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.
Please Note: This season all Symphony Sunday concerts begin one hour earlier starting at 2:00pm.
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.
Festival City Symphony’s first “Symphony Sundays” concert of the 2018-2019 season, Glorious Symphonists, will be on Sunday, September 30, 2018, 2pm at the Pabst Theater, 144 East Wells Street. The concert will feature Hector Berlioz's "Overture to Les Franc-Juges, op. 3," Antonin Dvorak's "Slavonic Dances," and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky's "Symphony no. 5."
Festival City Symphony will begin its “Pajama Jamboree” season with its Halloween Pajama Jamboree, a free concert on Wednesday, October 31, 2018, at 7pm in the Bradley Pavilion of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts (the main entrance on 929 N. Water Street). Members of the orchestra and the audience are invited to come in costume for a concert of favorites.
Festival City Symphony will continue its “Pajama Jamboree” season with a Holiday Pajama Jamboree, a free concert on Wednesday, October 31, 2018, at 7pm in the Bradley Pavilion of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts (the main entrance on 929 N. Water Street). The concert will feature traditional holiday music as well as poems of the holidays set to music, including Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus and The Night Before Christmas. Attendees are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food donation for Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force.
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 …
