About Festival City Symphony

Festival City Symphony is proud to be celebrating 100 years as a member in the Milwaukee arts community! Originally founded as the Young People’s Orchestra in 1927 and renamed to the Milwaukee Civic Symphony Orchestra in 1946, the organization is Milwaukee’s oldest performing symphony orchestra. In 1993, the Civic Music Association and the Milwaukee Civic Symphony Orchestra mutually agreed that the orchestra should reorganize as a separate nonprofit organization. Under its new name, Festival City Symphony, the orchestra performed its premier concert on February 27, 1994, in the historic Pabst Theater.

Festival City Symphony’s mission is to extend the reach of classical music in the greater Milwaukee area by presenting free and engaging symphony orchestra concerts. It offers free live classical music to the community through two concert series. The Saturday Classics series features four concerts at the Bradley Symphony Center, while the Pajama Jamboree series includes three family-friendly pop concerts in the Bradley Pavilion of the Marcus Performing Arts Center.

The orchestra’s collaborative programs often incorporate local arts or educational organizations, Milwaukee-based performers, and children’s performing groups. Composed of professional musicians from around the Milwaukee area, Festival City Symphony’s member musicians serve as instructors in many of the region’s universities, public and private schools, and private lesson studios.

Sponsors

Festival City Symphony is extremely grateful for the generosity of these sponsors:

Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Franklyn and Barbara Esenberg Fund and Festival City Symphony Endowment Fund
United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF)
Milwaukee County Cultural, Artistic and Musical Programming Advisory Council (CAMPAC)
Milwaukee Arts Board and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin
Herzfeld Foundation
Nonprofit Management Fund
Music Performance Trust Fund
Green Bay Packers Community Foundation
Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
Wisconsin Public Radio – WPR Music 90.7
Green Onion Creative

Friends of Festival City Symphony:

Giving Back to the Community

Festival City Symphony is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that supports the community and nurtures music education and appreciation. FCS provides access to exceptional classical music to all through our free Pajama Jamboree and Saturday Classics concert series. During the season, FCS collects nonperishable food donations for Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force. In addition, FCS works closely with youth and community organizations including the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and Girl Scouts of Southeastern Wisconsin and Manitou

Carter Simmons, Music Director

Music Director Carter Simmons is recognized throughout the community for serving others through music. In addition to conducting the superb musicians of the Festival City Symphony, he is Artistic and Music Director of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, where he has devoted 34 years. One of the most successful programs of its kind, he leads its impressive artist management team and faculty who serve thousands of young musicians each season. Simmons was President of Milwaukee’s Civic Music Association, and at MYSO he provided guidance in the creation of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center — a 100,000 square foot facility dedicated to arts education and home to the orchestras he leads. His former students perform in many of the nation’s major orchestras and military bands and many have attended the country’s finest conservatories and schools of music.

Simmons has conducted the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Wisconsin Philharmonic, among others. His conducting has taken him to venues across three continents, including recent performances in Poland’s National Forum of Music and Smetana Hall in Prague, Antwerp’s Queen Elisabeth Hall and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, throughout China including Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall, and Chicago’s renowned Orchestra Hall. He will conduct in Seoul and venues across the Republic of Korea in 2027, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Youth Orchestra Division of the League of American Orchestras.

Born in Quantico, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., Simmons received training in piano, voice, and horn at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Eastern Music Festival, with conducting studies at the Tanglewood Music Center. He attended masterclasses with luminaries such as Leon Fleisher, Gunther Schuller, and Elizabeth A.H. Green, and observed rehearsals led by Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and Daniel Barenboim, among many others. Simmons is deeply grateful to his wonderful family and colleagues, and to his exceptional teachers: Dr. John R. Locke, Robert Gutter, Larry Rachleff, and Professor Thomas L. Dvorak.

Festival City Symphony Board of Directors

Board Chairperson: Marie O’Shea, Service & Solutions Marketing Manager, Manitou Group

Vice Chairperson: Charlane O’Rourke-Hertig, Nonprofit Theater Executive, Arts Advocate

Secretary-Treasurer: Joann Steidinger, CLU, ChFC, Owner/Freelance Writer, Steidinger Consulting

Director: Patricia Ellis, Director of Equity, Access, and Inclusion, Milwaukee Public Schools

Chairman of the Board Emeritus: Franklyn Esenberg, Retired President and CEO of Interstate Forging Industries

Festival City Symphony Staff

Music Director: Carter Simmons

Music Director Emeritus: Monte Perkins

Operations Director: Brandon Yahn

Operations Assistant & Music Librarian: Mary Pat Michels

Personnel Manager: Kathryn Krubsack

Unlocking the Score & Pajama Jamboree Host: Lynn Roginske

What Is Symphony Orchestra?

A symphony orchestra is a large ensemble of string, wind, brass, and percussion musicians performing classical orchestral works. Festival City Symphony is Milwaukee’s own, dating back 100 years! We are Milwaukee’s oldest performing symphony orchestra, tracing back to 1927.