Ken-David Masur

Ken-David Masur is celebrating his seventh season as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He also currently serves as principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Civic Orchestra — the CSO's premier training ensemble — and is the newly announced artistic partner of the Oregon Bach Festival.

His Milwaukee tenure has been notable for innovative thematic programming, including an annual citywide Bach Festival, a multiseason artist-in-residence program, and highly acclaimed choral performances, among them a semi-staged Peer Gynt.

In 2025-26, Masur leads celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, as well as Bach's St. Matthew Passion as part of the third annual Bach Festival. In Chicago, he leads the Civic Orchestra in its annual Bach Marathon.

Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras across North America, Europe, and Asia. Recent highlights include subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, as well as a return to the Oregon Bach Festival featuring a staged Carmina Burana.

A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Masur has conducted and commissioned numerous new works, including Mannequin by Unsuk Chin, Rounds by Jessie Montgomery, and Alan Fletcher's Piano Concerto.

Masur's recording with the Stavanger Symphony was named a best new classical release by WQXR, New York's classical music radio station. He also received a Grammy nomination from the Latin Recording Academy for best classical album of the year as a producer of the album "Salon Buenos Aires."

Masur and his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur, are founders and artistic directors of the Chelsea Music Festival, an annual summer festival in New York City. With Chelsea Music Festival Records, he recorded "Dancing with J.S. Bach" and "200° Due Clara."

Born and raised in Leipzig, Germany, Masur trained at the Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig, the Detmold Academy, and the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. While an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, he became the first music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus, with which he toured Germany and recorded the music of J.S. Bach and his sons.

Music education and mentoring the next generation of young artists are of major importance to Masur. Beyond his work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he has conducted and led master classes at New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, and Juilliard.