerts and Pajama Jamborees. Purchase individual tickets by calling the Pabst Theater Box Office at 414-286-3205 or visiting pabsttheater.org.
Join FCS and Music Director Carter Simmons for a powerful concert featuring master composers and hometown connections. Milwaukee’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer and educator John Downey influenced many musical lives through his work at UWM and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Experience his "Ode to Freedom" along with the intensely powerful music of the then Director of the Eastman School, Howard Hanson, and Paul Hindemith, whose music reflects the experiences of Saints John, Anthony, and Paul in resistance and victory over tyranny.
The Symphony Sundays’ season will conclude with “Monuments” on May 3, 2020 at 2pm at the Pabst Theater, 144 East Wells Street.
The concert will feature FCS Principal Flute, Emma Koi, performing Mozart’s beautiful and athletic first Flute Concerto on a program of monumental works by composers who provided the foundation to everything we enjoy at the symphony. Join Milwaukee’s Festival City Symphony led by Music Director Carter Simmons for the final Symphony Sunday of the season and a performance of music both exciting and consequential.
This Pajama Jamboree series will conclude with Spring Pajama Jamboree on Wed., May 6, 2020. The concert will feature patriotic tunes and lively melodies to welcome spring. FCS will close its season with children from the audience conducting the orchestral finale, Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever.
Jeannie Yu Featured in “Rhapsody and Romance: Legends of the Piano” Concert May 5, 2019
Jeannie Yu was awarded first prize in the Frinna Awerbuch Piano Competition, the Flint Symphony International Concerto Competition, the Portland Symphony International Concerto Competition, and the Kingsville Piano Competition. She earned the prestigious Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Award, a full scholarship for a Master’s Degree program at the Juilliard School where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree. She was awarded an accompanist …
Todd Levy Featured in “Copland and Levy: American Masters” Concert March 31, 2019
Principal clarinet of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, three-time Grammy Award-winner Todd Levy has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the White House; as chamber musician with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Miro, and Miami …
Program Notes: “Legends and Masters” Symphony Sundays – May 13, 2018
Festival City Symphony: May 13, 2018 | Notes by Roger Ruggeri © 2018 Carl Maria von Weber November 18, 1786; Eutin June 5, 1826; London Overture to “Der Freischütz” Derived from German legend, Weber’s opera, Der Freischütz, is filled with Teutonic superstition and diabolical elements. Pacts with the devil, magic bullets, eerie forests and mystical incantations were all part of this …
