Andreas Delfs is a wonderful conductor. I have had the honor and privilege to sing with him as a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Chorus for eight seasons and today we said good-bye to him as our music director. He has been with the MSO for twelve years and is moving on to bigger and better things while things. Tom Strini had the great honor to interview him for the paper this week. It’s a great article and you can check it out here.
Today, during our warm-up, Andreas came to say good-bye to us. He said that although he has had to say a lot of good-byes the last two weeks, this one was the hardest. Although orchestras and board members come and go, the chorus has been consistently brilliant and wonderful in his tenure and there is no other like us. He got choked up and cried, which caused our director, Lee Erickson, to start crying. Lee cried more after he left and did his own thank yous to everyone in the chorus who make it work, from the librarians, to the manager, to the section managers to everything in between. Our manager, rehearsal pianist and Lee himself got some standing ovations and cheers.
The concert itself was amazing. We did the Mahler Symphony 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” and it was incredible. There was a double chorus, a huge orchestra, eight phenomenal soloists, the Milwaukee Children’s Choir and brass players in the balcony. The stage has never had so many performers and it was great. Andreas got 6 curtain calls and it was a musical experience that will be remembered forever. I look forward to our new director coming in the fall, but he will certainly have some very big shoes to fill.
There is an awesome tribute video for Andres on Facebook. It is only posted there and there is no html, so please check it out on the MSO fan page. Please also become a fan because all the cool kids are doing it, and the MSO is amazing! 🙂
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