Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

And I am here to remind people, though, that's so not true.

I've met Milwaukee Symphony musicians who are all about...

Oh, no, no,

no.

So I followed him there, and, um, I stayed in the United States ever since.

Um, about 10 years ago, I, I s- I got a job with the Milwaukee Symphony, uh, as the assistant conductor, um, under Edo de Waart at the time, who was the music director, and, um, I was with the orchestra for about eight years.

Um, and then after eight years, uh, our daughters were born here.

We have two daughters.

And so through a lot of activities that we have done at UPath when I was there, we made it available through sensory-friendly productions for families to go see The Nutcracker.

to go to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, to go to first stage.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra holds two sensory friendly performances a year.

And you would not believe the number of families that attend that.

That is making the

[laughing]

So, um, so there was a, a, a audition for Milwaukee Symphony.

Yeah, it's good, good, good orchestra, and the conductor look at me.

He's from some European country, and, "You played really good, but, uh, how old are you?" And, "Uh, 15." "Oh, maybe let's wait another 10 years."

You get it? Listen to this, classical music for all, on Plains FM 96.9, Christchurch, Aotearoa, New Zealand.

[classical music] An excerpt from the William Tell Overture by Giacomo Rossini, played by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "Who is this woman? A bit, well, mm, crazy or just creative?" That's a fine line, isn't it? I'm Beth Cohen and obviously I ain't from around here, New Zealand.

I'm originally from the United States, born and raised outside of Boston, or Boston as we call it back there.

You have to have the right tools and all that.

No, he does all the pianos for the Milwaukee Symphony, the ballet, the operas, all that stuff.

So he's really

great.

Now, as I mentioned in the intro, you previously served as president and CEO of the Oregon Symphony, and you've held leadership roles at the New York Philharmonic.

the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

What do you now actually do as CEO? Many of us, you know, we obviously we see the musicians, we see the music director, the conductor.

When you come into work, you know, what do you do?

And so through a lot of activities that we have done at UPath when I was there, we made it available through sensory-friendly productions for families to go see The Nutcracker.

to go to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, to go to first stage.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra holds two sensory friendly performances a year.

And you would not believe the number of families that attend that.

That is making the arts

And, you know, you have to be imagining the, you know, the little black phone with the curly thing connected to it.

And he said, you know, my classmate Michael Rosen just got the job in the Milwaukee Symphony.

You must...

It's time for you to have a real teacher.